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Centers for our youngest students

Centers are an important part of the day for Kindergarten and First Grade students.  Every day they participate in at least one language arts, math and gross/fine motor center. Children learn by playing games in these centers, whether they are adding, subtracting, learning letter sounds or reading sight words. To simplify their contracts, we use Read More >>

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Measurement

Inch by inch we built our own measuring tapes and used them to measure our thumbs, ears, wrists, and waists.  We were excited to find how much easier it is to use a measuring tape to measure around things than it is to use a ruler!

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Place Value

In our place value class, five students learn how to use the number grid to quickly add and subtract numbers. Along the way, students explore how there are many ways to get a single answer. Students learn the value of the ones and tens place, as well as how to move up and down the Read More >>

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Probability

For six weeks in September and October students in grades 4 to 7 were part of a class learning about probability. We started the unit by having a mystery bag in which there were ten cubes. Students had to pull out one cube at a time and then put the cube back; they did this Read More >>

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How Many Seeds are in a Pumpkin?

K +1st grade students explored how many seeds are inside a pumpkin.  We started out by reading part of the book How Many Seeds are in a Pumpkin by Margaret McNamara.  After we read about how the class in the book got messy and goopy emptying out pumpkins, we estimated how many seeds we thought were in Read More >>

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Graphing

Students in the intermediate grades explored the many ways you can display data. The first information or data we considered was a list of our birthdays. How could we display this information so it would be easier to read and compare? Bar Graphs were the answer. Our graphs displayed the months of the year and Read More >>

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Integer Class

The oldest group of students as well as a few 5th graders, participated in a three week integer class. We started with the basics of the number line and what lies to the “left” of zero. We then moved on to adding and subtracting with positive and negative numbers. When we moved on to multiplying Read More >>

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Money

1st graders were given a magnifying glass and asked to compare and contrast dimes, nickels, pennies and quarters. They played games such as “Race to a Quarter” and “The Matching Game” which gave them practice trading coins (5 pennies for 1 nickel, 2 nickels for 1 dime and so on.) In Matching Game they became Read More >>

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Block Centers

 Every day kindergartners and first graders enjoy opportunities for creative play. In small groups of three or four, as they play with blocks, cars, geotracks and marble runs, they learn how to collaborate, share ideas, and negotiate with each other. The children have also collaboratively designed a landscape of popcorn kernels, rocks, and twigs, explored  seashells and Read More >>

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Cubes and Parquetry Pieces

During Math Center, the youngest students have started out this school year exploring math materials.  We began with looking at and playing with cubes and parquetry pieces.  Students were given time to build, explore, play and describe what their pieces could make.  Then we had a discussion about the differences between the cubes and parquetry Read More >>