It Was Just Plain Funny!

We were counting our way into the 100 Club. One student in particular was going pretty slowly. The counting was great til "five-tee." And so it went. "Five-tee-one, five-tee-two, and so on." I had to correct the student, and on the counting continued, until "snebenty." It was here that I couldn't make the correction. It was so darn cute!

So when the counting was finished, finally reaching 100...wait for it...another student shouted, with his hands lifted high, "Praise the Lord, ___ is done! ___ did it...___'s in the 100 Club! Halleluiah!!!" I almost fell in the floor I was laughing so hard. The 'counter' was beaming with pride, and the entire class began to cheer. It was a great day to count to 100!

Look Who's Counting!

In years gone by, it has seemed as though I have only scratched the surface of counting and writing/recognizing numbers with my kinders. There has been so much time dedicated to phonemic awareness, phonics, and reading that math has been sadly neglected! This year, it seems the other way around! I am already realizing that I need to slow down with the literacy component in my classroom, but I am thrilled with how much time is being devoted to mathematics. Look at how we are learning (yes, we are just now learning, so please overlook any imperfections) to work with numbers!

2+2=22???

When it is time for the babies to begin adding numbers, they unfortunately revert back to thinking about how the numeral looks. For example, if I make the mistake of saying one and one is...? Instead of one plus one is...? They automatically say, "11!" It makes me remember that the way I phrase my vocabulary is so important in my job. Over the course of the next few weeks, my kindergarteners will be learning how to combine numbers; adding them by way of pictures, manipulatives, numerals, and addition stories. On Friday, we did an activity to introduce them to this new concept.

 We began by using blocks to represent objects in a story: "I had 7 blocks in my drawer. My brother found 2 more blocks in his drawer. How many blocks did we have in all?"

 The next step was to write the number sentence. We began this after we had represented several different scenarios with the blocks. (Magic trick: dry erase markers WILL easily wipe off of student tables with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, and they think they are getting to do something spectacular when they get to write on the table!)

The final step of our lesson was to apply what we could now do on paper! They did great! I really love it when they begin transferring all of their newfound knowledge to do 'hard' work...which we sometimes refer to as first grade work...and then they really feel as smart as they are!!!