Weekly Round-Up: February 23

Hi friends! It feels like forever since my last weekly round-up post! Here is what we have been up to in our classroom! Scroll to the bottom for the freebie!

1. NUMBER SENSE LOOSE PARTS TRAY

I switched up my math loose parts tray and the kids ate it up this week! They are obsessed with gems, so I think the rhinestones helped.  In the tray I put magnetic numbers, dominos, rhinestones and blocks with the words and, make (for composing numbers), numbers with dots (for extra support) and +, - and = signs to encourage addition and subtraction.

2. ROLL & COMPOSE

We have been working on composing numbers in math so I modelled whole group, then set out this "Roll & Compose" as a math centre.  Students are instructed to roll both dice, place the dice in a box and make the composing number sentence with magnetic letters.

You can find this "Roll & Compose" centre in my "Composing Numbers for Kindergarten" pack on TPT.  Click here or on the image below if you are interested in taking a look!

If you want more ideas for composing numbers you can read my full composing numbers blog post  here.

3. BEE INQUIRY

A few of my kids had questions about bees, so we did a K-W-L chart with the whole class to see what else they were wondering about bees.  We got so many great questions!

We started by reading the book "Give Bees a Chance" by Bethany Barton (which we loved! It is a funny book with lots of interesting facts, great for Kindergarten!) and we wrote down what we learned about bees. I was so impressed with some of their pictures too, I have some amazing little artists!

"I learned that bees have 5 eyes."

"I learned that bees have 2 stomachs."

If you are interested in the recording sheet I use for inquiry writing, you can find it in my "Inquiry Writing Templates for Kindergarten" pack by clicking here or on the image below:

4. ST. PATRICK PRINTING

Can you believe it's March already next week!? Since St. Patrick's Day is during March Break, we usually have some of the centres out a bit early.  Here are the tracing sheets I added to the dry erase centre after school today for next week.  

My "St. Patrick's Day Activities" pack got a big update earlier this week so be sure to re-download it if you own it! If you want to check it out, you can click here or on the image below:

5. MYSTERY CVC WORDS

Here's another new centre I had out for the kids to try this week! I wanted something that would work on the skills my kids needed most; identifying beginning sounds, blending sounds and reading CVC words! This centre combines all 3 skills.  It was a little challenging for some of my JK's but the SK's were great helpers and many kids worked in pairs to solve the mats together.

I had lots of requests to share these mats, so it's now available in my TPT store.  You can click here or on the image below to check it out if you are interested!

6. 2D SHAPE PUSH PIN SHEETS {FREEBIE}

I posted this photo to my Instagram stories and got a request to post the file, so here it is! Print, slice in half and staple these sheets to construction paper and set them out with push pins.  Students poke each dot and peel the copy paper off at the end to uncover their picture! It's great for perseverance, concentration and fine motor development! My kids love it!

You can grab these for free by clicking here or on the image below:

Ok that's it from me for this week!

Have a great weekend!

- Yukari