Here are some of the cool activities that we did the week of October 31, 2005. The students matched numbers to sets of candy corn, and then as a class, we figured out how many candy corns each student had (55 each)!
The skeletons came out fabulous and I was truly amazed that the students were able to complete these skeletons in one sitting. In order to do this project, they had to cut out bones from two different pieces of paper. Each bone had atleast one number on it (most had two). The students then had to find other bones with the same numbers in order to piece their skeletons together (for example, one bone had the number 4, and so did another bone, so these two bones went together). There were some numbers (past the tens) that proved tricky, and the students needed some guidance and direction during this activity, but for the most part, students did this activity by themselves and it only took them about 45 minutes. Cutting alone often takes 20-30 minutes with pieces as small as the bones were, never mind having to match up numbers. Obviously, the project was a big hit with the kids, or they wouldn't have completed it!
I am amazed at what these kids are doing on a daily basis. They are learning things that I've only informally been teaching them as well as grasping some very difficult concepts, such as problem solving and graphing. We did our first Venn Diagram this week using apples, and the students loved the activity!
Our classroom Paraprofessional, Bev, surprised the class and I by cleaning out desks that were in storage and bringing them in. Now each student has their own desk and own place for their things. It's wonderful, and I'm really hoping to find the right seating arrangement for each student, for now that they're all friends, it is sometimes challenging to get them to listen to what I'm teaching (they'd much rather socialize sometimes, of course)! It's also really nice to have the desks because some of the students are accumulating a lot of papers since they often choose to use stencils and/or write during free choice time. It looks as though we will now be cleaning out desks during quiet times on Fridays (?)!