Sorting Seeds

Knitting is not just about plains and pearls....it is also about intense focus and drive to DO, recovering from your mistakes, holes and tangles, co-ordinating fingers, eyes and feelings, making choices (which colour would look good next to this blue Lynne?), patience (some children would knit from 9-3), communication and self-esteem. Who would ever believe it?

So before we moved to the classroom this morning 'the knitters' were busy around the lunch table. One lucky mother even joined in as well.....

I had noticed that the floor was looking like it could do with a good vacuum, so 27 busy children started their day with counting...the number of pieces of wool, grass, beeswax, thread, twigs etc they could find on the carpet. I asked for a minimum of 20 pieces, more if they could find them. After the floor had been finger-vacuumed until it was spotless I then asked the children to tell me how many pieces they had found. These numbers were recorded on the blackboard, then added up with great concentration and delight by the whole class/individuals. We used a process of 'counting on' ie 17 count on 5 more =. The grand total was 1, 237. One child was chosen to read this impressively (for a class 1 child) large number. Which he did.

An impressive amount of 'fluff' indeed!

A half hour Music lesson with Noni and Peter followed: recorder playing, song singing.

Recess

Show and Tell

In our Maths activities lesson we revisited the story so far this week......

Farmer George has made a new garden up at his farm in the Misty Mountains.

 Pippin the pixie and the banana flower fairies have also been doing some gardening. 

Today, much to his surprise, Farmer George discovered that lots of seeds had fallen out of their packets and were all mixed up. 

Pippin offered to get the banana flower fairies to help sort out the seeds into their different groups. The children experienced this at first hand when they were given a large sheet of paper and a handful of clear, coloured counters. The counters were sorted into colour groups, the number recorded next to each group and then the total for ALL groups added together recorded in a box on the page. The amount of mathematical language and mathematical skills that accompanied this activity as the children began sorting and recording was probably as much as the amount of fluff on the carpet!

Lunch

Rest and story from the Isabel Wyatt book 'King Beetletamer'.

Knitting and a fallen tooth!

Angel wings folded. Home Time song.