day it was! We had a math lesson later on in the afternoon where we compared and contrasted leaves. So we began the day by heading outdoors to go on a "leaf hunt" of sorts. The kids had fun searching for leaves and being outside. All were very well-behaved considering we were out of our normal routine (they stayed in line on the way out and stayed close to the teachers while hunting for leaves). They were given direction before heading out. That direction was to look at the individual leaves and try to find ones that were different from one another. That might be because of color or size or shape. This lesson is helpful in teaching them to really look at objects noticing all their features so we can sort and classify later.
The kids pulled each got a leaf which they glued to their "My Leaf" page. Then, we broke into three groups. One group examined their leaf and recorded it's color. The next group had to see how many pennies it took to cover their leaf. And, the last group used 1" cubes to see how many would cover their leaf. These were just fun exercises but we hope they got the kids to look and make some distinct observations.
As a group, we had an "All Mixed Up" activity on the rug. We put puff balls, crayons and magnets with smiley faces on them all in the circle on the rug. Each child tried their hand at sorting the items. At first, this was a confusing concept to them. Then, we showed them exactly what we meant by sorting and grouping. That's when they got creative and thought of combinations we didn't. We sorted the items by color. We sorted the items by size. And, we sorted the items by characteristic/function. One child even sorted by whole crayons, broken crayons, puff balls, and magnets. This is just the start of them really comprehending what it means to sort and group. We will have many more activities like this. Practice in this area will help them copy and extend patterns and eventually it'll continue with their genius-ness regarding geometry!
Mrs. Erickson came in with an art lesson today. She taught the kids about primary and secondary colors. She also introduced them to the color wheel. While they weren't certain why these colors had names (primary and secondary) they DID grasp the idea of mixing colors to get another and really got excited about that! Mrs. Erickson supplied each child with a ball of homemade playdough in red, yellow and blue. There was much instruction on dividing the balls and mixing them with another color.
Our number of the day was 2. The kids all got to write on the dry erase board. This is a tricky number as the children have to manipulate their writing utensil to go in several directions. We will practice more with writing numbers as we move through the year. From time to time, we may decide to send home traceables so the can get extra practice at home.
Finally, our word of the day was "ARE". It's a tricky one to sound out but the song we use to learn how to spell is super fun! "Oh the seals at the zoo say to me ARE, ARE. First an A then and R then an E ...
Have a super Thursday off!
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