Week 13 - Monday

Circle time:
As described in earlier circle time post
Letter of the week: M and N
Theme of the week: Money and Numbers

Arts & crafts:
Today the kids made piggy banks from recycled nut cans. I cut a slot into the plastic lid and they decorated the outside of the cans with shape stickers and letter stickers to spell their names. They also glued on sparkly $ symbols as well!




Free play at stations:
None.

Story time:
One, Two, Three by Boynton
Fraggle Countdown by Muntean/Hearn
Ten Apples Up On Top! by LeSieg/McKie

Cooperative game:
Mille Bornes. This is Gabe's new favourite game and fit in nicely with our numbers theme!

Science experiment:
This week's science theme: M is for Magnets.

Magnet Fun
Today I introduced the kids to magnets and how much fun they can be! First I explained to them the concepts of "North pole" and "South pole" as they relate to magnets and then let them experiment with trying to approach two magnet ends with the same polarity and then two ends with different polarities. I then spread out a bunch of objects (buttons, bells, craft jewels, paperclips, pompoms and nickels) and had them hypothesize and then test which objects would be attracted by their magnets and which would not. We then talked about how the materials that an object is made from will determine weather or not a magnet can pick it up.



Physical activity:
Outdoor play in the back yard.


Outing/social time:
Library visit.
8 of our 15 selections were theme related books:

The Berenstain Bears' Trouble With Money by Berenstain/Berenstain
It's Not What You've Got by Dyer/Tracy/Budnick
Arthur Accused! by Brown
Usborne First Numbers by Litchfield/Brooks
A Dollar for Penny by Glass/Allen
Counting Money by Dalton
Spunky Monkey's on Parade by Murphy/Cravath
The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Watermelon Money by Berenstain/Berenstain

Worksheets:
Coloring M and N word pictures, tracing letters M and N, tracing M and N words, writing name, matching picture to beginning letter, counting and finding numeral, tracing numeral 5, matching coin to number value, cutting various curved lines.

Hands on math:
Today for math we tested out the probability theory that when flipping a coin, heads and tails will come up equally as often over multiple tosses. We each flipped a coin 10 times and recorded our results each time. The results were pretty consistent (Gabe: 5h/5t, Nicki 4h/6t, Roxy 6h/4t, Me 4h/6t) for a total of 19h/21t - pretty close to a 50/50 split!

Computers:
Money and numbers games on the iPad.
Money: Money Swipe, Money & Change Game HD Lite, Coin Loot HD, Coins Sports Free, Flickochet Lite.
Numbers: 123 Numbers, 1 to 10 Lite, Mathaliens, Kidpedia, IWW Lite, as well as the number components of ABC Letters and Alphabet Tracing.

Music:
Danced and sang to our Money and Numbers theme compilation cd.

French:
French is emphasized throughout the entire day; especially theme related words. Today we practiced answering two questions: "C'est quoi ton nom?" when someone asks them their name and "Quel age as-tu?" when someone asks them how old they are. We also continued to reinforce all of the notions that we covered in previous weeks and will continue to practice these sentences all week.