Friday Fun: Welcome Parent Volunteers!

We had the first Friday Fun of the year with our parent volunteers. The students were thrilled. In the kitchen, students made apple juice. (Are you noticing an apple theme? We have so many apples on the ranch that I am constantly looking for recipes that use apples!) I pulled out the juicer and brought in two grocery bags full of apples, and we were all set! Students helped slice the apples and eagerly awaited the juice.

Yummy!

For the craft rotation, students made a pom pom pumpkin.

Students also continued to explore their pumpkins. Today they predicted how tall their pumpkin would measure using unifix cubes. Once they recorded their predictions, they stacked the cubes together to discover if their prediction was correct.

I love Friday Fun smiles!

Lane Farms

We just got back to school from our first field trip of the school year…Lane Farms. The students have been BEYOND excited about the idea of a field trip, so imagine their smiles as we loaded into the school vans and headed to Goleta. We were met there by many families and by Mrs. Lane, who’s family has operated the farm since the 1800’s. She shared some valuable information with us and then sent us on our way to explore the farm. I’ll let the photos do the talking.

The pumpkins that the children picked today will be used in the classroom for several math, science, and writing activities which will be organized into a book like this:

Let the pumpkin fun begin!

Spiders and Sewing!

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We had busy fingers at Friday Fun this past week. First, it was time to break out the sewing needles and sew a fall squash. Sewing is a fun and active way for students to build their fine motor skills.

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These pumpkins are the first of several sewing projects the students will complete this year.

In the kitchen, students made spider sandwiches…yummy! This was the perfect opportunity for students to learn about the number of legs and eyes a spider has. They constructed their spider sandwiches using apple slices, almond butter, fruit leather, and mini chocolate chips. I love how these turned out! Better yet, the students ate almost every bite!

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Here is the recipe in case you would like to try it at home. The only difference is that we added eight mini chocolate chips (eyes) as most spiders have up to eight eyes!

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Lane Farms

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We just got back from our first field trip of the year to Lane Farms. The weather was just perfect!

We enjoyed the new baby goats.

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Students got to “drive” the tractor.

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We tried hugging the BIGGEST pumpkins there!

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We pumped water.

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We even got to go on the hay ride…TWICE!! But the best part of the trip was when the students chose their pumpkins.

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These pumpkins will be used throughout the next few weeks to help students explore the concepts of measurement, circumference, life cycles, and of course, the five senses!

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Math Centers-October!

Math Centers have been going really well in Kindergarten. I am just thrilled to see the differentiated activities in action. This months current rotation consists of nine centers, each with activities that teach and enrich specific concepts.

Center 1 is a patterning center. Students use Polka-Dot-Painters to make a specific pattern. One side of the worksheet has beginning patterns, while the other offers more complex patterns. Polka-Dot-Painters make ANY activity fun!

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Center 2 is a number recognition activity that provides students a chance to identify the two numbers before a specific number or the number before and the number after the specific number. The numbers to choose from vary from the number 11 to the number 40.

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At Center 3, students count the number of objects in a picture. For students who are practicing one to one correspondence, they  count the items and write how many there are.

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Students who are proficient with one to one correspondence are working on comparing number values.

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Center 4 has the students creating a game board using either two-dimensional or three-dimensional shapes. They roll a die, find the shape that coordinates with the number rolled, name the specific shape, and then remove the shape card from its position on their game board. Not only does this activity help with shape recognition, but the students are also counting.

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Center 5 has students sorting by color and graphing the results.

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At Center 6, students are exploring the communicative property using images of cats and pumpkins. An extension of this activity is for students to write the equations they have created.

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Center 7 is a measuring activity. Students measure different sized images of pumpkins using a unifix cube ruler.

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Oh Nuts! is the game students play at Center 8. One student hides a squirrel behind a number. The numbers vary according to what the group is ready for. Some students are working on identifying numbers 11-30, while others are exploring 31-50. Watch the game in action:

The last center is an addition and subtraction center. Students choose a card with a certain number of dots on it. They place a bear counter on the number line for that card. Next, a student spins the spinner to see if they are adding two more or taking one away. Finally the students moves the bear counter accordingly. Students who are looking for a challenge are encourage to write the equation using the addition or subtraction sign.

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Math centers are FUN!

*Some of these activities came from TPT seller Marsha Mcguire.