First Week of Math Stations

Here is our first week of math stations (this was the week of 9/11):

exploring colored tiles

exploring unifix cubes

Chicka Roll & Match (roll the dice and cover that number with a piece of fruit)

fine motor gem pages from Making Learning Fun

computers (this week was our intro to computers, so we had Starfall up instead of a math game)

exploring attribute links

Chicka One-to-One Match (roll the dice and put that many tree erasers on the mat)

sort class names by number of letters

We had a lot of fun during our first week of math stations!

September 11th

We started off the week by talking a little bit about 9/11. I figured, since it happened before my students were born, that it would be a short little overview of what happened, and we would move on. However, they seemed to know quite a lot more about it than I expected. They all wanted to talk about it, so I drew an ever-so-quick (and crude!) picture on the easel:

(obviously, I am NOT an artist!)

Then we had our first "Think-Pair-Share". The students were paired up with the person sitting next to them, and they were instructed to tell their neighbor what they know about 9/11. This gives everyone a chance to talk (which is what they love!), and promotes social skills.

After giving them time to talk to their partner, I asked a few students to share what their partner had told them. Some knew about the heroes - the police and firemen who tried to rescue people from the buildings, and the people who fought with the hijackers. They knew that the "bad guys" came from another country, and they didn't like Americans.

This activity led us into our week of safety lessons.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

Following Brown Bear, Brown Bear, we read and celebrated Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. I hid magnetic letters in sand, and had the students each find one.

Then they had to match the uppercase magnetic letter in their hand to its lowercase letter on the easel.

Next, we investigated a REAL coconut! We passed it around the circle so we could each use our eyes, hands, and noses to check out this beauty.

I cracked open the coconut (I had never done this before!), and we all got to taste the milk. We were surprised that it wasn't white - it was clear. Some of us predicted it would taste like water - of course we were a little surprised when we found out it is very sweet! Since I was doing the cracking, pouring, and passing out the milk, I didn't get a picture of this activity. :-(

Then we used our magnifying glasses to investigate shredded coconut. This lesson was really just an introduction to using our tools properly and safely. But we had fun!

 (no, this little one is not asleep - she's just waiting her turn with the magnifying glass! :-) )

Then we sorted bandaids. My only problem with this activity was that I didn't have enough different bandaids. I only had three colors, so it was too easy.  So now I know that I need to start stocking up on different shapes, sizes, and styles of bandaids for next year. :-)

Finally, we made Chicka Tree Glyphs using the letters of our names. Girls have pink paper, boys have orange paper, and the number of coconuts = the number of siblings the student has. Enjoy!

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