Update on January Math Centers, Animals in Winter, Happy New Year!

Well, we tried out our new math centers this week and I was

happy with the end result! 

The only thing that I felt needed to be changed was to add number markers to the Snowflake Sort.  It was too hard for them to just remember how many items were sorted otherwise.  The markers made the number concept much more concrete.  Even though I explained and modeled this game whole group, I sat with each small group as they had their turn with this game to walk them through the process.  The kids were able to manage the other math centers independently while I helped with Snowflake Sort.



I downloaded the Snowman Number Cards from another blog and I honestly can not find it now.  If you happen to know where these cards came from, please let me know!
  I bought the snowflake ornaments (for the mini trees) at the Hob Lob on Christmas clearance for 80% off! 



I also downloaded these number cards from the same mystery blog.
 I wrote the numbers on one side of the clothespin and the number word on the other side.

A practice page for recognizing, counting and graphing shapes.

Our science focus this week was on Animals in Winter. 
What an excellent book to start off this mini unit.

We have already talked a great deal about hibernation and even have our class bear in his den hibernating with a colony of bats!  This was an opportunity to talk about other animals that hibernate.

We charted what we know about animals in winter now.  We divided animals into three groups-animals that hibernate, animals that migrate and animals that hunt for food in winter.

We wrote facts for our Winter Book.

We made a den for our bears to hibernate for the long, cold winter. 
Messy BUT fun!
I used Styrofoam cups with an opening cut out glued onto a small paper plate, brown paper and snowflakes glued onto the cup, raffia on the "floor" of the den, cotton on the outside and the cute little brown bears
(I finally found them at Hobby Lobby in the dollhouse section-$1.49 for a package of four).



A sample of our Animals in Winter page of our Winter Book. 
 I didn't realize that the face of the bear didn't show up very well!



I wanted to show Ms. Potts' New Year's page for our big Kindergarten Scrapbook that will go home at the end of the year. 
She saw a photo of this page on http://thoughtsofesme.blogspot.com/ and decided to try it. 
The goals that the children wrote for themselves were too sweet!

My goal for 2011 is to not fight with my brother!

We are adding a page to our Alphabet Scrapbook every week. 
This is "Flower in the Field".



Dog in the Doghouse!

I'll add more photos as we add pages to our Winter Book. 

This is my first year to make one with my class.  I decided, why not?! 

We make a book for everything else!!! 

I can organize mini lessons better seasonally into a unit book. 

OCD, Type A or just a teacher? 

You be the judge...

January Math Centers

 Alright, a new year and a new resolution...Beef up Math Centers! 

After a trip to Michael's where anything with a snowflake

 is 60% percent off,  I started to get busy.

89 cents a bag!

This was app. $1.00. It could have been less, I was getting tunnel vision thinking of all the possibilities at this point!
(I can't find my receipt now to say for certain...)

I scanned the snowflakes that I wanted to use.



I taped the pictures of the coordinating snowflakes
in the craft divider along with the scripts.

The Snowflake Sort labels.



Using clipart, I made a cover.  I will duplicate this process with three other craft dividers using the different snowflakes that came in the package.  I want at least four Sorting Sets so that each child in a group can have their own.

I will cut these into half sheets and have them at the Sorting Center .



As another sorting activity, I will have the children graph the number of snowflakes in their container.  I will use index card file boxes for the snowflakes in this activity.



Another Sort and Classify game using snowflakes in a
file box along with this sheet and the sorting page below.

You should be able to click onto any of these worksheets to print. 



I also found these mitten shapes for 89 cents a bag! 
These are the mittens that will be used  to measure
objects around the room.



After reading The Mitten, we will have a lot of literacy activities to go along with the book.  I also wanted some math games to coordinate with the story.  We are going to practice counting by two's using these mittens and clipping them onto our "clothesline". 

So cute!  I found all of these mittens in the Dollar Spot at Target.  Woohoo!  I will give each student one mitten and they will need to find their "mate".  Once they do, they will clip them to the clothesline together. 
 I will have a running chart underneath the clothesline for us to record our numbers in two's.

I will use this as a follow up activity to our Mitten Match.

A one-to-one correspondence practice page to use
with  a file box of snowflakes.

Patterning...

Addition number sentences making groups of five.