Play with your food!

We all probably grew up with our parents saying "Don't play with your food!"....well, in our classroom that saying gets tossed out the window! Above is an image of a "snap word" (which is a word students should know just by looking at, not sounding out) written in Play-dough. This tactile way of practicing words allows many skills to be practiced: 

• Students are practicing their "snap words" over and over
• Fine Motor Skills are being used 
• They can choose what they are using to learn! 
• Play-dough is one option students have at our Word Work center. Each of our Word Work baskets contains a different way for them to practice their "snap words". The reason for all of the different options is that students are individuals, and learn in different ways. Some may learn better if they have more sensory, hand-on learning. Some may prefer simply stamping their words and tracing them with a marker. 
• Some students are also a bit more wiggly than others. Having Word Work centers that allow them to move a bit while they are learning may accommodate them better than making them sit absolutely still. 
• No matter what Word Work basket they choose, students are all learning the same word skills! 

Below was our Fun Friday math activity! We practiced addition and subtraction with Hershey Kisses, while we read our "Hershey Addition and Subtraction" picture book! We are finding ways to use math with lots of things! 

While, as adults, we may be tempted to say "Don't  play with your food!" right away, at the proper time and place it may be a great learning tool to do so! I'm not suggesting that your students write in their mashed potatoes at a restaurant, or make patterns with ketchup on the dining room table, but used as a tool with proper supervision, you can use fun foods to learn! 

Here are some ideas! 

• Have your children make patterns with a healthy snack! Use cut up vegetables of different colors and have them make a pattern! 
• If you are making cookies, put some colored frosting in a plastic bag and snip off a tiny corner. This can be your child's pastry bag, and they can write words or names on the cookies! 
• Make color patterns with M&M's! 
• Use different foods or treats to make up number stories. An example of this would be: 
• "Shelly had 5 crackers. She ate 3. How many does she have left?"

Listening to Reading

A student holding a book for others at the "listening station" 

One of the centers that students do daily is called "Listening to Reading". In our classroom, we have approximately 50 books-on-tape that have a voice reading the story while students listen and look at the pages. At this center, each student has a responsibility that changes on a daily basis. These responsibilities include being in charge of the tape player, choosing a book, putting materials away, or holding the book up for everyone to view. 

Many skills are being practiced in this center. Students are learning responsibility, learning to work together and help each other, and being exposed to higher level text. At this age/grade level, most students will not be individually reading texts that look like this. By listening to books-on-tape, students are being exposed to new vocabulary and expression, while still listening to age appropriate stories. 

As your students are growing as readers, it is still so important for them to be read to. I am so happy to see the excitement in their faces when they read by themselves, and they should keep practicing individually, but listening to an adult read is still a crucial part of their reading development. It may be a good idea to make a reading schedule at home, so your student gets to read to you, but also gets stories read to them as well. 

We are also going to begin using TumbleBooks at our listening station! Look for a post in the near future showing step-by-step how to access the thousands of books available to you online!

Our Fall Leaf Collections

Check out these AMAZING fall leaf collections the Crew Members did! We used our senses to see how the leaves smelled, looked, felt, and sounded. We recorded our observations, and then decorated the hallway with our nature creations!