Weekly Wrap-Up...May 11 ->. exploring math concepts and story retelling

This week we wanted to focus on math skills and what better way than playing games!

ESTIMATING
The students were encouraged to make a guess (estimating) as to how many objects are in the jar each day.  We switched not only the objects inside the jar, but also the size of the jar, so that this would become more challenging.


We found this online activity that we played with the whole class where we had to estimate how many marbles are in the jar.
You can find this on ABCya.com
Click the picture below to take you there.

CAPACITY
Still sticking with the topic of volume, we wanted the students to explore capacity, learning which containers can hold more and using tools of various sizes (measuring cups, spoons, funnels, jars).
 I dyed the rice with food colouring and added a touch of rubbing alcohol (makes the colour stick better).  The beautiful 'rainbow' rice lasted for all of 10 seconds before becoming all mixed up.  But isn't it still beautiful!



It's interesting to see how some students noticed the different sizes of the measuring spoons.  We intentionally took a picture and placed it on the tray for students to organize these spoons during clean up time.  Many recognized these from their homes too!

ROLL-A-NUMBER
A simple game we placed out to play is Roll-a-Number.
It's great for subitizing (recognizing numbers instantaneously without having to count) and graphing.
Students roll the dot die and add a counter on their graph.  First number to the top wins!
We asked questions such as:
"Which number did you roll?"
"How many of number _ do you have on your graph?"
"How many more do you need to win?"
"Which number is more? less?"



Download this game for FREE by clicking {here}.

HUMPTY DUMPTY -> HOW TALL CAN YOU BUILD A WALL?
Over the past few weeks, the students have been very interested in nursery rhymes and fables.  When I saw this activity on Heidi Songs blog I knew we had to try it!
Students were eager to see who could build the tallest wall for Humpty to sit on.
They had to measure it using the ruler.



I bought these foam bricks at Michaels.

SYMMETRY
Here's an easy provocation to set up which invites the students to create a symmetrical butterfly using loose parts (you can add anything at all for them to use!).




This online game is from Toy Theater.  It was a fun way to introduce the concept of symmetry to the students, as they had to match the two sides of the butterfly's wings together.
Click the picture below to take you there.


STORY RETELLING
We read a story each day in class.  Years ago, I made a whole bunch of felt board pieces to go along with some of the more popular stories.  You can read all about how to make your own felt board pieces (they really are EASY!) here.

This is the story Mouse's First Spring.  It's a story that's easy for even your non-readers to follow along and retell.  Some students even made up their own story with the pieces!

And, of course, with Mother's Day tomorrow, we read many stories and learned this poem.

You can find this poem (with a fun activity!) here:

You can read all about what else we did for Mother's Day here.

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