Each day, usually just before lunch, we do a component of our math program called Number Corner.
This is a 15-20 minutes used to introduce, reinforce, and extend skills and concepts.  Number Corner includes the same five routines each month, with slight variations in each depending on the month.


Over the course of any given month we place new markers in our calendar and make observations and predictions about the pattern that emerges; record the number of days we have been in school by writing numbers on a number line and visually representing it with links and dots on ten frames; create a monthly collection of objects (cubes, craft sticks, pattern blocks) that we use for counting and comparing in different ways; practice the counting sequence and number recognition on a segment of the number line; and work on computational fluency, often using finger patterns or ten frames.

For the month of December our calendar pattern has given us practice using prepositions or position words as we describe the location of a bear in relation to a box:  inside the box, outside the box, above the box, below the box, behind the box, in front of the box, to the left of the box, and to the right of the box.

Our collection this month has been pattern blocks.  Each day a child spins a spinner with the numbers 3-5 on it and pulls out the corresponding number of shapes.  On Friday we count the collection for the week.  After we find the total number of blocks we sort them by shape and count how many of each one, ordering them from least to greatest.

We have completed 76 days of school so far and we use the ten frames and links to practice counting by 10's.  We have been working on showing different ways to compose 6-10 using either fingers or cubes on a ten frame, and we have closely examined the number line from 11-20, counting forward and backwards and paying close attention to how the numbers are written and the underlying patterns (all teen numbers start with 1, numbers in the 20's start with 2).

A favorite part of Number Corner this month has been our countdown to winter break.  We made a paper chain with 15 links and each day we have torn one off giving us a nice visual of the remaining school days until vacation.

 

Several weeks ago in guidance class the focus was on random acts of kindness.  Children brainstormed kind acts that they could do to make someone else feel good.  Katie Babic wrote each of these down and put them in a jar for us. We have been pulling one act from the jar each day with the challenge of practicing that act by the end of the day.  Some of our acts of kindness have included saying hello to someone with a smile, helping a friend, including other kids when you are playing, doing a really great job cleaning up, asking someone how their day is going, telling someone how you feel when they are kind to you, or giving someone a compliment.  These are all simple acts that can make a very big difference not just in one person's day, but in the overall tenor of the classroom.

This emphasis has also inspired other acts of kindness throughout our days. Children have been so eager to report their acts of kindness that we changed our"perseverance" poster to a "kindness" poster, adding stickers each time an act of kindness is reported.  However, this time children can't report their own kindness, they must report a classmate's kind act.  On Wednesday morning during ECO our focus was on kindness for the animals in the forest and we left them gifts of cranberry and cheerio garlands and birdseed "lollipops" to help them through the cold days. 

Being a good sport

Helping a classmate

Cleaning up

Organizing shoes

Including friends

Sharing gifts with the animals

In math we have started working on modeling simple story problems and writing equations to represent them.  So far we have focused on addition.  Students either build the problem on a ten frame or draw a representation of it and then write an equation to go with it.  A problem might be something like "6 bears were in the field.  1 more joined them.  How many bears were there now?"  We have been writing equations with the total on the left and the right, trying to emphasize that the equal sign tells us that both sides have the same value.  After just a couple of days of practicing this students are making great progress!