Guess My Secret Rule - a Comparing and Classifying Preschool Math Game

Guess My Secret Rule is one of my favorite games to teach preschoolers.  It introduces comparing and classifying language into our math day in such a fun way.  There are a few rules to this game.  Each person builds their own "sets".  Each set needs 4 blocks.  Within those 4 blocks three of them have to be the same and one has to be different.  Then they get to ask anyone in the room to guess their secret rule by telling which one doesn't match.  Once the person guesses the builder of the set has the most important question to ask, "Why?".  Then the guesser has the opportunity to describe the characteristics that match or don't match.  Today we played with pattern blocks, which gives the game a very small framework of choices for things that match (color and shape).  Next week we'll start playing with attribute blocks were descriptors like size, shape, color, and thickness will also be in play.

The sound isn't great, but I just had to capture the kids doing such a fantastic job at this game today:

We also continued our work on writing clock letters (focus on lowercase a today).  

 Sharing our work is one of the best ways to get kids to talk about themselves and develop the confidence to share and learn from each other.

 Our reading lessons today were so much fun with glitter sight words and success in reading and blending!

 Keep up the great work at home!

Play Ball and Ocean Animals

In preschool this morning we introduced the letter P with a "Play Ball!" theme.  We had tons of fun playing with different types of sports balls and talking about our favorite sport to play.  We used the foot print words under contact paper to play our reading ball game.  Everyone got a ball at the beginning, read the letter or word of each step they would step on and then shot a basket at the end.  They seemed to love it.  We talked about P the Pelican popping popcorn from the Amazing Action Alphabet and glued popcorn onto the activity page. 

 Each child got a couple baseball reading wheels today.  Check their binder for them.  We spin the wheel and say the letter name/sound or read the word.  The sight word "ball" was a new sight word today that needs to be memorized.  We continued our "Guess My Secret Rule" game in math.  Some of the kids were able to make their own sets without prompting and were allowed to go play the game as a group.  The rest of the group made sets with me following a step by step instruction.  "Take 3 blocks that are the same." (Interestingly difficult for them).  "Take 1 block that is different from the 3 you already had." (Relatively easy).  "Which block is different in your set?" (Difficult). "Why" (even more difficult).  PLEASE play this game at home to help us move forward in class!

This afternoon we had some fantastic reading lessons.  We practiced our nonsense words and sounds to warm up and then dove into some hard core reading.  We worked on the strategies readers should use when they get to a word they don't know.  There are 8 strategies in my February Dr. Seuss Preschool pack that we covered.  We'll continue referencing them as we're reading more difficult text.  We also talked about giving a 5 finger retell (1. Characters 2. Setting 3. Beginning 4. Middle 5. End). 

 We talked about ocean animals with the letter J this afternoon.  We read lots of books about ocean animals and found a great page in the encyclopedia that talks about the ocean.

 We continued our patterning in math by making patterns with giant beads.  We practiced making the patterns that were shown on the pattern cards today.  At the end of the day we enjoyed drawing with chalk in our notebooks.  The kids often talk about how their parents are going to be so proud of their art when they get the journal at the end of the school year.  It's so cute!

Doctors and Graphing

We had so much fun being doctors this morning.  H the horse needs help from a doctor so we practiced our skills.  Many of us were covered in the nearly 250 band-aids that we used up this morning.  Thank goodness the kids were such great helpers at cleaning up all the garbage!

 We did a few different activities for art today.  We worked on the H the horse maze from the Amazing Action Alphabet, we made doctor charts and marked our height and weight, and we did an eye dropper on coffee filters art.  It was such a blast!

 We had one of my favorite math lessons this morning.  We talked about above/over and below/under.  It's the one day that I tell them to stand on a table or chair and they think they've won the lottery! We do it over and over.  I say, "Make your body be OVER a table or chair." They all scramble to a new location and we raise our hand over our heads and say "Over! Over!" Then repeat with under/below and above.  So much fun!

 This afternoon was awesome!  We had great reading lessons and even got a jump start in learning the sight word "my".  Our math was so much fun because we quickly reviewed all of Comparing and Classifying objects and were able to move on to graphing.

 We practiced our cutting today by making "spider webs" or anything each child wanted to make out of coffee filters.  We finished up our lessons early enough that we spent the last 10 minutes outside.  Wasn't the weather beautiful?

Preschool 10-8-14

Today our morning class enjoyed bubbles!  We had a fantastic time making our letter B crowns from the Moffatt Girls.  We made them because on Monday sweet Little S asked if we could.  I didn't have them in the plans but made room for them today.  We worked on identifying the lowercase b by folding our fingers on our left hand in with the thumb sticking out.  When looking at your hand it resembles the letter b.  This will come in very "handy" (hehe) when we talk about letter d.  We talked about how we read a book appropriately.  Slowly sound out the word, then go back and read the word fast.  Move to the next word followed by the next, etc.  When you get to the period you stop and go back to read the whole sentence fluently.  

 After snack time we went outside for art.  We had a blast with the Amazing Action Alphabet activity page.  We do it slightly differently from the instructions as I've never had success with them.  Rather, we pour a small amount of food coloring and bubbles into a small container, pass out bubble wands and try to blow bubbles to land on the paper.  They turn out really cute.  During math today we talked about the descriptors "heavy" and "light".  We played with a light balloon and a heavy weight.  The kids were so funny.  When handed the weight they responded, "This is light!" and proceeded to lift it up over their heads.  I guess on Monday we'll have to up the weight to the 5 pound set :).

 This afternoon we continued our lessons on letter H.  H is tricky because there is no sound in the throat, only air.  We discovered as we were reading together that many kids have memorized the text.  That is a fantastic first reading skill.  HOWEVER, it is very important that for each of the three reads you are doing at home for homework you spend time sounding out the words on page 2 of each book.  Many of the kids could read me the book but couldn't sound out the words.  Check the blog posts about blending, watch the video, and recreate that at home with each word on page 2 of every book you practice.

 Our math time was filled with the game "Guess My Secret Rule" and the kids did a fantastic job making sets and then asking their friends which one doesn't match.  After snack time we worked in our Amazing Action Alphabet Level 2 Handwriting Book.  I was super impressed that so many of the kids were holding their pencils correctly.  They were also getting better at writing their names.  Keep up the great work!