Ask Me About Monday, October 21, 2019

We continued to work with number paths in math.  A number path helps us count accurately so we don't skip any items or count something twice.  I have demonstrated how counting items from left to right when in a line or scattered helps.  We have also talked about starting from the left and moving up and down, left to right.  When items are in a circle, we suggest starting at 1:00 and moving around the circle clockwise, stopping at 12:00.  The kids did a good job, although the collections were all ten, so they may have caught on!  We also worked with our Rekenreks today.  This is a mini-abacus with two rows of beads, each row with five red and five white beads.  We start with all beads at the right.  We are working to move five all at once for quantities more than five, then moving more beads for the total.  We play a rollercoaster game with the quantities going up and down, so the children are learning to think fluently and move from adding on beads to moving beads away.  This is helping to build a strong understanding of five which will help them develop stronger number sense.
In reading, we reviewed the m sound and listened for where it occurs in different words.  Mostly we have worked with m at the beginning and ending of words.  We also studied two texts and compared them, looking for similarities and differences in the texts.  We noticed a big difference in the text features we found.  We continue to look for headings, captions, bold print, glossaries, labels and a table of contents.
We also read about rules for listening.  Ask me to tell you about paying attention and listening closely to the speaker.  

I'm going to bring my camera in later on this week and get a few more pictures of these little whipper snappers!  
Watch for an e-mail about accessing Benchmark and Bells Mill spirit wear.

Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe