For the last several weeks we have been learning about forces and motion in science. In this unit we have identified different pushes and pulls as well as the effect of different strengths and different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of objects. Children had the opportunity to experiment with motion in different stations, exploring the effect of characteristics such as weight, size, shape, and surface texture on the motion of objects. Our ever changing playground conditions have also helped reinforce some of these concepts: sleds are super fast when the hill is smooth and icy, but don't work so well on the grass! We concluded this unit by reading the book Red Sled by Lita Judge and designing our own sleds for a little animal. While the snow is mostly gone at the moment, it looks like sledding may return soon!

Our 100th day of school was last Thursday, February 9th and we engaged in a variety of activities to mark the milestone. These included stringing 100 beads in groups of 10 and looking for hidden pictures with objects arranged in rows of 10, both of which gave us practice counting by 10's. We also played a partner game to collect 100 cubes, practiced reading 100 words, and enjoyed a snack with 100 little morsels. Celebrating the 100th day is not only fun, but I find the emphasis on 100 for a day or two can also deepen children's sense of our number system and how numbers to 100 are composed and written as groups of 10 and additional ones.

Each day just before our second recess we do a componenet of our math program called Number Corner. This  time is used to introduce, reinforce, and extend skills and concepts. Number Corner includes the same 5 routines each month, with slight variations depending on the month.

Over the course of any given month we place new markers in our calendar and make observations and predictions abou 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 January our calendar pattern focused on different ways to make the numbers 3, 4, and 5. Using buttons on a teddy bear's sweater or vest, the sequence of markers helped students develop an understanding of part-whole relationships as they recognized that a set of objects can be broken into smaller subsets multiple ways, without changing the total. We  thought about what would happen if the pattern continued and explored different ways to make 6 as well.

We have completed 91 days of school so far. Each day a volunteer writes the number on our white board and we use the 10 frames and links to practice counting by 10's.

Our collection for January was red, blue, and yellow cubes. Our math helper spun a spinner and took the designated number of cubes out of a bag. The cubes were sorted and graphed by color and we counted and compred the three sets each day, making observations such as "the blue has the most" or "red and yellow are equal."

We have started practicing counting a chunk of a hundreds chart, starting at a random number and counting up about 25 places, focusing paraticularly on turning the decade (49, 50 etc.), which can be tricky. We have also been practicing showing teen numbers with our fingers by showing 10 and then some more.