Number Sense

It is very essential to develop number concepts at early stage. Fun activities and special methods aid the young learners to develop early numeracy skills. The activities include concrete materials that they can touch, explore and manipulate in various ways. Experience and exploration is vital in their understanding of number concepts.

Many children at the age of 2 start to mimic or parrot the number words from one to ten as part of their rote counting skill. Yet, they don't have a concrete understanding what number really means.


There are many fun and exciting ways to do in the classroom to develop their numeracy concept. It is more than paper and pencil activities:)


                                                

                                                                    Dot Cards

                                                   


                                                   


                                                     
I am using dot cards for counting or comparing numbers. I also used colored bear counters to add a variety. First, the child is asked to pick a dot card to count. Once the child is finished counting the dots, he/she is asked to get the colored bear counters and place it on top of each dot as they count along. This is also a good practice to develop one-to-one correspondence. The teacher can also ask the children who has more bear counters and who has less which develops their comparing skills.

                                                                      Unifix Cubes

Usually, the children like to build towers and various objects using our unifix cubes which is ok as it is a part of their exploration. As we progress in our math skills, they have learned that there are many ways to use the cubes which help them develop their number sense. It is heart-warming to see them using these cubes more than just building towers.


                                                     

One of the center activities we have is the use of pipe cleaners with a number card attached to the other end of it. The children will pick one pipe cleaner and say the number. For those who are not able to identify the numbers yet, they can count the stars to assist them. Once they say the number, they can now pick unifix cubes from our tray and push it through the pipe cleaner. This activity develops their counting skill, 1:1 correspondence and fine motor skills.

                                                      

                                                   

                                                    

Once the above activities are introduce, you can ask the children to revisit the activities during quiet time, for early finishers and when you need a few free minutes.

Our Class Will Bow Wow Wow You

New school year is here and I can't compare the level of my enthusiasm and excitement. This year, I am teaching K2 class (4-5 years old). Our class name is The Patient Puppies. I have 22 beautiful kids under my care. I am so blessed to have two wonderful ladies as my assistants this year. They are both energetic and enthusiastic about educating young minds.

On the first day of school, we had a magic show and some exciting activities for the kids. We welcomed the students and their parents in our new classroom. I prepared a jar for parents' wish this year. I got the idea from pinterest and I can tell that this new idea is quite interesting. I had fun reading parents wishes for their children and I can feel their hearts.

Let me give you a short tour around my classroom.

This is our wreath to welcome you all:) 

Our Art Wall. This photo was taken last week so it was kinda empty.hehehe.

Our Birthday Chart. More bones for bday kids!

My favorite behaviour chart management. Thanks TpT and Pinterest. This idea is AWESOME!!! makes my class more manageable. I added smileys for good behaviour and sad faces for bad choices. We have children's names on pegs.

Love our calendar and weather chart. We also use this for counting practice.

Presenting our classroom jobs...TADAAAAA!!!!

Our wall number chart. I am glad we have ten frames included as it is very useful in achieving our Common Core standards in Math

My pocket chart. Yay! We use for our words every week and for children's name plates. The names plates allow the children to recognize their own names and their friends' as well.  Since we are still in the process of learning how to write our names, we use the name plates to achieve that goal. Whiteboards and markers are available in the writing station. The children takes their name plates and copy them on the white board. Sometimes, I encourage rainbow writing by using various colors of felt-tip pens and coloring pencils. 

Classroom Rules to observe.

And for good choices, we have sticker charts for each student.

Our daily schedule. It's not the same every day so I just use paper clips to help me in some adjustments needed.

Word Wall should never be neglected.

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So our tour ends here and I hope I can post more in the future:)

Be Back Soon

 I am sorry to write and tell you all that for I will be taking a break from my blog for the next couple of months.  My family is growing and I need to take care of this new blessing in my womb. Thanks everyone and I will be back soon.:)

Literacy Overload

I consider Literacy Month as the best school event. You can do many interesting and life-long learning experience that link to literacy. Teachers have  a vast array of ideas on how they can bring literacy awareness in to their own classrooms. 

Let's start with my class door. :0 Since we are The Reliable Super Heroes, I decorated my door with READING SUPERHEROES like Batman, Robin, Spiderman, Wonderwoman and others. It was motivational for my students to see that super heroes do actually love reading .

Each student had a reading log which served as our tool to trace how many books they read and actually made them aware about the author of each book read. 

 We had this reading wall where each student had a ladybug. A spot to their ladybug is added for every book they read.

                                         

The Book Character parade was my favorite. My little one wore the costume of Beast from Beauty and the Beast story with my sister as The Little Bee.

And more book characters joined us.

Awards were given too.

Beauty and the Beast with Little Beast and Batman. Ready to save the day:)

This is Judsen wearing his silly socks during Dr. Seuss week.

Reading Buddy is indeed a nice way for higher grades to read together with the pre-school students

My children's entry for Book Cover Competition. Oh yeah!

                                             My little authors tried to make their own books.

We had parents as our storytellers. It was an exciting and memorable week with our volunteers.

What's your Worth? Penny or Nickel

Learning the key concept of pennies and nickels is quite challenging since 99% of my students are only familiar with Vietnamese Dong. However, since it is included in our curriculum, I need to push it through and make it unforgettable  for all of us. 

Terms we used are: penny, nickel, coin, cent, worth, value , exchange and symbol.

First, I asked the children if they know about money and what money is used for and why there are different kinds of money. I showed them my wallet and took different kinds of money from my wallet. I can say that it worked well in getting their excitement and fun about out lesson.

Then, I introduced penny. I have play coins available. We discussed the size, shape, color and marking children notice and wrote it on the board in a form of brain map. It was also explained that a penny can be called 1 cent. A penny is worth 1 cent. We collected each one's pennies and count the total. 

The cent symbol was explained and the children practiced writing on their white boards. Then, the children worked in pairs using their small bags with pennies in it. They counted their pennies and wrote the total on their whiteboards.

For their task, I am using a MATH INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOK . This notebook allows the children to be creative and independent thinkers and writers. I asked them to decide how much pennies they want to save in their piggy banks and write the total value of their pennies. 

Day 2: Introduction of the Nickel

A nickel was given to each child to explore and to look closely for the discussion on shape, size, color and any markings. Nickel can be called 5 cents. A nickel is worth 5 cents. The children were challenged to  put all of their nickels in their groups and estimate how much they have. Then we made a pile of the whole class' nickels and counted by 5's to get the total.

Then I asked "How many pennies will I get if I exchange my nickels for pennies?" It was so amazing to see the students using their thinking brains and counting skills. Then I asked them to draw their answers on the whiteboards.

The children worked in pairs, one was acting as a banker and one as a trader and then after 1o minutes, they switched roles.

For their task, I got this worksheet from  www.classroomfreebiestoo.com. It was a very exciting task for every student as they scoop coins out of their bowls and counting and drawing their coins.

We will soon work on dime and quarter. Can't wait:)

2D Shapes

Learning 2D shapes in Preparation Class is exciting given the fact that they had been exposed to shapes  as young as 2 years old.  This is just some of the things we had exploring 2D shapes here and there.

I googled some samples of ANCHOR CHARTS on 2D Shapes and I found what exactly fits to my class. Thanks to my best friend, GOOGLE:)

After discussing about the attributes (lines, sides, and corners) of each 2D shape, this Anchor Chart stays around the classroom for any big and small group activities. It makes my class more manageable during writing activities. The children  visit the anchor chart for spelling and for reference on the attributes of  the shapes. They don't have to come to me most of their time to ask for spelling or any questions related to their tasks. The anchor chart serves them in any ways.

One of the center activities we had was making their own designs using attribute blocks. It was amazing to see their originality and creativity. They discussed and compared their works which reflect communication skills using mathematical language. Below are the samples of their designs.

Once their designs were done, they were given a recording sheet.  They recorded how many particular shapes they used  in their designs. 

The best things about this activity were, they were able to express their creativity using different shapes and able to record their work.