Hoot Owl Hoot: My New Favorite Game

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We love some truly different games from Peaceable Kingdom Press.  Our current favorite is Hoot Owl Hoot!

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There are many games in my classroom that lead to a traditional winner and “non-winner”.  Checkers, Uno Moo, Lako’s School Game and Candyland frequently grace our shelves.  The children both enjoy these games and are frustrated by them.  Playing games you can sometimes lose is a buffering experience that prepares you for larger, more life effecting losses later in life.  In other words, it is good for your child to win sometimes and lose sometimes.  Think of it as life practice.

However, occasionally, it is refreshing to put your heads together with your friends and plan a route to accomplishment together.    In Peaceable Kingdom Press’s  cooperative board games, players strategize together to complete a goal.  In the game above, players are trying to get the owls into the nest before the sun rises.  The more owls you choose to use, the more complicated the game becomes.  Players play with their cards face up because they are trying to plan ahead and figure out which combinations will get the most owls home in a hurry.

It must be a hit.  The game has been pulled into play everyday since we introduced it last week.  It is amazing to witness the evolution from simple one move, one owl, one person playing to coordinated strategy planning.

Leaf Sort

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Our interest in leaves last week inspired a throw-back morning message today.  Four leaves were featured and we encouraged the children to support their choices with evidence.  Some noticed that a leaf was a different shape or had a different proliferation of spots.  Others pointed out the color differences.  We were interested in finding many ways to group even a small selection of items.

Once we had experience with finding a single difference, we expanded the activity to combining like items to make sets.

The children invented the “rules” for these set circles.

The "not spikey" leaves.
The “not spiky” leaves.
The "spikey" leaves.
The “spiky” leaves.

The problem occurred when our final leaf was placed in the “not spiky” set.  A few children disagreed about the general “spikiness” of the long, fern-like leaf.  It looked “spiky” in its overall profile, but each individual leaf was actually rounded.

The children decided that it must go in both circles.

This one is both spikey and not spikey.
This one is both spiky and not spiky.

As you can see, another difficulty arose.  If the leaf was in-between the circles, it was in neither group.  If it was creating a bridge between the circles, it was partly in both circles.

What if we place it so it hangs in both circles.
What if we place it so it hangs in both circles.

It took a bit of playing with the string, but they did discover that if they overlapped the string, it would make a section for a leaf with both attributes.

Will it fit in this intersection?
Will it fit in this intersection?
Now we have a diagram that explains how our leaves fit together.
Now we have a diagram that explains how our leaves fit together.

More Random Acts of Math

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This group loves to count. They count rocks on the play ground, the largest arm-load of walnuts and the number of days left until Halloween.  Without any prompting from us, snack-time has become the most common opportunity to practice one-to-one correspondence.  The counting strategies range from lining items up, counting-as-you-eat, removing one item from a bag at a time and pile counting.  Pile counting doesn’t usually end up the true total number of items, but making this mistake is part of the learning process.

 

They may hear if I tell them, they will know if they discover it.

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A Mathematical Mind

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Using a word pattern to understand quantity.
Using a word pattern to understand quantity.

It is easy to recognize literacy activities happening throughout a young child’s day.  We see them looking at books, drawing pictures, and using “kid writing” to write menus and stories.  Yet, math concepts are sometimes not as easy to discern.  The children are, in fact, practicing and experimenting with mathematical ideas and processes all of the time.  Seeing patterns and connections are two of the most important supporting skills in math.  Luckily, children naturally sort, classify, and connect everything in their world.

In basic terms, a pattern is a predictable, repetitive occurrence.  We usually think of patterns in very concrete terms, such as in a repeating color set.  Red, blue, red, blue is a basic pattern structure.  However, the term pattern can be more broadly applied when we think of the patterns of less traditional things.  A daily schedule that is typically similar is a pattern.  Our diurnal lifestyle is a pattern.  The types of food our families eat at different times of day can also be a pattern.  When you decide to have pancakes for dinner, an American child can quickly pick up that it is a “special” or unusual choice.  Our species thrives and operates on patterns.  Though we will spend time on the more traditional ABA and ABBA patterns in our classroom, every moment of their lives our children are practicing the concept.

Ant Math

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052014_4409You might have noticed some oddly shaped “art projects” coming home this week.  They seem to be shrunken  boxing mitts or maybe another attempt at creating our own lungs.  However, you are missing the main ingredient.  Black beans.

Yes, I did say black beans, but the children wouldn’t think of them as such.  In their minds, they are ants.  The two larger ovoid shapes are ant chambers connected by a tunnel.  These abstract pieces of ant inspired architecture are the basis for our latest math mat.

In Pre-K, we practice early addition and subtraction concepts through the use of stories, frequently using a math mat as the backdrop.   By playing with manipulatives as they combine and separate groups, the children gain a strong understanding of the relationships between numbers.  They are also learning to identify the vocabulary used when making and breaking sets.

Now that it is at  home, you can join in on the fun.  Ask your child to tell you a story using any small manipulative.  It could be tiny toys or small, dried beans of your own. Now make one up for them.  You can play this as a game where you move the manipulatives and find an answer when your child tells the story and vice versa.

 

Here are some examples to start you off:

Once upon a time, three worker ants went to check on the queen.  Later, two more ants came. How many ants were there all together?

One day eight ants were walking through the tunnels.  Four ants stopped in the sleeping chamber for a nap. How many ants were left?

 

How to make a bouncy ball

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With the students’ growing interest in everything round, we decided to try our hands at making our very own, homemade bouncy balls. We found a simple recipe online and decided to give it a shot. The ingredients include borax, glue, cornstarch, lukewarm water, and some food coloring. We discussed how the recipe tells us what ingredients we will need and when/how we need to add them.

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Many of the students wondered how the ingredients would eventually become bouncy balls. “How is it going to be round?” one child asked. “It will just look like water!” another child exclaimed. But sure enough, when we added all of the ingredients together at the end, a slimy gunk started to form at the bottom of their bowls. Once they couldn’t stir any further, the students pick up the gunk and started to shape it into a ball. Before they knew it, they had made their very own (sort of round) bouncy balls!

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The only problem with the project was that the bouncy balls had the tendency to take the shape of whatever they were placed in. They flatten on a drying board, become square-shaped in an egg carton, and cone-shaped in a plastic baggie. Thankfully, they can be reformed quickly with a little bit of extra shaping before the bouncing can commence. The recipe does suggest placing the ball back into it’s zip-lock bag when it is not being used. All students will be permitted to bring home their homemade bouncy ball once they have completed the project.

Happy bouncing!

Beginning the Ball Study

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Our newest research topic is bouncy and buoyant. It rumbles and rolls. The shapes and sizes astound!  The children want to learn more about:

Balls!

Before break, a basket of random bouncy objects was discovered on one of our shelves.  Before we knew it, the balls had made their way into every section of the room.  There were balls in the kitchen, balls in the art area, balls rolling down planks, balls sliding down steps.  It was obvious which direction our next study would take.

We’ve only begun to explore the properties of balls this week.  Below is a cross-section of a few children plying their sorting skills on the spherical objects.  Later we’ll post a short video highlighting one of the new games they’ve invented.

 

Brothers and Sisters Sorting Challenge

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Venn Diagrams for Small People

With the Holidays quickly approaching, we naturally think more about family and those we love.  In Pre-K this means many conversations pertaining to family members suffuse the day.  We take the opportunity each fall to direct this curiosity into a classifying challenge.  The set up starts like this:

111913_1248We have two unidentified circles laying in  the middle of the room, surrounded by dolls.  The number of dolls is determined by the number of students in the class.  We make sure that each child has an array to pick from to represent his or herself.  After choosing a representative doll, the children must decide where their doll fits in our now labeled “brother” and “sister” circles.

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Someone always discovers that we have two conundrums.  Where do you put your doll if you don’t have any brothers or sisters? What do you do if you have both?  Here we have a problem to be solved.

111913_1259This year, a few children suggested that we should make a third circle to represent those with both brothers and sisters.  While we discussed the advantages and disadvantages to that solution, another child suggested we could just put them in both circles.  Of course our response was, “How?”

111913_1261Following some childrens’ advice about yarn placement, we quickly adjusted the circles so that they overlapped.  (Note: All I’m doing in this photograph is moving the string.)  Once the overlap was established, it was easy to see how those with both brothers and sisters might be represented.

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