ask me about friday, february 4, 2022

Today we did not start our day with the usual "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" song by James Taylor, but instead with the Boston Pops playing Bugler's Dream and Olympic Fanfare Medley, by John Williams.  The children loved it!  In fact, when I asked what music they wanted during lunch in the classroom they said Olympic music.  So we listened to that and other pieces that majestic and proud, such as Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copeland and Pictures at an Exhibition: Great Gate of Kiev.  I love that this class enjoys listening to such a wide variety of music.  We looked at a few more photographs of the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
The replay of the Opening Ceremony will be on tonight from 8 - 11 on NBC I think.  It looks amazing from the photos we saw.
In Benchmark, we are reading science fiction.  Today we were retelling a short story and looking for science fiction characteristics.  The Benchmark selection was a rather weak example, and since we had no special today I put on a 20 minute episode of The Jetsons.  They get science fiction now and will happily retell that story to you!  We enjoyed seeing the futuristic technology that is such a big part of that show.  We will read a couple more science fiction stories to give children a better understanding of this genre.  We have some superhero books and Star Wars beginning reader books that they already are familiar with, so we will build on that.  Ask me to retell the Jetson's story we watched today.  
In math, we did Lesson 3, I Can Use Number Bonds to Show a story.  The children were told a simple story about squirrels and more squirrels joining the group.  We used squares in our number bonds to show the squirrels, then made another number bond and replaced the squares with numbers.  It's important to know that number bonds can be shown in different orientations, so it's important the children know which circle represents the whole and which circles are the parts.  We know to look for the two lines that shows the parts combining into one group or circle in the number bond. 
We also played a game in math.  I have included a copy of the game, but the copy is pretty bad online.  You will need two dice, and two different counters such as beans, pennies, etc.  You need one copy of the game board.  This works best with two players.  The players take turns rolling the dice and adding the numbers on the dice.  For our kinders, they can count on from the larger number on the dice.  So if they roll a 5 and a 4, they count on from 5: 6, 7, 8 and 9.  I encourage them not to count the dots on both of the dice, but to practice counting on.  It's important they count on with the number that comes next.  They put their counter on the number they rolled.  If the other player already has a counter on that number, they can bump it and the player has to take the counter back.  Each player only rolls once on each turn.  If a player rolls a number they already have one counter on, they can lock it by putting a second counter on it.  The other player may not bump them then.  Play continues until all numbers are covered.  The winner is the player who has the most numbers covered.  The children really enjoyed playing this game today!  

Have a nice weekend!
​Miss Wolfe