New Happenings in Class!

As many of you know we greatly value center based learning and try to create new and innovative ways for children to practice new skills. This past week I took some pictures to update our families on just what our centers have "centered" around! While almost all our centers change daily, some do stay the same. For instance, every Wednesday we have an ipad center. The students have not only been learning how to use these devices, but also the correct way to discuss apps, folders, and home screens. Recently we have been doing a great deal of review, also, so our centers have reflected this.

On this day we had one center that Ms. Perez ran in which the students worked on monetary units and adding these units. The use of individual white boards helps keep their interest up! We keep our money sorting trays handy for reference also.

Another center this day was meant to work on our word family skills. Students received a sheet of paper divided into 4 and were asked to add a word that would be part of the existing word's word family. They also needed to draw a representation of the word.....adding art is always fun!

We always try to keep one center for either reading groups or writing skills. On this day we worked on writing skills. The students were given a short prompt and asked to write 2 complete sentences....easy peezy lemon squeezy for these kids!!! 

This was a Wednesday so of course we had an iPad center! The students mainly use an app called Kindergarten, however some students use First Grade. This app goes through 4 skills: sight word recognition, spelling, addition, and subtraction. As the student gets answers correct the app automatically increases the difficulty. If the students do well for the first 10 minutes I allow "app freedom" for the last 5 minutes.

Finally, we always include a center that allows free play and creativity. We reserve the carpet for puzzles, blocks, creatures of all sorts, and Leap Pad play. This encourages creative play and teaches children how to share and get along with their peers. I love to see the towers and creations they make!