100 what?

Hello!

There are so many things happening, it can be hard to keep track of whether I reported them all to you!  I hope you know I'm trying!

I asked friends if they knew what today was for many Americans.  They couldn't think of anything except for the fact that we have new songs and poems.  (This is actually pretty momentous for our community! )  I told them about how some people really celebrate Groundhog Day and other friends talked about what they had seen on TV.  Many of my kids were skeptical about the logic in this, how can the shadow of a rodent predict the weather? :)  But they thought it was fun and curious. It stimulated a fabulous discussion about how shadows work which lead to them thinking about the earth's rotation and trajectory in the universe, and how light travels. Pretty cool.

This week I brought in a chest full of pennies, nickles and dimes.  We began exploring what we know about these and how their quantities relate to each other.  This can be so tricky, moving from looking a a nickel and two pennies and thinking "I have three coins" to "I have seven cents".  We will continue to use coins to study how number quantities work.  They are very familiar with the concept of tens from our daily calendar count.  And we have also explored counting by fives.  So when we each had a small pile of pennies, the friends tried to organize them and decide if they could trade up for nickles or dimes.  They are very interested and seem to want to know about this because they know how important money is.  I will keep you posted!

Math is everywhere!  As the friends get closer to their 100th day of school we have been discussing what this means to us.  And also how do we want to celebrate this?  There have been many exciting and extravagant possibilities.  Some, like each friend getting 100 presents, may not come to fruition...  But one about bringing stuffed animals in brought forth a dilemma.  How can we coordinate this?  Thyra volunteered the info that she has 27 stuffed animals, but she would need others to make up the rest.  Taylor decided that it could work if each friend brought like 3 stuffed animals, but how do we check our work?  Would 21 kids at three stuffed animals work?  The children plan to use their own methods to work out these types of real life word problems.  As a teacher I am wondering how many ways we will have to explain how we got to our answer? What will the children use to represent how they came to their findings?  Especially if 21 children at 3 stuffed animals each will not get us to 100 stuffed animals, they how will they figure out how many stuffed animals each child DOES need to bring?  The fun is in figuring it all out.  And these kids are up for the challenge!

BELOW IS TOP SECRET PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS ALOUD TO YOUR CHILDREN!!!!!

On the topic of 100 day party, I am feeling like the kids are still not as inspired as to the details about this, and time is moving closer...  Other years the children have had so many exciting and interesting things they wanted to do to represent 100.  Many of you asked me about this because of memories of other years or other children.  I have been thinking it would be fun to have a special party full of activities planned by parents FOR the children and am wondering if this could be it?  Is anyone interested in joining a committee of parents to secretly create some games and activities that we know would be a special surprise way for the children to explore and enjoy the concept of 100?  It could be our treat for the kids!  And of course we could still do the few things the kids suggested, like the 100 animal collection, too!  WHAT DO YOU THINK?  (I'm excited about this possibility, but MUM'S THE WORD!)

ALRIGHT NOW YOU CAN READ OUT LOUD AGAIN.  :)

Have a lovely night!  Love, Jennifer