November Number Talks Picks!

Hey Kinder Friends,

Just had to share our favorite Number Talking book picks for November! These are super simple and pretty cheap to come by so they are on the top of the list for our Number Talking fun. I ordered them through Amazon because I wanted to be able to have extra copies for the class. Considering Number Talks are an ongoing routine in the classroom I am always on the hunt for anything and everything that will add to this routine to get us all excited about this part of our day.

First up is the One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims book. It is super simple. But what I love about it most is that it serves as double duty for me. We read it and discuss the three ways to read a book and discuss retelling the story through the pictures. This is a great book for that because on most of the pages the children can read each word on the page but on some they must use the pictures to retell that part. It also incorporates one of our sight words "little" so the children see it in print many times throughout the book. And we all love counting the number on each page just to make sure 10 really is 10... To incorporate this into Number Talks, we add tools such as the Rekenrek or Magnetic Ten Frames to represent the number we see. And we are getting pretty good by now because we see numbers in different ways which lends to a richer Number Talk. This week I heard a lot of talk about one more because sometimes it was hard to find that last one on the page which gave us a great opportunity to talk about counting and recounting.

After our Number Talking routine, I was able to use the book to discuss counting and recounting with the class by using the same book as a starting point. After looking at my monitoring notes I knew that there were still children that do not use an organized method for counting objects. This gave me an opportunity to connect some of the things that I heard in Number Talks and help me plan for instruction for small groups of students or the class as a whole. So, in a sense, our Number Talking routine serves as an assessment of what the children know because the focus is communicating mathematically during Number Talks and you have the opportunity to hear and record the thinking of the children. And the benefit of this routine also gives the other children the opportunity to hear and see the thinking or applied strategies of other children.

As we strut into the last week before Thanksgiving we will be reading and incorporating 10 Fat Turkeys into our Number Talks because you have to have a little fun, right?

And it just would not be complete if we didn't countdown to Thanksgiving too! Oh my word do we ever love a countdown! Seriously, don't ask twice because we "got" this countdown thing! I swear we could countdown from like a million to any important event. WAIT, let me go make an assessment checklist for that...got ya!



Lots To Be Thankful For...



 

Hello Kinder Friends,

I think this is my favorite time of the year. I love Thanksgiving and especially in Kindergarten. Who can't love all things Thanksgiving? We wrapped up the week with a special feast BUT we still have two days to go this coming week!

 

 

So, I guess this old favorite book will be appropriate for the short week ahead because when the bell finally rings...we will all feel like these little turkeys ready to get home to all things...Thanksgiving!

 

 

And since school is still going strong for us this next week we needed some new books to help us make it through!

This one is my new favorite because it explains Thanksgiving in kid friendly language and it includes all of the important facts.

 

 

And who can resist the Bear books? But one of my old favorites has always been...

 

 

I just love the pictures in this book and how it tells the Thanksgiving story in a a school setting. And who can forget Feast for 10? I LOVE Feast for 10!

 

 

 

 

 We had a lot of fun getting ready for our feast.

 

 

We peeled potatoes all by ourselves. This has to be my favorite kid friendly tool ever!  

 

 

And we prepared the green beans for our Thanksgiving soup!

 

 

And we discovered a few things along the way!

 

 

 

 And when our work was done we ended up with some great Thanksgiving soup! We know it could not have been possible without each of us doing our part! And while our soup was cooking we were able to talk about things that make us all feel so thankful.

 

 

Just like I told the kids. I am thankful that I get to come to school each day and be a part of this special Kindergarten year!  

 

THANK YOU TO ALL THE FAMILIES AND FRIENDS WHO MADE THIS DAY POSSIBLE! I AM THANKFUL FOR THE SUPPORT YOU GIVE ME AND MY CLASSROOM!

 

 

 

Feast for 10!

Even after 12 years of doing the same activity I really never tire of this activity. Originally this idea came from Box It and Bag It from The Math Learning Center and it has slightly been modified over the years. We make place mats and use patterns to decorate them for our Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast. This year we decided to use hexagons, trapezoids and rhombus die cut shapes for our ABC pattern because it gave us tons of opportunities to use this vocabulary and also practice patterning. Additionally, this activity can serve as an assessment piece for patterning if the children have worked on it independently. 

We kick off our Thanksgiving Unit Study by reading one of my all time favorites, Feast for 10 by Cathryn Falwell. This is a great book to tie into math at this time of year and it gives us a great opportunity to talk about preparing for a feast and how it takes everyone to help. We also learn about setting the table to prepare for a feast. We use the place mats during our feast and send them home for children to practice setting the table at home with their families. 

We also read Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert this time of year. We plant seeds in the fall to use in the soup that the children cut and prepare for their feast. We had some garden renovations this year and realized pretty early on that growing something for our soup would not be possible this Thanksgiving. Since we have no home grown vegetables this year, we have asked our children to bring an item for the soup that they will wash, peel and dice with plastic knives for our soup that we will share. This activity has been a class favorite each year and I look forward to this time no matter how many Kindergarten Thanksgivings I have had... I am thankful for all of them. 

Favorite Thanksgiving Books

When I heard there was a linky party for favorite Thanksgiving books I just had to join in the fun. I think I actually have two favorites that I run to the library to grab each and every single year. I use Setting the Turkeys Free by W. Nikola-Lisa with my calendar program. For more information on that go HERE for a full post. I love the artwork in this book and I love how the boy in the book tells his story through the vivid illustrations and makes up the story as he goes along. A dark-skinned youngster paints hand print turkeys, decorating them with sequins, feathers, glitter, and paper scraps. After he collects them in a Popsicle-stick pen, a cartoon fox threatens the flock, which is saved when the artist turns a fist covered with purple paint into a stumbling block, allowing the birds to flee. When it is safe, they are lured back home through the child's creativity with corn kernels. Wilson-Max's artistic modeling on these spreads will inspire future turkey makers to explore new media. Nikola-Lisa keeps sentences simple and enthused so that the story's appeal will not be limited to Thanksgiving's traditional art sessions.–Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA 

My second favorite is Thanksgiving Day by Anne Rockwell. This book answers the many questions young readers have about one of America's holidays. Traditions are described through the voice of a preschool boy. The child and his classmates take different roles in a class play, and each character explains why he or she is thankful. The page facing each cameo features a "snapshot" of a historical incident such as the landing at Plymouth Rock or the Thanksgiving feast. Rockwell's cartoon illustrations of dewy-eyed preschoolers in their various roles combine with the simple text to create an excellent example of a holiday concept book for inquisitive young readers.

Betsy Barnett, Eads School District, CO