Categorizing Keys

Posted on October 8, 2015 by forstm

Now that we have a giant pile of keys to rifle through, sorting them into categories seems only natural. In small groups this week, the children are choosing their own classifications and adding keys as they meet the requirements. Today’s group of three children broke off into two sorting sections. One child quickly established his own set of piles while the other two worked as a team to designate key properties.

After we’d sorted, the children created signs for the categories. The titles are a testament to your children’s creativity and insight. We had groups of “really mini”, “circle-top”, “hammer”, “froggy”, “suitcase” and “oval”. It was quite interesting to see which sets overlapped in characteristics and name.

The Money Machine

Posted on September 23, 2015 by forstm

Throughout the school day, Marie and I spend a significant amount of time observing the students’ play. We write anecdotes about what the students are playing and sometimes even the conversations they have with one another. This helps us learn more about the students’ personalities, how they navigate friendships and conflict, and where their interests lie. Once the students have started to get to know one another, you may start to see trends in their play. We then take those trends and find ways to infuse them into our classroom so that we may broaden their understanding and of course implement a ton of learning along the way.

In the past week, we have noticed the students have become more and more interested in money and how it is used, so we decided that we needed a bank. The students started writing lots of numbers on paper for dollars and cutting out little, tiny coins to fill up the cash register. We even voted on a name for the bank. After much consideration and many great ideas (“The Dollar Store” being my favorite) they came up with “The Beautiful Bank”.

Yesterday, we started talking about how you get money from the bank. Many of the students had differing ideas. Some students said that you have to pay for the money, while others said the people at the bank just give it to you. One child said that you have to get money from the “money machine” but wasn’t really sure what that might look like. Several students said it needed a screen and buttons and a place for the money to come out. We decided that we should make a design for the money machine before we try to build it. Below, you will find the students’ ideas for what they think the money machine should look like.

We are excited to see where this topic may take us next!

STEM and Art

Posted on September 22, 2015 by forstm

A Daily Dose of Wisdom

“To a child, the world is filled with endless possibilities. They learn through art what will work and what won’t. Because there is not one right answer, art presents an opportunity to be creative problem solvers or “risk takers” and meet challenges in new ways. A majority of young children will most likely NOT grow up to be the next Picasso but being exposed to appropriate art experiences from the earliest years promotes divergent thinking skills — valuable for future scientists, mathematicians and engineers. ”

–Ginny Streckewald, M. Ed

The Kitchen Game

Posted on September 17, 2015 by forstm

Want a daily dose of mathematics in your child’s life? Add a play kitchen to your home. Ours inspired a child dubbed activity called, “The Kitchen Game.” It all began with a simple table setting. One child carefully laid out five bowls, four plates, and two cups. Thinking I would encourage him to practice some one-to-one counting, I asked, “How many people are coming to this party you are preparing?” He carefully counted plates around the table in a counter-clockwise fashion, double counting many of the same dishes. “Ten! Ten people are coming for dinner.” This taught me much about this child’s mathematical thinking and understanding of concepts such as one to one correspondence, estimating, and conservation of numbers.

A few moments later, the two chefs invited Mrs. Pless to join them for soup. Two other children noticed this new endeavor and decided help the restaurant out. In a whirlwind of cooking and flying paper, Mrs. Pless was instantly inundated with bills for services costing up to ten hundred eighty thousand. At one point a student kindly made a “pass” for Mrs. Pless so that her next meal would be free. Needless to say, eventually Mrs. Pless ran out of “money.”

Child: We have a big collection of money.

Mrs. Forst: What if Mrs. Pless runs out of money?

Child: We make her pay. Mrs. Pless, do you have any money?

Mrs. Pless: No, I’m broke. You have all of my money.

Child: You have to take it out of your bank account.

Mrs. Pless: My bank account is empty.

Child: Too bad. You still have to pay. [Maniacal laugh] Because we’re a bad restaurant. No one’s going to want to come here!

I think I agree. This restaurant is a bit pricey. However, look at all of the mathematical concepts they are sharing with us. They already have some understanding of:

value
cost
banking
cash
numerals
quantities
a bill (that you have to pay)
a bill (a denomination of money)
currency
large numbers
the consequences of running an overly expensive restaurant (???)

In fact, I believe I might have encountered our next major credit card company founder.

Mrs. Forst: How much is an eggplant?

Child: You have to pay $600 every month. It changes.

Mrs. Forst: How long do I have to pay this?

Child: 106 days, but you have to pay everyday.

Did you see how the payments went up when I wasn’t paying attention? Classic.

Survey Season

Posted on April 30, 2015 by forstm

We never know when the season will begin, but we can be sure that it will be long and well-loved. It is Survey Season in Pre-K.

At some point during the year, the children notice the container of wipe-off board surveys tucked into a corner of the room. It begins with a single child, an Expo Marker and a clipboard. The next thing we know, we’ve got a bevy of journalists interviewing friends, teachers, parents and even the class pets.

Our first independent surveys are pre-printed and provide practice collecting tallies and marking bar graphs. When we run out of those, the children jump on the opportunity to create their own. The questions range from the scholarly to the quirky. Following their investigation, each child takes pride in sharing their results and observations during Morning Meeting.

Of Liquids and Solids

Posted on March 13, 2015 by forstm

Ah! Spring weather is upon us. We’ll see warmer weather, leaf buds, early crocuses and, of course….

MUD!

Wonderful, gooey, ooey, sticky, icky mud!

As the snow melts, the runoff creates a thin trickle that percolates down to the field. The tiny rivulet runs down the slight slope toward the grass, spreading wider with each inch.

Once solid footing becomes squishy and murky. Your boots call out, “schlp, schlp,” until you realize that only one boot is still making noise. The other is embedded in the mire. Hop, hop, hop back to your boot.

On the other side of the new swamp, friends concoct a meal fit for the king of ooze. Into the bucket go shovelfuls of solid and liquid H2o. Buckets of watery mud are carted to the pot, adding to the brew. To add more mud or stick with ice? Does it need more wood chips? Did you stir it twice?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWwhfpvZmi8

All this in a mess. A natural mess compounded by art. How to get clean, where even to start?

The snow! The snow!

We’ll roll in the snow. The abrasive top coat is just enough to scour our suits. We leave brown streaks behind to show where we’ve been.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2KoWgDAKn8

We’ve explored measurement, space and fluidity, too. We’ve mud on our face. It’s time to go in.

Good, ol’ fashioned fun!

Posted on February 16, 2015 by forstm

Looking for something to do indoors with your Pre-K darling? How about an old fashioned game of Go Fish. We’ve been playing this game a lot lately. Practice some laughs, sportsmanship, number recognition, self-regulation, logical thinking and quality time all in one swoop! 021215_8221

Hour of Code

Posted on December 10, 2014 by forstm

Yesterday, Pre-k participated in our second annual “Hour of Code” event. We didn’t actually spend an hour on the project, but the computer programming that we played with was lots of fun! The four instructors (Dave Nasar, Dave Piemme and Jonathan Ringer from the Upper and Middle schools and our own Kate Webber) explained that computer programming was a simple as giving someone or something directions. The students’ first task was to help a wee paper mouse work its way through a maze to a piece of cheese. Small pieces of paper represented Up, Down, Left and Right. Each child took turns guiding the mouse along its path.

As the mazes became progressively more difficult, other “special” commands were introduced.

[vimeo 114038159 w=500 h=281]

After much practice, the children moved on to Kodable, an iPad app with similar parameters. For this task, the children directed a fuzzy creature through mazes while practicing planning, problem solving, the Scientific Method and visual-spacial skills.

If you are more curious about Hour of Code, check out Computer Science Education Week. Here is a short introduction found within their site:

We live in a world surrounded by technology. And we know that whatever field our students choose to go into as adults, their ability to succeed will increasingly hinge on understanding how technology works. But only a tiny fraction of us are learning computer science, and less students are studying it than a decade ago.

That’s why schools across the nation joined in on the largest education event in history: The Hour of Code. During Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 8-14), students will be amongst over 2 million worldwide spending one hour learning the basics.

See http://hourofcode.org for details.

Math Stories

Posted on December 9, 2014 by forstm

We’ve been playing with ten frames in our class as we explore the properties of numbers and one-to-one correspondence. With today’s introduction, we were pretending that the pebbles were rocks in a fairy garden. The “storyteller” would walk a partner through a fantastical tale that happened to include some mathematics language.

These two decided that their story should also DEFINE math.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/113939324]

Let’s get counting!

Posted on October 23, 2014 by forstm

When young children first begin their exploration with counting, they often try to count objects in a group or pile but quickly lose track of which items they have already counted. Today, during morning meeting, we spent some time finding different strategies that may help our little mathematicians count using one to one correspondence. Each student was given a small handful of rocks and was asked to figured out how many they received. After everyone had ample time to count their rocks, we went around the circle and ask each child what strategy they used when counting.

Many of the children put their rocks into a straight line before counting. This simple act helps to organize the materials in a fashion that ensures that the child will only count one rock at a time. One child used a strategy that involved picking up a rock from the pile, placing that rock in their opposite hand, and then putting the rock down in a separate pile. Not only is this child using a common strategy of moving one item away at a time, but they also practicing using their working memory by adding the extra step of switching hands before placing the rock in the new pile. Some students do a combination of many strategies such as moving the rock away and then placing it in a line or vice versa.

Each of these strategies provide the student with an efficient way to organize their materials so that they can focus on the act of counting each item only once. If you happen to notice your child trying to count objects that are in a pile, suggest trying one of the strategies above and see if it makes a difference!