Measurement

My school district adopted Investigations as our Math program this school year and we LOVE it!  One of our recent units was on measurement using non-standard units.  Our favorite activity was measuring the feet of many people we know and love from around the school.  I spent an afternoon tracing the feet of people such as our principal, the coaches, our art teacher, the Kindergarten teachers and even my sweet husband (who loves my K friends by the way).  The next day, we measured the feet and tracked our data.  We found that my husband had the biggest feet and one of our K teachers had the smallest.

Watermelon Math

This is our last week of school and every day is themed.  We did a lot with watermelons and math today.  We had all things watermelon flavored for special snack:  jelly beans, Kool aide, air heads, jolly ranchers, real watermelon, gum, etc.  We taste tested them all and voted for our favorites.  We then made a bar graph to represent our data.  Gum won- are you surprised??

We also had an estimation station with Walter the Watermelon.  We guessed how big around he was, how much he weighed and how many seeds were inside of him.  All of my students recorded their estimates and then we gathered in our "Laboratory" (my kidney table) to check our guesses.  To determine the number of seeds, I cut Walter into 17 pieces and had each child count the seeds in their piece.  We then worked together to add up the total number of seeds.  It was great practice for counting on.

We also made a watermelon number sentence that I found online.  We cut a paper plate in half and painted it to look like a watermelon.  I let the kids choose weather they wanted a pink or a red center.  We represented our addition number sentence with the seeds.  (I wish that I had used real seeds, but they were too wet.)

We made a watermelon glyph to represent our personal data.  I love glyphs, they are such and interesting way to show information.  They glued a small legend on the back of their watermelons so that others could figure out the meaning.  The legend is included below.

        

How old are you? 5 years old- 5 seeds    6 years old – 6 seeds	Is Watermelon your favorite fruit? Yes - seeds are  round No - seeds are  square
Boy or Girl? I am a boy – lime green rind I am a girl – dark green rind	Math or Reading? 1 bite - I like math 2 bites - I like reading
Which do you like best? watermelon koolaide - pink melon watermelon gum - red melon

Think Math

I am amazed at how deeply my Kindergarten students are able to think :)  We have really been trying to do more hands on, investigative math lessons with our students this year.  (We are thrilled that our school system has adopted Investigations for the next school year!)  I saw a fabulous idea on Deanna Jump's blog and had to try it out- she calls it "Think Math."  I have either started or ended the majority of my math lessons this way for a few weeks now and I LOVE it.  Basically, it gives the students the answer and asks them to figure out the problem.  This morning, mine said "The answer is 3, what is the question?"  The answers that my students came up with blew me away.

They were able to come up with addition and subtraction number sentences, as well as word problems.  The most amazing part was one student who said "I know that 30- 27= 3."  I asked him to explain his thinking.  (I am really working hard to create a community of learners and let them guide my instruction.  They have learned so much this year from their classmates thinking.)  This child said that he knew from the word problems we had come up with earlier saying that if 10- 7= 3 and 20- 17=3, then 30-27 had to equal 3.  I just love it when they can spot the patterns in math on their own :)