Learning about Japan

A special visitor came to teach us a bit about Japan! Ryan's dad taught us about Japanese writing, a clever way to remember how to count to five, a few Japanese commands and words! and he even brought a delicious Japanese treat for us to sample! Thank you! 

I spy

Can you spot our camouflage ninjas in our mural below? 

Math games

Some of our math centers for the week:

Shapes puzzles- this is a counting game where children guess how many cubes a shape can hold. They then place cubes on the shape and count together. They can place their shape on the check sheet to see if they were right. This game is a great way to teach one to one counting, organization, and rote sequence of numbers. 

Bingo minus -1. Children roll a die and subtract one. They then cross out the corresponding numeral or dot sequence. This was much easier for our class than I anticipated! 

Dominos- a great game to play at home! Children begin with one domino and each take a turn adding onto the structure by matching dot faces. As a culminating task, children can count and record how many "9" faces, how many "8" faces etc. 

Patterns with motion cards- each child took a turn making a complicated pattern and the group executed the movements. 

Some creative venger shape can do's! 

Ninjas- the legend vs TV ninjas!

We were very excited to begin learning about ninjas last week! As we got deeper into the power points, we learned that what we thought we knew about ninjas may not be true. Legends tell us that ninjas were spies, and trained in the mountains to keep their secret ways safe from others. They were stealthy, quiet, strong, in control, and one with nature. We tried to find a place in our classroom where we could camouflage ourselves like ninjas would. 

We also had our three expert origami masters teach us how to do three different types- a girl, a plane, and a boat. It was much harder than we thought it would be! 

Happy New Year!

I hope your 2015 is off to a great start! We are back in action and have new literacy centers to share! More to come...

Camouflaging a ninja into background scenery

Turn and read word pattern game

Writing center topic

Calling base camp

I have who has sounds

Listening center- "Snowmen All Year." Students listen to a story and write about their favorite part.