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| Kindergarten
Meyer |
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Week 36 We read two books in math
this week. The first was Count by Tens by Jerry
Pallotta. Before I read the book, I asked if anybody knew who
Jerry Pallotta was. I was very pleasantly surprised to find out
almost all of them remembered that he was the author that came to
TJES. This is kind of an odd book. Each page shows fruit in
groups of 10 and a mode of transportation. It is great for skip
counting, counting to 100, discussing fruit and discussing
transportation. I'm just not sure what the transportation and
fruit have in common, but the kids seemed to enjoy it, and that's what
counts. Our next book was Let's Count to 100! This book has 100 animals on each page. They are in groups of 10 again, but in more random order. The groups are not in a nice shape or order, but are different in color or may be in a line with every tenth one looking a little different to separate the groups. There is very little text, but some of the animals are making comments or asking the kids to look for certain things, like how many cats have striped tails or where the mouse is. We've been looking for details in pictures. This book is great for practicing that skill as well as practicing our counting. Working on addition and subtraction  
    Working on shapes and number identification     |
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| Week 35 We did a lot of work on shapes this week. Here the students are putting shapes together to make bigger shapes or new shapes.     Below, they are making the shapes on peg boards.     
The last few pictures are kids putting together 100s board puzzles.   |
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| Week 34 As I said last week, we are done with our math series, so we are now reviewing and practicing what we've learned to improve our fluency and build the connections in their brains to help make all we've talked about last through the summer. In the pictures below, the boys are playing Face Off. A dice game to help with addition fluency and probability. I have to admit, I don't think I've ever had anybody look at probability before, but during this game Jace stopped and said "Seven again! Teacher, I keep getting seven in different ways!"   The next pictures are of the kids making numbers using 10 sticks and individual cubes. We flip up a number card and they make that number as quickly as they can using the sticks and cubes. Even though they tell us there are 10 cubes on a 10 stick, some of them still want to count them as one.         We also read Actual Size, a book about how big or small animals are. The pictures in the book are made to the animal's actual size, so when we look at a shark head on, all we see are part of his mouth and his 4 inch teeth. The kids all have to put their hand in the gorilla hand to compare sizes and are amazed by the 12" eye of the giant squid. After reading the story, we practice measuring and comparing sizes of things in our room.  |
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| Week 33 We completed our math series with a quick introduction to measurement. We did comparisons of length, height and volume. We did some estimating in the sand box. We tried to predict how many small containers fit into the big containers. We had some wild guesses at first, but we got better as we practiced.   
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| Week 32 We have completed our math series. The last week was a review of adding and subtracting, identifying 2D and 3D shapes, making patterns, skip counting, comparing numbers, identifying numbers and number patterns, and then we added a quick unit on measurement. We compared height, length and capacity. Because this was such a short unit, we will go deeper into these concepts on our own. We have also introduced money during our calendar time. It is a great way to practice counting by fives and tens and to practice adding on to a given number, so we will continue to work on some of those ideas too. In the pictures below, the students were making numbers by using ten sticks and ones. Some of them have really gotten fast at this task!   |
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| Week 31 In math, we are still reviewing. Our biggest challenge right now is counting by 2s. 10s and 5s always come fairly easily, but those tricky 2s...! They're always a little bit more difficult. Our next biggest challenge is paying attention to the + and - signs. Most of the kids do really well when I stop them and remind them to look at the signs, but if I don't they often go through the paper doing the same operation no matter what the sign says. After all that reviewing, we added measurement to our skills this week. We are just doing comparisons of things that are taller and shorter, longer and shorter, and lighter and heavier. We will finish off the year working on our measurement skills and reviewing the other things that we've been looking at throughout the year. Here are a few pictures of the kids at work after completing their paperwork. I know I have a few pictures of kids working on the yellow hundred chart boards, but I've never had so many kids get excited about them. In the past, I had a few kids each year that liked them, but most of them thought they were difficult. This group chooses these boards and Fastt Math before any of the easier activities. The last picture shows the boys playing one of our new addition games called Cross-out. They roll the dice and cross out the number they rolled. This game helps to develop addition fluency and introduces them to probability before they even know what it is.    |
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| Week 30 In math this week, we did a LOT of reviewing. We worked on our teen numbers, number partners, counting to 100, skip counting, shapes, addition and subtraction, more and less, filling in our 1-20 boards and filling in our 100s boards. Because we are very close to the end of our book, we will continue with many review lessons to improve fluency. |
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| Week 29 As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, our math curriculum spirals around and around. If you've been reading these notes all year, I'm sure you have been seeing that all year. So here are a few pictures to show you how we practice these skills in different ways to help keep the kids interested while building their fluency. Fastt Math is always a favorite. Building on the 1-20 Matching numerals boards. and number words.   
 Playing card games to learn about more and less. Finding the missing Sequencing numbers. number.     Filling in the 100s board to learn about number patterns.   |
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| Week 28 In our 28th week, we did a lot of reviewing of our math facts and number comparisons. We are also reviewing our shapes, teen numbers as 10+_, decade numbers and missing partners. We have been trying to slide some free choice into our day, but most of the lessons take the entire period. We have also been trying to squeeze a little time in for Fastt Math, an internet site that gives the kids a lot of practice on their math facts in a fun way. They play games that review facts that they know and practice a few new ones. This allows the students a high amount of success and gives them some control as there are a large number of games to choose from. |
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| Week 27 We are continuing our work on teen numbers, shapes, comparing numbers (greater and less than), counting to 100, skip counting, addition and subtraction, and identifying sets. Below you can see the students making partners of 7.   
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| Week 26 We've added a few new "quick practices" to improve our fluency in different math areas. First, we have started working on +1 and -1 facts. I give them a number and tell them if we are looking for one more or one less. They quickly tell me what that number would be. Next, we are working on number partners all the way up to the partners of 10. If we are doing the partners of 10, I say "2" and they tell me "2+8=10". Some of the kids are so fast already! Below are a few pictures of us finding missing numbers in addition equations by using manipulatives   
 Later in the week, we made the numbers 1-20. It wasn't too long ago that making 1-10 seemed to take almost 1/2 of our math period. Now, they are cruising through all 20 in a just a short amount of time! 
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| Week 25 We are getting very good at our skip counting by 10s and 5s and have begun working on counting by 2s. We are still working on our teen numbers verses decade numbers. It's getting better, but we still have some confusion as to whether the number 16 is sixteen or sixty or the number 13 is thirteen or thirty, etc. We are also working hard on our partners for a number. For instance, the partners of 2 are 0+2, 1+1 and 2+0. We have worked our way up to 10. We know some, but will continue to review until we know all of the number partners for 1-10 and are fluent at them. We are also continuing our shape names for both the 2D and 3D shapes. I have a box of 3D shapes that I use in our reviewing. I pull a shape out and they name it. One of the kids noticed that there were more shapes in the box than I was showing them and asked what was still in the box. I showed them, explaining that they were called hemispheres and pyramids, but kindergarteners don't need to know about those and I didn't want them to get things confused with the prisms that we do need to know. The next time we reviewed, I started putting the shapes back in the box and they asked, "But what about the hemisphere and pyramid?" Maybe other kindergarteners don't need to know, but ours already do. |
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| Week 24 We did some reviewing in math this week, then completed our unit. We took a unit test on Thursday. I'll have the results for you at the Parent/Teacher conferences next week! |
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| Week 23 Last week, I told you that the kids are becoming much more independent since we started working on our full pages of addition and subtraction. We have had a page like that everyday this week. It didn't take the kids long to figure out that if they get them all right the first time, they don't have to redo anything AND they get to choose the next activity sooner. They have been much more careful about getting the right answer the first time. I am correcting more backward numbers than incorrect answers! They are really, really working hard. We added a new area this week. Up to this point, we have only written to 20, but in a couple weeks they are going to get a paper asking them to write from 1-100 in one sitting. That's another page that tends to cause a little panic in many kids. It takes forever and makes their hands hurt when they tense up and grip their pencils very tightly. So I gave them a page with 100 boxes and asked them to write as far as they could. I figured if we could do 30-40 numbers one day and that many more the next, we could build up to what's coming. A few minutes later, several of the kids returned their papers with 1-100! And most of the others were at 60 or more. What a group!! Here are some of the areas they have been choosing- The teen boards to show a teen number is 10 + __ Patterning Putting a 100s board together     Adding/Subtracting Counting cards Fastt Math     Making and building shapes     |
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| Week 22 This week was very much the same as the last in math. We did a great deal of work on our teen numbers being 10 + __, on 3D shapes and on number writing. The big news this week is that we have begun our full pages of addition and subtraction. We usually get a little bit of panic the first time the kids see that paper, but this group seemed to take it in stride. When they do these papers all together, some of the kids work really fast and then get bored. Others get frustrated because we go too fast, so we have started more independent work. The kids do the first section then report in to a teacher. We circle the ones that are wrong and mark all the backward numbers. They fix it by themselves and report back to a teacher. When they have all the problems correct, they move on to the next section. If they complete the paper, they get to move on to a math game. We have number writing games, patterning games, counting games, addition/subtraction games, hundred boards to put together, and math books to read. We have become much more independent in the first week. I'm excited to see what will happen next week! |
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Week 21 Our math series added 3D shapes to our
vocabulary, so we are now looking at cones, cubes, cylinders, spheres,
prisms and pyramids. We have playing with shapes, sorting shapes,
making shapes with play-doh, identifying the shapes, and even drawing
3D shapes. We found some shapes can roll while others slide and
some can be stacked. We are practicing writing our numbers to 20. Making sure all our numbers are the right direction and in the right order because we will be going beyond 20 very soon. We have done a great deal of work on comparing numbers to find which is greater and which is less. In case you have noticed some crazy little scribbles in between the numbers on those pages, those are the < and > signs. To help the kids remember which way they should turn their "greater than" and "less than" signs, I tell them they are like a hungry alligator. He always tries to eat the bigger, juicier number. Most of the kids add his very sharp teeth, so it gets a little hard to figure out what they are doing, but once you understand the alligator story it all makes sense and becomes much easier to read. Of course, we are still counting to 100, identifying teen numbers and decade numbers, showing how to make teen numbers with 10 + _, and working on addition and subtraction. |
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| Week 20 Our math class continues to start with our quick practices. We count to 100, identify teen numbers, show our 10+_ groups and identify the number of dots in a group. Then we move to our paper work and other activities. This week we were focused on three activities. The first was using our teen boards to make teen numbers with a stick of 10 centimeter cubes and individual centimeter cubes. We then matched the addition sentence to our displays. 
  Next, we worked on identifying partners of 6 and 7. Finally, we practiced identifying numbers that were greater or fewer. 
  We also had a station matching sets to numerals and tally marks. And another group of kids on the computers working on Fastt Math. Fastt Math is a program to help the kids become more fluent in their addition and subtraction.     |
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| Week 19 The week started with story problems and sorting objects. Next, they worked on partners of 6, 7, and 10. We spent quite a bit of time playing the unknown partner game. We show them a given number of beans or other manipulative. Then we hide some of them under a bowl. The kids count how many they can see and have to figure out how many are hiding. We ended the week by making teen numbers with centimeter cubes and 10 sticks. (10 connected cubes). We will repeat this activity often, until the students have a clear understanding of what that 1 in all the teen numbers means. |
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| Week 18 Mrs. Brazell had a new game for the kids this week. The kids were trying to find the elves hiding behind the Christmas trees. In order to do so, first they had to identify the number they thought the elves were hiding behind. Those elves are tricky. We had a hard time finding them!     Here's another activity working on number identification fluency. Number Identification And a video of the kids showing what that number means. Number Value They also spent some time working on their shape identification.       |
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| Week 17 We are now counting up to 100! For a kindergartener that is a thrill. It's so fun to be able to say, "I can count to 100!" They are also very quick at identifying numerals from 1-20, identifying the number of dots from 1-10, identifying which number is more or fewer, and identifying the shapes that we've been working on. class song We're coming to the end of our unit so the kids are getting more independent on their work. Here they are making their 5-groups and finding the groups that are more or fewer.     On the next couple of pictures, the students are using the activity trays to make teen numbers using their fast-10 and leftover dots.    |
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Week 16 I know, I know. One picture doesn't make up for all those picture-less weeks. I'm working on it. Mrs. Brazell and the class have been working on Christmas story problems. In the picture above, they are figuring out how many presents the elves have ready for Santa!! They are getting a lot of practice in addition and subtraction through their story problems. They have also spent time this week counting, making 5-groups, identifying teen numbers and sorting objects. They found that there are many ways to sort the shapes and pictures that they were using. While they were working hard in the classroom, I spent a bit of time pulling students for the AIMs assessments. We saw some great improvement in scores this week! Things are really starting to click for everybody! We are so proud of what they have accomplished. |
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| Week 15 I just realized I'm doing a terrible job at getting pictures during math. A lot of the time, I'm out of the room doing assessments during this time, but this week I was not so I have no excuses. I apologize. Hopefully, I'll get some on here soon. The class is now counting to 70! And getting much more comfortable with those decade numbers. They are doing A LOT of addition and subtraction. The 5-groups are becoming quite automatic for many of the kids. Now they are focusing on the teen numbers much more often. We are still working on our shapes. They seem to be very comfortable identifying them. Drawing them can still be challenging. Especially when we are talking about trapezoids and hexagons. Sometimes a square tipped on its corner is still a problem too, because they want to call it a diamond (or in kindergarten language, a rhombus), but we're starting to catch on. Our calendar math introduced them to a new kind of pattern in November. We had a circle then a vertical rectangle, then a circle and a horizontal rectangle, followed by a circle and a square rectangle. (Try explaining a square rectangle to a kindergartener after telling them that it was a square up to this point. Now that's more like college talk!) Then we had to name our pattern an ABACAD pattern. Very confusing, but they did a great job. |
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| Week 14 If you've noticed the worksheets coming home, you have seen a huge jump in the work being done. This week the students have been working on writing their teen numbers and doing addition and subtraction problems. We've gone from a few problems to an entire page of problems. And to make things even more confusing, half of them are addition and the other half are subtraction, so just when they start to get into the swing of things, we switch the activity. It sounds mean and nasty, but it won't take long until they start doing the whole page by themselves. And we already have kids making up story problems of their own. As we gather in the morning, we often hear things like, "Teacher, we have 3 boys and 2 girls. That makes 5 kids!" To help your child (and have them help you), try "I have 3 spoons for you to put on the table. How many more do we need?" or "You had 7 toys on the floor. We put 2 away so how many are still here? |
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| Week 13 Unit 3 opened with more practice with shapes, more counting (We're up to 60!) and working on number partners. Number partners are the numbers combined to make another number, for example the partners of 4 are 0+4, 1+3, 2+2, 3+1, and 4+0. This week the kids were introduced to the partners of 4, 5 and 6. We are still reviewing the concepts introduced earlier. Those teen numbers are still quite tricky, so we will continue to work on identifying them and to break them down to 10+__. We are also still working on identifying the number that is greater or fewer when two numbers are shown, and on identifying the decade numbers (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90). |
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| Week 12 We have finished Unit 2! This week was spent on reviewing and assessing the knowledge of the students on the shapes that we've been discussing, addition and subtraction, teen numbers as 10 + __, and identifying teen numbers, counting and writing numerals to 20, and comparing numbers to decide which are greater and which are fewer. |
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| Week 11 While Mrs. Brazell was in the classroom, drilling your kids on teen number names and how to make the teen numbers (10+_), working on addition and subtraction, and working on shapes, I spent a good deal of time in another classroom, pulling kids one at a time to complete the AIMS assessments. These are 1 minute assessments that we do every other week or so to make sure the kids are all improving from week to week. The first assessment we give is just counting as far as they can. We've already seen a great deal of improvement in this area. The biggest problem, which is a very common problem each year, is remembering the decade numbers. The kids are counting .....27, 28, 29, then we often get a random number. I correct them by giving them 30 and they count from 31-39, then give me another random number. So if your child needs something to do to kill a few minutes at a stop sign, waiting in a check-out line, or waiting for your meal to finish cooking, practice counting to 100. It won't take long for them to get it. The next assessment that we are working on, is to identify as many numerals as they can. For this assessment the kids are given a page of numerals from 0-9 printed in a random order. The most common mistake is confusing 6 with 9. Keep pointing them out whenever you can. The third assessment has two numerals in each box and the kids have to identify which has a greater value. Most of the kids haven't started this one yet, but they will be as soon as they can successfully complete the first two. The final assessment, which we will begin later in the year, is to fill in a missing numeral. Many of the kids could already fill in the blank at the end of a sequence (ex - 3, 4, __ ). But it gets a little more difficult when the blank is in the middle (ex - 3, __, 5) and we really throw them for a loop when we give them a blank at the beginning of the sequence (ex - __, 4, 5), so we haven't started that assessment yet, but know that it is coming. |
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Week
10
 We took some huge steps this week. After working on our numbers from 1-10 for several weeks and becoming really good at our 5-groups, we have moved into the teen numbers. They are being introduced as 10+_, which the kids are picking up quite quickly. The hard part is reading them because they are written with the 1 in the front. That looks like they should be read tenty-one, tenty-two, tenty-three... Instead they are all read backwards with the ones first, and to make things even more difficult the first two don't even have the word teen in them! It's always confusing trying to figure out those tricky teens. |
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| Week 9 We are getting very quick at our fast fingers. We are also getting very good about adding the 5-groups together with our fingers showing the 5 and another number to make the sum. Mrs. Brazell also has cards with 5 dots on top and a more dots on bottom. This seems to be a little trickier for us than using our fingers, but it is coming along. We have done a lot of number writing this week, especially the numbers 6 and 7. We are also still working on our number words for the numbers 1-10. On our activity trays, we have gotten quite fast at putting our numbers in counting order. We are now using the + sign to complete addition sentences! |
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| Week 8 We started the week with a unit test. The hardest part of being tested is doing the work without sharing every answer. They want so badly to share their answers and to check what everybody else has written. Once we got past that, they did a great job! Now we are working hard on recognizing the numerals 6-10 and on being able to show us those numbers with "fast fingers". That means no more counting. Just pop up that many fingers as soon as the numeral is shown. Then, we talk about the 5-group that is used to make that number. On our activity mat, we are now using a group of 5 tiles and left overs to make these bigger numbers. We are also still working on our shapes. Recognizing them has become quite easy. Drawing them is getting easier, but it's still sometimes difficult to keep straight lines straight and curved lines curved. We also took a little time to go back to practice some patterns. Below are a few pictures of the kids making "thumb print apple" patterns.   |
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| Week 7 We have added another shape! We are now learning about triangles. Three corners, three sides and yet, so many different looks! They can point in any direction and some of them are so lopsided. What a crazy shape!    Above are a few pictures of Mrs. Brazell playing fast fingers with the kids. To help build fluency, she shows them a numeral and they have to show her the amount that that numeral represents as quickly as they can. As you can see by a couple of the kids' puffed up cheeks, they "put a bubble in their mouths" so that they remember to show not tell. They are also working on the five groups. The five groups are a way to explain how to make the numbers 6-10. Mrs. Brazell shows us a numeral and we put up that many fingers. When she shows us an 8, we see that 8 = 5 fingers + 3 fingers. We will continue showing our numbers in this way for most of the year until it becomes very automatic. |
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| Week
6 We spent this week reviewing the circle, square and rectangle shapes and our numbers 1-10. Most of the kids can easily identify the shapes mentioned above, but now we are also drawing them. That is often a much more difficult job. Especially when they are being asked to show the difference between a square and a rectangle. On our activity mats, we are now using horizontal and vertical graphs to compare our numbers. Can you believe kindergarteners are expected to be able to identify horizontal and vertical graphs!?! I still have to stop and think about the sun setting on the horizon. We are also doing more adding and subtracting. We are not only using our tiles, but are also using our fingers, our friends, pictures and anything else we can find to practice. So here is another way you can help out. Next time you open a bag of treats, like skittles, give them two and tell them they can have five if they can tell you how many more they need to get to five. If they get it right, give them a chance to earn five more with another addition problem. |
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Week 5  Wow!
Our activity mats have already doubled in size. We are now
working on numbers 1-10. We are identifying numbers, comparing numbers,
sequencing numbers and showing sets of gi
 ven numbers. And because we have tiles that
are two different colors, we can compare our sets to those of our friends and
start adding to 10. We found that some people make a set of 9 with 5 blue tiles and 4 red
tiles, some make it with 3 blue tiles and 6 red tiles and still others
make it with 7 blue tiles and 2 red tiles. Who knew there were so
many ways to make one number!?! We
have also spent a few days working on our shapes. We have taken a
look at circles, squares and rectangles. We folded our shapes and
found a folded rectangle made a smaller rectangle, but a folded square
turned into a rectangle. Then we sorted all our shapes.
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| Week 4 Now that we are in our math series you will see that we spiral around a lot. By that I mean, we will touch on one area, then another and another, then we come back to the first. By doing so, the kids get an introduction and a lesson or two. Then they get a couple days to let it all soak in. Later, we'll have a couple of reviews to help them internalize the concept and to help them remember what we did. Later, we will come back to it again, but by then we will probably be taking it a step further. Last week, we introduced Anno's Counting Book and finding sets of objects. This week, we revisited the book and made scenes of our own. The first one contained 0 objects. It was just a line to show land and sky. Then, we drew another scene each day. The first contained sets of 1, then 2, then 3, then 4, then 5 objects. That's the end of that type of lesson, but the kids were starting to get in to the scenes, so I will hang on to their books so they can continue on if they want to. We are also working on our activity trays that we started last week. We are only working on numbers 1-5 right now, but that will increase soon.     Since we kind of have a love for Pete the Cat, we had to read Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. (If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Pete the Cat, you really need to youtube his stories. They all have a jazzy little song that goes with them, so they are all more fun on youtube than having to listen to me try to sing them. Author Eric Litwin sounds like he's right out of the groovy 70s. - Maybe you'll want to let grandma enjoy them with your child!) After, his story, we helped Pet the Cat make groovy sets of buttons.    These boys are sequencing numbers on their race cars.   We also played More/Less. I introduced it by playing with Jaycen while the others watched and helped us figure out who had more and was going to get to steal the lower number. That sneaky Jaycen stole almost ALL of mine away from me. And, of course the rest of the class thought it was hilarious!   |
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Week 3
 We started our math series this week. It
begins with a book called Anno's Counting Book.
This book is wordless, but has a number and a scene depicting that
number several times on each page. The students love
telling what they can find 2 or 3 or 4 of (etc.) on each page.
Sometimes they get so excited that they can barely keep themselves
seated! The series will come back to this book throughout the year, so you will hear about it again later. We did several activities. One was introducing the activity trays in math. They are trays that will be used throughout the year for different number identification and counting activities. This week each child was given the numbers 1-5 and ten squares, some of which were red and others were blue. We chose a number and the students showed us that many squares. Then we talked about the differences among their displays. We found out that numbers of objects don't always look the same. Four can look like this  or this  or this  or a lot of
different ways! Now we are working on our own counting book. The math series invited us to make scenes of 1, 2, and 3 this week. It will continue with the higher numbers as they are introduced. |
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Our
first week of math was spent introducing our calendar activities and
learning the procedures needed for using our math manipulatives.
We used our pattern blocks and rubberband boards to make
pictures. We also used our number cards to make groups of paper
clips which takes an understanding of one to one correspondence (as
well as some small motor control to get the clips on the cards!)
We practiced writing numbers and, believe it or not, counting
"coconuts"!
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