K1 Prep 7-10-18

I love teaching young learners.  They had so much fun this morning drawing what their family looks like when they go swimming.  We're already getting better at holding our pencils correctly and our drawing skills are so much improved from even last week.

 Our reading lessons went really smoothly today.  There are about a ZILLION skills that one must master when they are learning to read.  You have to look at the words, focus on one letter at a time, make the sounds, use your finger to help your eyes track, listen to the sound you're making, and put it all together.  Some of the key lessons from today included:

1. When you see a letter by itself as a word we say its name (example: a, I)
2. The first letter in a sentence is capitalized and indicates the start of a sentence.
3. A sentence ends with a period - which means "stop", or "the end"
4. New sight words were added 
5. Practice with new word families (this went so much better this week)
6. CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) word practice
7. Introduction of adjectives

Here is the beginning reading lesson from today, please practice it at home if your child has a matching page in their binder.

 This week in math we're talking about 2D and 3D shapes and location words.  Today we reviewed and learned the main shape names and then played "I spy" using shape words.

 We also pulled out the shape blocks and were able to talk about the number of faces on 3D shapes.  I do this by putting stickers with faces on each face of the block.  We can only add a new sticker if we go around a corner.

Summer Robotics 2 - Introduction to Coding

Summer Robotics 2 kicked off today with a bang!  Robotics 2 is an introduction to coding and is REALLY content heavy on day one.  Pat your kids on the back because they made it through a lesson on coding and a lesson on decimals BEFORE they got to play with their actual robots.  We reviewed the parts of a machine that make it a robot (computer, actuator, sensor) and shared our own robot brainstorms.  Then we headed into physical coding.  I introduce coding like baking a cake - you follow the recipe in order to make something yummy. 

Using our large floor mats kids split into two teams and made a pathway for their friends to follow.  They worked together to "write the code" with the code cards to help their friends get safely to the end.

Then we were able to practice the process of downloading code to Edison.  Once the code is written:

1. Make sure Edison is turned on

2. Plug Edison into the computer

3. Click the circle button on Edison ONE time

4. Click "Program Edison" on the computer

5. Click the pop up "Program Edison"

6. Listen for the correct sound that says it's uploaded

7. Unplug Edison

8. Set Edison down and press Play

Though we only played with programming Edison to drive forward for a variety of time and turn for differing lengths of time we surely had fun doing it.  The kids got a kick out of making Edison turn "forever" and "accidentally" driving him off the edge.  Our next two sessions will be chalk full of different code arrangements to teach Edison to do a variety of tricks.  I look forward to your children's creativity in the next couple of sessions!

Reading 101

As we start to teach kids to "sound out" words it's important to blend each sound to the next.  I can't stress enough how important it is to teach letter sounds without an added vowel after them. For example, the letter C says /c/ like /k/-at.  It does not say /cu/ like /cu/-at.  It's hard to understand from writing, but get the difference?  Cat vs. Cu-at.  Make the consonant sounds clearly without an added vowel ending and it will be so much easier to blend and read words that have any of the five vowels after a consonant. The video we took on Thursday is not very well positioned, so the audio is awesome, and my torso an feet are boring to look at.  Here is a look at a lesson from a few years ago that teaches the same concept.

Writing the Words we Say

As students are beginning to learn to write it's important to help them make the connection that they are saying words all day long.  When we write a word we are taking the sounds that our mouth makes when speaking and drawing the letters onto the paper.  Last week in K1 prep we began work in our journals by drawing our families.  We talked about how if you didn't write down who you drew then other people may not know.  We gathered together and worked out how to write the word Mom.  This is how that lesson went:

Summer Robotics 1 Wrap Up

Robotics 1 was so full of energy on day 2!  I love how they learned enough from day 1 to be able to jump right in to playing and exploring on day 2. One of the hardest parts of learning to use Edison is simply remembering which buttons to push and when in order to control him.  I was impressed with this group of kids coming right back into it and helping each other remember how to scan the program barcodes and make it play. 

 Day 2 of Robotics 1 reviews the three main parts of a robot (computer, sensors, actuators) and compares robots to remote controlled toys.  We had such a fun discussion about if certain machines were robots or just machines.  Then, we played with a remote controlled car and remote controlled dinosaur.  We mostly tried to make them fight each other.  That seemed like the obvious choice.  There were so many giggles and so much energy it was contagious. 

 After discussing robots versus remote controlled toys and machines we moved into programming more with Edison.  We programmed him to follow a light and to drive on a black line. We broke into teams and created maps for Edison to drive on. The kids worked so cooperatively on this project.

 At the end of the day we learned to have Edison bounce within drawn borders and then sumo wrestle another robot.  To wrap up our camp we talked about all the different things we learned and shared our favorite parts of the camp. We had an absolute blast learning and exploring robots together.  Every student took their robot home at the end of the day along with their workbook of barcodes.  I've already heard back from families that were amazed how much their child came home and talked their ears off about robots!

Thank you to this wonderful class for coming to play with me!

K1 Prep July 5th

I LOVED the second day of K1 Prep Camp.  It was amazing.  So many factors go in to why the second day of school is always better than the first.  We've all been together in a group, have been exposed to expectations, and are ready for routine to kick in.  We started off our day with writing, mostly because it's a fantastic skill that kids can get started on as they trickle in without missing a lesson.

Tip for your toolbox: Our young writers are still learning how to hold their writing tool correctly and the reality is that it requires an amount of fine muscle skills that develop just like other muscles.  They cramp and get easily tired.  Students that struggle often find that a crutch can help a ton to ease into the strength building while still having proper placement.  Use the lid of a marker or a small Lincoln Log inside the child's fist (last three fingers) while pinching the pen.  Have them hold the lid or Lincoln Log the whole time they are writing.  It works like magic if you're consistent and you'll find they don't need the crutch rather quickly.

 I wish you could all be a fly on my classroom wall.  In fact, I was telling this to my husband this evening.  There is a teacher side of me that is only brought out when a class is in a groove and would benefit from an incredibly over exaggerated teacher response. I'm dramatic.  And loud. And quiet. And, I tend to fall over and proclaim, "OH NO!  HE SAID HE CAN'T DO IT! That's what takes away super powers!" And then, do you want to know what happens?  Kids laugh, they think it's ridiculous, and they try the task at hand.  It ultimately makes the notion of "I can't do it" ridiculous.

 We had an awesome win in our writing today.  Using the concept of "Growth Mindset" we talk all day long about how we learn and grow by trying and sometimes making mistakes.  Our class is talking about drawing people.  The skill level varies and we have students drawing heads with stick arms and legs coming out of them all the way to students drawing amazing looking people.  We've talked about the shapes of our body parts (not sticks, rather circles and rectangles and ovals).  The sweet gal (pictured above) was really trying and when we conferenced we talked about how on the previous page the head took up the whole white space, so where would the body fit?  We talked about sizing and I offered a simple smaller drawing of a person.  I encouraged her to aim for that approximate size, and she did it!  We shared the success with the whole class about how sometimes we just need a little direction from a teacher and with some effort we can succeed. 

 We headed outside for snack, recess, and math.  We counted to 100 by ones and tens.  We used the 100 chart to talk about how we read two digit numbers.  The first is usually the number name followed by "ty" (think "forty") and then we say the second number in its usual way.

It appears that we don't have any pictures of our reading, but I sure got a lot of video of it.  After I pair it down I'll put together another post featuring some of our reading lesson.  We had an amazingly successful day.  Keep up the great work!

Summer Robotics 1

Teaching robotics is incredibly fun and because the kids are so engaged it's easy to guide them to explore all the things a new robot can do.  Camp started with everyone drawing what they would create if they were building a robot.  Then we shared our creations with the whole group.  Next we talked about what we knew about robots, what we wanted to learn about robots, and then did actual learning about the robots.

 I introduced our amazing Edison Bots from MeetEdison.com and showed the kids a picture of all the parts and controls before giving out robots.  We learned to unbox them safely (don't drop it!) and then explored all the buttons.

 Next we learned about coding the Edison Bot.  For this class we're using pre-planned code that is in barcode form.  We learned how Edison can scan the barcode and how we have to push play/go/start to make him perform the code.  Our first code was to have Edison respond to sound.  One clap and Edison would turn a quarter turn, two claps and Edison would drive forward a short distance.  This became super fun when we set up races against each other.  The second code that we programmed Edison to do was to avoid obstacles.  We put our hands and even our arms around Edison and found that he was trapped.  He'd get close to a "wall" and then back up and turn around to try a different direction.

 Even awesome roboticists need a big PE recess break.  After having snacks and climbing around in the backyard we were back at it again with the avoid obstacles code.  We used Legos to build walls and barriers for our robots.  Toward the end of our day each child was able to make an origami paper robot.  That was the quietest moment of our whole three hours together :). 

The last program that we taught Edison was to follow a flashlight.  We talked about where the sensors are and how the program works before setting kids free in the dark with flashlights and their Edison bots.  I think everyone had a fantastic time and I can't wait until Thursday!