Hearts and a Day of Math

This morning in preschool we talked all about hearts as we get ready for Valentine's to be upon us next week.  We split into groups and played with some heart shaped boxes and toys and read.  We worked on reading about a snow zoo, which was really fun, and we drilled the importance of pointing at what you are reading.  We giggled about the different mistakes that I made when reading to the kids.  I'd point at the /a/ and say /z/ or at the /I/ and say /pickles/.  It was quite silly but it started to click!  Yay!  Point at the letters and make the correct sound at the same time.  Keep working on this at home!

 We also got to make tissue paper hearts in art time today.  The sticky contact paper proved to be a challenge at first but then they got the hang of it.  After art we played with pink play dough for a bit and then played with the shape blocks while I did a quick assessment to see what 2D shapes we were struggling with as a class.  It seems the rectangle and hexagon were the hardest.  Honestly, the hexagon doesn't really count in preschool.  It's an advanced shape for those ready to learn another shape.

 This afternoon, believe it or not, we spent 2 hours and 45 minutes on math.  I know.  I can hardly believe it and I taught it!  It was engaging and fun and lots of "I love this game" though we weren't playing what I would categorize as a "game".  We played with the foam TouchMath numbers while I did a quick check to determine who knew the numbers 0-9 and which numbers were still a struggle.  It turned out that the majority of the class knew 0-9 and were ready to work on numbers 11-20.  We spent time doing a lesson very similar to MathUSee with their concept of "Decimal Street".  I love how MathUSee is taught (at least the primer level) and was happy to have a more concrete example of place value to work with my preschoolers on.

 We worked mainly on the concept of a maximum of 9 units can live in the units house and when another unit wants to move in they form a stick of 10 to move to the tens house.  We will play with this concept with unifix cubes next week so they can stick the actual cubes together and move them into the next house (that's the downfall of base10 blocks, you have to trade them in).

We then cut out and played a numeral and picture matching game.  I would link the download but I didn't make it and it's now longer available :(.  Work on matching them at home every day and send the cards back on Wednesday next week so I can assess how they are doing.  This is an exciting time where we get to explore more about number sense and bigger numerals, yay!