Centers

We had a busy week in centers.  In the Bean Book center, the girls worked on number combinations.  Each girl has a working number that they are exploring through bean books.  If your working number is 5, you take five two-sided red and white beans and toss them as you would dice.  You then record the results:  how many came up white and how many came up red.  Then you record your results by coloring in the appropriate number of beans in your book and writing the numbers.  The challenge in this activity is to write the equation.  For example:  2 red and 3 white: 2+3=5.

As the girls master the combinations for their working number, they will move on to higher numbers.  We will be doing many activities with their working numbers.

In the Handwriting center, the girls learned the motor plans and sounds of the letter T.  We begin the handwriting center with a sort of objects that begin with letters we know and letters we have not yet learned:  this week we sorted objects starting with L, (short) I, and T.  While we are sorting the objects, we practice making the sound each letter makes.

Then we observe the upper and lowercase letters, noticing which type of and how many lines it is made up of (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curved) and where each letter begins.  Then we "skywrite" the letters using two fingers of the hand that we write with.  Finally, we move to the handwriting books.

In the Sort center the girls sorted pictures that began with the letters L and I, reinforcing what they learned in their last centers rotation.  After they were done, their challenge was to, using their best guess spelling, label the pictures.

In the Feel Good Book center, we took some inspiration from one of our favorite authors, Todd Parr.  In his The Feel Good Book, he writes that:  "Saying 'I love you' in sign language feels good; Having a ladybug land on your hand feels good; and, Making a new friend feels good." We thought about all the things that make us feel good and, using Parr's style of illustrations, began creating our own Feel Good Book.

Here is a sampling: