This Week's Activities

  A snippet of life in the classroom during this past week:

Writing Numbers with chalk on lined (grid) chalkboard.  I especially appreciate how this child was so meticulous in his writing and demonstrated such care in placing each number in a square.



An extension of the Color Tablets - Sorting objects by color - a particularily useful lesson for the youngest members of the class who are learning color names, plus, those objects sure do look like fun!



Language work with Vocabulary Cards.  I use these cards to initiate conversation with the child and guide them in building their vocabulary.  I made this set of "Animal Babies" along with...



..."Birds" Vocabulary Cards.  Both sets were made from discarded calendars.  I added a matching activity and used the smaller photos found on the back of the calendar.  The child can then match the smaller photos to the large ones.



Dynamic Subtraction  with the Golden Beads - The lesson was perfect:  I knew it when I heard the child say, "Hey, where are the units?  I can't take three units from one!"



Learning the Months of the Year.  This used to be our Birthday Walk set up until we upgraded to the one in this post.  I kept this set because we can still use it as an activity on the shelf, plus I am somewhat attached to the things I make!



Learning to write numbers with the Sandpaper Numbers. 



Pouring Solids.  The decorative stones in this lesson make a pleasant sound when poured into the vessel.  The children are natrually drawn to the material  with this point of interest.



Such careful hands and...



...precise renderings of construction!  This child was sure to have the exact number of Pink Tower cubes represented in his drawings. 



A colorful Easter-egg matching activity.



Painting with Spoons:  This activity is similar to the one in the post seen here, only, three colors are used instead of two.



Trinomial Cube





Pin-Pusing the shape of Africa.  This child had previously pin-pushed the other six continents and saved them all to create...

  

...this Map of the World.



A colorful array with the Third Color Tablet Box.  The children have successfully graded each color from darkest (at the bottom) to the lightest (at the top).



An extension with the Second Color Tablet Box.  Here, the child has paired identical colors and then choose matching objects from the environment.  I love this activity because it is also an excellent memory game - at the end, the child must remember where they got each item and return it's exact location in the classroom.



Number Rods and Cards

Creative design with Sensorial Materials.  A group of four children worked collaboratively to build this structure.  I was astounded - these Red Reds had not been touched in months, and this is what the kids did when they got back around to using them!


And the main event of the week:



Going outside without wearing snowpants!!!!  Can you believe it has been five months since we have been able to do this?

 
We also have been working a collaborative art project which you can read about here. I will say that it is turning out so well, that there is talk of an auction with proceeds from the sale of the artwork going towards classroom materials.  Stay tuned for more on that!