Math Time

Pre-K News

The cold can’t get this group of kiddos down! Our woods are an ice-skating rink right now, and much of this week has been spent spreading sand everywhere we can. The kids have loved having some real work. 

Last night was math night for the elementary students, and it made me want to share some of the specific math work we do in pre-k with you! While much of our math work  is infused into play throughout the day such as counting, measuring, quantifying (which has more or less), the kids have also been getting quite good at something called Quick Images. We have a set of index cards where each card has a small number of dots randomly arranged (see picture in the newsletter). As I’m dismissing children from morning circle to go wash their hands for snack, I’ll flash a card at them for just a second. The child will try to picture what they saw on the card, and tell me how many dots there were, rather than counting the dots one by one. There are a few benefits to practicing quick images. The first is being able to look at a group of something and instantly know how many are there without counting. This then makes it possible to combine groups together in flexible ways, the foundation of addition. In class the kids are getting very good at describing what they see, like “I see 3 on top and 4 in a line.” All this from looking at a card for just a quick second!  

In other pre-k fun, our blocks area has gotten so much use recently that we’re expanding! We do a lot of social problem-solving during block play, but this group is really working hard on building incredibly imaginative cooperative structures. 

A rapt audience listening to stories from a wonderful volunteer.

Such careful focus

We became bears last Thursday!

We're still waiting for the perfect day to make frozen bubbles. Believe it or not it hasn't been cold enough...

Ms. Bristol helped us add another layer to our worm bin. Our worms are so happy!

This tower got really tall!

Look at the empty shelves. Every block got used in these structures.

Safety crew, spreading dirt on our slippery surfaces.

Industrious work happening at the art table. Egg cartons, tape, markers.

These two spent at least half an hour hanging out in the trees today.

Still not cold enough for frozen bubbles, but in the mean time, bubble art!

A quiet spot

The Ghost Buster car!

This girl was so focused on getting the bark off her stick that we introduced a whittling tool (a potato peeler). We'll teach everyone how to use it in the coming weeks. 

The fire circle turned into a fort today, and the kids still remembered our fire rules!

Making "pancakes for the soccer team" 

Bubble spill over!