Language development Centers

At the end of the day students worked in play centers. I was amazed at how well they worked and were able to remember how to clean up and use materials correctly. I also watched the students in the reading center. They loved reading the Elephant and Piggy books by Mo Williams. They used the pictures and even used their voices to sound like the characters.

K works on a dinosaur painting

Students also were interested in a calendar that I had brought in for the New Year. They wanted to use the paints and create the same type of painting. We talked about brush strokes and how the artists take their time and use lots of details to create their art work. 

L makes her painting

A adds details

 Students continued  to show their interest in dinosaurs. In the free choice art center they took paper and created dinosaur puppets. They started talking about how they could create their own puppet show about dinosaurs.

B makes his puppet

Lastly in playdough students worked on creating something that they have eaten before. The big topic was how to make a hamburger. They talked with each other and decided they needed lettuce, cheese, and pickles. Here is what it looked like:

Groups of five, and dinosaur findings

A writes down H's group of five

K records H group of five

Today in math we worked on creating and trying to understand what a group was, and also what the number five was more in-depth. From the Math in the City workshop I attended on Wednesday I was able to implement some of the material in today's lesson. I used questioning as what did you see, and how did you know?, which really helped to facilitate the level of answers and explanations from the students. They worked in partnerships with the reckon wrack to create different combinations.

B creates a combination of five

After students worked in groups we came back and had a congress to share out what they created. It was so interesting to see what they came up with and that different combinations were created.

Here the group is thinking about a sign to write and how to put the materials together. 

Lastly in centers today; H, W, J, and L worked on the dinosaur exploration. They wanted to create a forest and then hide the T-Rex. They came up with the idea of creating a sign that said, "no touch, dino sleep. He will eat you." They worked together and it was great to see them take the sign writing they did today and incorporate it into their center time. Through this they were able to cooperate, be creative, and learn to work in a group and come up with a decision all together.