Kindergarten, Math, Week 7

Monday we discussed the Calendar.

• I took the calendar down off the wall. We talked about each box representing a day.
• There are 7 days in a week. What is the first day of the week? Fourth day? etc. (practice with ordinals)
• I introduced the terms weekend and week days.
• We looked at each month to see how many days are in a month.
• We counted the number of the months in a year.
• We played a matching game with the months. Each card has the name of a month and a picture of something that happens that month. When the cards were all matched, we put them in order by month. Another way to play this matching game is to find the matches in order -- January must be found first, then February, etc.

Tuesday we counted to 150.

• I had prepared 15 chenille wires, each with 10 items on them. Most were buttons, but I ran out of buttons, so I used some small (3/8") wooden spools on the rest.
• We sat on her bed and I picked up the first wire, pointed to each button and we started counting.
• We counted to 150 twice.

Wednesday we made Patterns.

• I have some cards with autumn pictures, about 5 of each of the 7 pictures.
• I started a patten and she finished it.
• Then she started a pattern and I finished it.
• We did this as long as it was fun.

Thursday we explored Location Words.

• Ahead of time I had written the location words on cards: top, middle, bottom, left, right, over, under, inside, outside, on, off, front, back
• I took the cards and one of her stuffed animals and we sat on her bed.
• I picked a word card (I tried to do the harder ones), such as middle, took the rabbit and put it 5 places that were "middle": in the middle of the bed, on the middle book shelf, in the middle drawer, in the middle of the bulletin board, on the middle toy shelf.
• Then it was K's turn to pick a word and put it 5 places: on top of the bed, on top of the basket, on top of the box, on top of the . . .
• We continued taking turns until all the words had been used.
• Then we went to the kitchen and found 5 things that can be turned on and off, as those words have location and action meanings.

Friday we played with Size Words.

• Ahead of time I had written the size words on cards: larger, smaller, longer, shorter
• We sat by her toys and I spread the cards out.
• I started by picking a truck and then picking the word card "smaller".
• K. had to find something smaller than the truck. She found a ball and picked the word card "longer".
• I had to find something longer than the ball. I found a doll and picked the word card "larger".
• K. had to find something larger than the doll. She found the giant teddy bear and picked the last word card "shorter".
• I had to find something shorter than the bear. I chose a block.
• We did this 4 times. Twice I started and twice she started.
• We also discussed the difference between longer and taller.