Look at what we are doing during center time!

One of our favorite times of the day is center time.  This is the time of the day that the children are putting into practice many of the skills they learn during carpet and desk time.  I love to listen to their conversations and listen to their brains making connections!  It is so exciting and rewarding to me.  The students are really excited about science and writing at this point.  I am putting out lots of hands-on activities to support their ability to make connections and put into practice their research.

Here two students are working on a word find with popcorn words on the Smart Board.

We took advantage of the snow by bringing some inside and practicing our fine motor skills and science skills by using colored water and the eye droppers. 

At this center they also reviewed our previous science lesson on states of matter.  They noted how the frozen water changed into liquid water during center time.  They also explored how the liquid water worked its way down through the ice/snow.

Many of you made play dough for our classroom.  The children love to use this during math center time to practice math skills.  Here a student is practicing writing out equations (expanded form)

This student is practicing forming numbers in the teens.

These students are representing numbers by making tally marks.

 

Seussy Stuff

I wanted to share some pictures from our Seuss Day on Friday.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!  I will also be sending you all an email with your child and their "twin" from Thing One and Thing Two Day!

After reading The Lorax many of the students had fun recreating the Truffala Trees with the play dough so many of you graciously made or bought and sent in to us.  Thank you so very much!

I read the story The Lorax out loud.  During one part I gave the students these papers.  I did not show the pictures in the book from this part.  They were told to visualize (make the picture in their head) while I was reading out loud to them.  Then they were told to draw what they saw in their heads.  They did a great job with this project!

Here they are working in their pods working on the visualization lesson.

Another pod working on creating what they saw in their minds when I was reading out loud.

During Reading Workshop today we all picture walked and read Dr. Seuss books to our partners today.  I was amazed how how many of them were reading the words.  They are becoming amazing readers!

These two were finding popcorn words in their book.

These two were picture walking their book and commenting on how the author used big red words to make the reader excited to read them.

These two are taking turns reading the book to each other.  They like to play "teacher" during partner reading and take turns sitting in the chair and reading a story to her "student".

These two boys are searching the picture for details that might help them read an unknown word.  They are all getting really good at using their reading strategies to read unknown words.  Remind them to use their strategies at home (Eagle Eye - looking at the pictures, Lips the Fish - getting your mouth ready to make the first sound in a word, Chunky Monkey - looking for "chunks" of words you can read within a word, Flippy Dolphin - flip the short vowel sound to a long vowel sound, Skippy Frog - skip over the words and keep going (we also call it "driving through" the whole word), Stretchy Snake - stretching out each letter sound in the word and blending them together).

 

What we have been doing in Science!

Here is a little glimpse into what we have been doing for science.  I added in a little snow work when we had snow on the ground (but I brought it inside in buckets, it was way to cold to take them out).

We are learning about archeologist's and paleontologists in science.  Here our future scientists are digging for dinosaur bones and fossils thanks to the dollar store and some plaster of Paris!

The students had to figure out what tools they needed and how to use them to carefully excavate the treasures inside.

They were so excited when they started to actually "dig down" to the bones, shells and rocks.

Thank you to all of the parents who sent in newspaper!  We are finally able to start our volcano building project.  This will take us a few weeks, but everyone is so excited to start constructing our paper mache volcano!

The students have been doing research by consulting our volcano books in our classroom library.  They study the pictures (for form) before starting to shape their volcano.

These girls are working together to create the volcano.  The children are in charge of negotiating how many people can work at this center at a time, they refill the glue and water mixture themselves and they cut up the newspaper themselves.  They are learning to work in cooperative groups, negotiate tasks, solve problems and divide responsibilities.  And they just think they are having fun!

This volcano will be reading to paint on Monday.  Some of the students are thinking about adding trees and dinosaurs.  They thought about adding more scenery after researching through the volcano books in our classroom library.  They are so smart!

Another very popular science activity is working with the test tubes and performing experiments using different colored water, vinegar, salt, baking soda and the eye droppers.   Thank you again for all of the support to get these materials donated through our Donor's Choose projects this year!

 

More science experiments in progress.

 

Introducing Centers

We introduced afternoon Center time last week.  The children rotate through 9 centers during the week.  Each center is designed to strengthen a skill or concept the children are learning.  I will explain each center to you and you can study the pictures to see what skills the children were working on.

These children are working in a center on letter identification/sound and linking letters together to form words (we will get into greater depth with this activity as the year progresses).  Right now they are learning the procedures for using center materials and they are learning how to use the materials.  I rotate these materials based on the skills I see the class needs to strengthen.  Right now they are are just linking letters together and trying to identify sounds.
 

These children are learning how to use the foam letters to form words.  I will introduce a new learning toy to the group before I use it in a small group center. 

These two used the letter stringing activity to make letter head bands.  I thought that was very clever!

At this center the children were using some leaf cards to create and extend patterns.  They are learning AB, ABB, ABC patterns.  Many of the children created new patterns.  Most of the children could extend whatever AB, ABB and ABC pattern I created.  We practice patterning almost every day.  This is important for math and reading.

These are themed based candy corn cards that that the children use to count and match the number symbol for the amount on the card.  The children work with a partner to check each other's work.

This center contains over sized pumpkins with the number symbols written on them.  The children can put them in order from the number 1 through 20.  They also use these for number identification.  The work in pairs to check each other's work.

They can also use the pumpkin to place the correct number of objects on it.  Right now we are using acorns that you donated to the class.  They love this activity!

At the Smart Board Center the children can practice writing letters and words, play educational games and watch educational short videos, read books, practice math skills and so much more.  This is a favorite center of the class.

The dramatic play center is used to support many different skills.  Social/Emotional skills are always reinforced in this area.  I also use it to support writing skills (making grocery lists, writing birthday cards, writing menus and more).  I also support reading by adding in recipes, menus,  vocabulary words, books about cooking and using environmental print (like pop tart boxes, cereal boxes and other food labels and wrappers that the kids can identify and read).

These children are working in the block area using the black and orange cups to build with.  I encourage the children to create pattens with the cups.  The children have to work together to create a structure together.  I rotate out items for this area.  Wooden blocks, cups, Lego's and K'Nex for the children to use to explore structure and form.

The children can explore letter stamps, work on books, use paper punches, markers, staplers, word cards and label cards to explore words, work on illustrations and create letters/mail/books/lists.

In the library area the children can choose from a variety of books, practice their skills they learned in reading workshop (this student is working on pointing to each word using his Super Pointing Finger).  They can also use puppets to retell stories and soon I will add the portable CD player and Tape player so they can listen to books on CD and Tape.  I am also introducing my iPad to the students so they can use it to read books and play games that will help them with letter/word/reading skills.

I hope this helps you understand how Center Time works. during the afternoons. 

 

Introducing Centers

Now that we are into our 34th day of school we are ready to start learning centers in the afternoon.  The children work in small groups (2 or 3 children) and rotate through 9 different centers during the week.  Each center concentrates on a specific skill or concept I want the children to master.  I wanted you to know what centers  were in case the children talked about it.  Let me use these pictures to explain what we do during center work.

In this center the children are matching upper and lower case letters and identifying what sound the letter makes.  They can also work on making words, sorting the letters by characteristic (round letters, straight letters, letters with tails, letters that go below the line).  The boys worked together as a team to make all of the matches.  Working in a small partnership helps the children learn to negotiate, problem solve and be a great team member.

In the Writing Center the children can create books, stamp stories and words, use paper punches, tape and stapler to create books, use word banks to add words to their book, play word games and so much more!  The center also has extra copies of our letter printing practice paper so they can practice writing the letters they have learned.



In this center the children are exploring nature and math concepts.  The children can sort the leaves by characteristic (color, size, shape).  They can also do leaf rubbings and study the shape, texture and parts of the leaf.

Here are some of the leaf rubbings.  Thank you to all of the parents who are taking nature walks with their kids and finding us wonderful items to study!  The fall/autumn is really coming alive in our classroom!

In this center the children are exploring the gourds.  They can sort the gourds by characteristics, explore the texture and use expanded vocabulary to describe the gourds.  This will help them in their writing work (using descriptive words are a critical skills children must develop to be good writers).

Again, thank you to all of you awesome parents who donate to our classroom!  You make it possible for us to have such a rich learning environment.  When the children bring in items from home they really feel like they are part owners in the learning.  They know that the parents are connected and know what is going on in class.  They take pride in their classroom and invest themselves in taking care of the learning environment.  Thank you for sending in the gourds, nuts, leaves, mini pumpkins, walnuts, acorns and so much more.  We are putting it to good use!

In the Dramatic Play center the children are exposed to math and literacy concepts.  Real food boxes are used to expose children to print outside of books.  Feel free to send in menus if you can get any.  The children like to make and read menus!  This is another example of how the children are exposed to a print rich environment throughout the learning day.  Math concepts are introduced through measuring, sorting, counting items, and matching amounts.  Writing is used to make "birthday lists" (which is one of their favorite things to do, they write down everyone name in the classroom and invite them all to there birthday party!).  Children make shopping lists, write telephone messages, pretend text and write grocery lists on the write-on/wipe-off board.  One of the most critical skills they develop in this area are social/emotional skills.  They role play (yes, they play you!), explore careers, negotiate, compromise, use manners, hone social language skills, expand vocabulary, express emotions, solve problems, work as a member of a team and practice being a good citizen.

Our classroom library area is officially open!  This is a set center and will never change.  In this center children can relax on a bean bag chair, pillow or chair and enjoy a good book.  Later they will be able to listen to books on CD or Tape, play with puppets and recreate or retell familiar books using the puppets, have a book talk with a friend, enjoy a magazine (I get several children's magazines such as Ranger Rick, National Geographic Kids) or just browse for a good book to add their reading bags.  I love this area and have tried to make it a special place for the kids to read.

This is the Smart Board Center.  These children are playing a find the rhyming words game.  We use Starfall on line at this station.  I have several learning games (including one where you throw a Koosh Ball at the board but I haven't shown them that one yet) for the Smart Board.  We also use the board to practice writing our letters and words.  Sometime I may have a short video of an author or illustrator talking about how he/she created their book.  I may have a short science or math video from time to time at this center as well.  Mostly the children will work on literacy skills at this station.

This station is the block area and it will never change.  The signs they are playing with are also part of their environmental print exposure.  I will introduce items to encourage them to build the setting from favorite books, explore geometric shapes and spacial reasoning, develop problem solving and logic skills, learn measurement and explore physics while creating structures.

I hope this helps you to understand a little more about center time.  They spend about 15 minutes in a center before rotating.  In each center I change out the activities each week to work on a new skills set.  Right now I used the assessments we did last month on language and math skills to decide what skills the class needed extra work on.  I also try to theme my centers (right now most manipulative's are fall themed) to keep the activities fresh and engaging. 

 

Thanks again for all you do!  As always, keep reading with your child!