More apples!

Hi guys!

We have been having a lot of apple fun in my classroom this week and last!  Last week we tasted apples and wrote about our experiences. This week we've been learning about changes in matter from heating and cooling. We melted crayons with a hair dryer and then we cooked applesauce! YUM! It was more like baked apple sauce with the amount of brown sugar and cinnamon I put in!

We've been talking about our 5 senses the past few weeks and incorporated a lot of the senses into our taste-testing! I used these flap books from Alisha's awesome apple packet! My kids had to browse through magazines and find pictures for each one of these senses. We put these in our interactive notebooks. Love!

 We are still working on the seasonal changes in apple trees- one season at a time! {you know how slowly everything goes this time of the year in kinder!} These fabulous wheels are also from Alisha's packet. Thanks girl!!

 And lastly- I couldn't leave math out! I was blog-hopping the other day and came across this fabulous decomposing activity from Deeanna at the Golden Gang Kindergarten! We've been busting our hineys on decomposing the past few weeks and PTL my littles are getting it!! We watched  this video from Harry Kindergarten and said the poem all together. As each apple fell off we moved a bead over on the pipe cleaner and I paused the song. We talked about the parts- "there are 3 apples on the ground and 2 apples on the tree." {like I said- I am so proud of them!}

After going through the poem twice, we worked on writing and reading the parts whole group. 

Grab this page HERE.

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Decomposing fun!

Hey y'all!

We've been working REALLY hard on decomposing and creating number sentences lately. I made these decomposing boards and it has been a great visual for my kiddos! I wish I had someone to take a video of me teaching this.. and my kids "teach, ok-ing" it to each other. (Absolutley one of my favorite whole brain teaching tactics!)

I make up a problem (and for some reason my kids are REALLY into Hot Wheels this year..so somehow the problem always ends up with them in it ;) like "Luke has 15 Hot Wheels. Some are red, and some are orange. How could you break apart the whole?" (which we have discussed in full!) Here are some examples:

If you'd like this board, click HERE to snag it up! I'd love to hear what you think. Any fun ideas you have to share for teaching decomposing? I also have this post from last year with these fun books:

 

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Composing..Decomposing..Number building FUN!

Ya'll.... I've shared this before, but I struggle a little bit in teaching Math. I adore ELAR.  I LOVE to teach reading. I LOVE to teach writing. I LOVE phonics (really!! so fun!) But....(dun..dun duhhhn...) Math is NOT my favorite thing to teach (eeek!) shhh don't tell!

I have been to various trainings on teaching Math, and they all really help, but a few years ago I went to a thinking maps training by a wonderful presenter that happens to be a family friend (seriously, she is fabulous and SO much fun!) and we learned how to use some various thinking maps in Math. Thinking maps in Math?! My kind of lady!! Who doesn't love a graphic organizer??

This is a spin off of one that she used as an example, and my kids REALLY loved doing it! After my kids are comfortable with simple addition we begin a "number of the day" as part of our calendar companion where they have to come up with number sentences that equal the number of the day. This is critical thinking, friends!! Some of my kids come up with them easily, others it takes a little time. (totally ok!) Either way, it is wonderful practice for their little minds!

In my small group station today, we made these little booklets:

 We first used yellow/red bingo markers to show all the ways we could build five (forgot to take a picture!) After practicing, I guided them through making the booklets. On each row, I had them dob on a certain amount of one color of dots. (see in picture) On the first row I said 5, 2nd row 4, 3rd row 3, etc.. They then had to switch colors and figure out how many more dots they needed to create the number five and then had to create the number sentence. YES, I sat with them the entire time - but they really understood the concept and did not have a hard time with this (hooray!!)

Here is a completed (inside) of the booklet. You could use various things to create the dots - cut up paper, shapes, stickers (those garage sale pricing stickers would work well!!) as long as everyone had two different colors or shapes. 

I've created a mini packet of these booklets with instructions so you can do the same thing in your classroom!! (for FREE!)
 

{click on the picture to grab your copy from TpT !}

I would love to hear from you if you grab them!

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Summmmmer fever ALERT!

We've been busy this week starting review and beginning SUMMER themed goodness!! Oh, how I love summer! *sigh* {stick with me...this is a long but good one!}

We've been learning all about the Fourth of July - we made this anchor chart today and did a little writing. We brainstormed the white labels together and on the sticky notes they drew about how their family celebrates the 4th (barbecues, parades, fireworks, fun!) Last Friday we made streamers and had a mini-parade {see previous post for picture!}

I wanted this to be more fun - writing about freedom is a teensy bit over their heads - so we wrote about America's birthday and how we like to celebrate it!

After talking about all the FUN things we do in summer we used my little Sweet Shop Decomposing packet to practice in intervention. They loved this!

We also made some super cute composing/decomposing numbers booklets today in Math - I'm working on a freebie to go with it so I'll wait to post it later! Stay tuned for fabulousness!

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