Holiday Sensory Bin

Sparkly, shiny, crinkly, festive....

...who doesn't love a holiday sensory table?

Lots of great math talk at this center as children measured how much fit into the boxes, which lid fit each box, and who had more or less in their gift bag. 

Stamped Wrapping Paper

The children are stamping holiday paintings and hoping you might consider recycling these as holiday wrapping paper. 

Food Drive

Each day the children eagerly wait to see how many items are donated to the food drive in order to calculate the total number we have!

We have 226 items so far!

We have had to add additional shelving in order to hold all items!

Friday is the last day to send in items. Thank you for your support!

Meaningful Math

Today the children were so excited to see how many non-perishable items were donated to our food drive collection. The children have been motivated each day to think of ways to calculate the total number of items. Because the numbers the children are working with are so big, this has been a challenging and exciting experience.

 

Today one of our children decided that drawing a picture would be a good strategy to use to help calculate the total number.

 

 

He knew that we had a collection of 112 items already from the previous day, so he represented this with a picture.

He then added the additional items that were donated today for a grand total of 133. What amazing problem solving and mathematical ability! We are so proud of our children and the persistence they are showing when working with large equations.

 

We wonder how many items will be brought in tomorrow...

Water Run

We added tubing, funnels, cups, and blue water to our sensory table today. The children were very motivated to create their own complicated water runs. 

This center required children to have clear communication, teamwork, effective problem solving, and perserverance in order to be successful. 

Families if you have any tubing or other tools you think would enhance this center we would be grateful! Thank you for your support of our children and program!

"It's beginning to look a lot like...."

SNOWSUIT season! Enjoy this time lapsed video of our children taking over 20 minutes to dress for outdoor play captured with a time lapsed app called Lapse It.

Food Drive

Thanks to your generosity, we now have a table full of food items on display in our hallway. The children are so excited each day to count how many more items come in and calculate our total number of items! We are still accepting donations until December 12. Thank you!

This experience shows us that when children are motivated and given the opportunity to use math talk and problem solving in meaningful contexts, the possibilities are endless!

Amazing Mental Math!

The children have been very excited to see each morning how many items have been donated to the food drive currently happening in the school. They are motivated by the promise of a pizza party for the class that donates the most.

 

This morning one child noticed that we had many cans brought in. There were 16 from yesterday on display in the hallway and another 26 that were donated today.

 

 

"There are now 42," he shared with me.

 

"How do you know that?" I asked him.

 

"Well, 6 plus 6 equals 12, and when I add that to the others, it comes to 42."

 

I was amazed at his ability to mentally add the ones column of the two digit numbers and then total the tens column for an accurate sum.

 

The 42 food items are now on display in front of our classroom. It's not too late to send in more - we are collecting until December 12. Thanks for your support!

Exploring Goop!

Our children love sensory experiences. Goop is corn starch and water with a bit of food colouring. Like Gak, it acts as both a solid and liquid and is fun to play with utensils that allow it to ooze. 

This experience really motivated children to use descriptive language and vocabulary related to both science and math. 

Mix it Up!

Our children have been interested in colour mixing so we read an interactive book called Mix it Up. 

In the book different colours are mixed together to make new colours. We offered these colours of paint with cotton swab brushes at our art center. 

The children experimented with colour mixing on their papers. 

Can Drive

Thank you for the generous donations so far! We already have 16 food items and these are on display in front of our room. We are keeping track each day and adding to see how much we have altogether. We are hoping to win the prize for most items brought in!