Continuing our Weight and Measurement Unit

We learned how to use a balance scale today and why it's more effective than just guessing using our hands.  The class got to pick from a variety of items to compare the weights of, then they recorded which one was heavier!

New Math Unit

We've moved from our addition and subtraction unit into weighing and measuring.  We started off the unit by learning the words "heavier" and "lighter." We talked today about when something is big, it doesn't always mean it's heavier. 

 First, we compared a bag of coins and a bag of empty eggs. 

Next, the class got a list of items around the classroom to compare weights of.  They colored lighter items yellow and darker items blue.  

At the end we compared our results and found that some of us had a hard time comparing things like a pencil and an eraser because they were close to the same weight.  We will introduce balance scales tomorrow to show that scales are much more accurate than we are. 

Addition Strategies in Math

We've been learning about different strategies for adding in math. So far, we've learned:

Count on your fingers

 Use manipulatives (cubes or counting bears)

 Draw a picture

Use a number line

Here is what it looks like when we use a number line.  

Roll a dice, hop your frog to that number, roll another dice and hop that many times.  

Write your equation to see what is the answer to your addition problem. 

100th Day Fun

 This 100th day was so fun! We spent our day making hats with 100 stickers and necklaces with 100 Froot Loops.  We also all brought in 100 items from home.  We got to weigh, measure, describe and compare our items from home.  

 

Square Cat

I love reading the book Square Cat with my class, it is a great story to talk about friendship and how it's ok if our friends are different than us.

 This square cat is a glyph, so when we are done we will graph the different ways our friends responded to the questions.

Thanks for the idea from Chalk Talk 

Zero the Hero Day

On our 40th day of school, Zero the Hero brought us three different kinds of Oreos to try (because they are shaped like zeroes).  We tasted them, graphed them, tallied them and talked about our data!  I love teaching graphing because it is so much fun to walk around and collect the data and the kids get really excited about which one will get the most votes.

Zero the Hero

Zero visited us for the 20th day of school! He delivered a mystery package and we had to guess what was inside.  It turned out to be Froot Loops which we sorted by color and then graphed.  Thanks Zero! 

 

Zero the Hero

We celebrate our 10th day of school by introducing Zero the Hero! He helps numbers get from 9 to 10 or 19 to 20, they would be stuck without Zero the Hero.  We sang a fun song and made puppets to celebrate our 10th day! Zero will return again on the 20th day of school.

We Love Pete the Cat

We love Pete the Cat in kindergarten! We read all of his books and then I introduce our Pete puppet by having him delivered in a package.  He brings us our first class book and some buttons.

After recess, Pete goes missing and leaves us this note:

He leaves us buttons around the school and we need to go find him! This gives us a chance to explore the new building and meet some teachers.  After his long journey, Pete needed a bath ;)

Then we can come back to the classroom and learn all about sorting using the buttons that Pete brought us.  We sorted by color, shape, size and type.