Kinder Math

2D Shape Webs
My first week of student teaching in Kindergarten has gone great! I've started off with teaching Math in the mornings. This week we are creating 2D shape webs.

We explored one shape a day (with one day completing two webs) for a week.

I was surprised by the depth of the answers that students gave me.

The oval was difficult for the students to come up with examples. Therefore, I used a book of shapes and we did a picture walk. This helped them come up with some examples to place on our web.

3D Shapes Lesson

 The next week, I introduced 3D shapes. This was more complex for the students to grasp. There was a lot of confusion at the beginning of the week because a 3D shape is not flat but when you see the shape on paper it is. At the beginning of the week we filled out a chart. 

We explored one shape a day. I introduced each shape by showing them a wooden shape and asking them questions about it. I then introduced the new vocabulary words like face and base. I also brought items from home to show them that they have seen this shape many times. Together we came up with a definition to describe the shape. I then asked the students to close their eyes and picture their house, the park, and the school and to look for items they have seen that look like that shape. We then came up with examples of the different 3D shapes. For the next 5 weeks, I referred back to this chart when talking about shapes.

Number Webs 

I enjoyed creating these webs with the students. In order to create it, the students tell me all the ways to make the number 13 that they can think of.

 Once a week a number web is created during number talks. This part of the day the students learn about creating numbers using ten frames, twenty frames, rek n reks, and mental math.

 Graphs

The students greatly enjoyed creating graphs. I suspect it's because they enjoy taking surveys and asking each other silly questions. 

The students brought a 3D object from home and we sorted them together. After that, I gave each student an object and they were instructed to draw them onto a post-it note. When they were finished they placed them onto the graph themselves. When all the post-its were placed onto the graph we discussed what conclusions they could draw from looking at this graph.

 The students loved creating this graph! I used my cricut to cut several circles. The students were able to choose which color circle they wanted to draw their face and hair on. When they were finished we glued their face onto the graph and discussed what conclusions we could draw from this graph.