Kickstart at GSAC: week three update

In our class, there are several kids who are what we call "cp-knowers" (which means they understand the concept of a group of items having a total), some who can recite the count list without understanding cardinality (if I ask "so how many are there?" they answer "1-2-3-4!" instead of "4"), and some whose counting skills deteriorate past 3.

I've been playing Monster Math, Panda Palace, and Pizza Math (all from Anna's cognitive development lab and affiliated preschool math endeavors) with the kids at our "Games" (alias "Math") center. The kids love the games, and those whose skills were shaky two weeks ago have begun to show significant improvement.

Panda Palace, a math game based off of the book of the same title, the kids have to count the number of animals in a certain "party" and then find the card with the corresponding number of place settings so that the animals can be seated at the restaurant. For example, a child has to count the five monkeys before searching for the table with five plates. Today, A matched all of the tables and groups perfectly with almost no coaching from me. We finished playing right when her grandmother arrived to pick her up, and she had the hugest, proudest smile on her face. This week, L (who has shown incredible improvement in his math skills just two weeks) has played both Monster Math and Panda Palace and been incredibly proud of himself when he finished each game. He has trouble concentrating, so I've been working with him outside of our classroom to eliminate possible distractions. When he's able to focus, he gets totally excited and engaged in the game.

Yesterday, we joined our Macdonough friends for an amazing field trip to KidCity, a seriously phenomenal local children's museum. The kids had a blast - we played in the spaceship room, the apple orchard, the fishery, the restaurant, the video theater, the lake house, and the music room. Check out Andy's photos at this link!

A favorite story from the past week: I assigned G to Games on the day we were playing Pizza Math. Before we even started, she got teary, saying, "Ms. Sydney, I can't play Pizza Math! (hiccup) "I'm just - hiccup not that kind of kid!" I brought her over to the table and told her that she could watch ME play Pizza Math and join in whenever she was ready. She ended up deciding that the blue, green and red "toppings" (tiny clay circles) were blueberries, cucumbers and strawberries, respectively, and gleefully "baked" several well-counted pizzas.

And finally, one of our biggest successes so far: K, our most bashful kid, has finally begun to get up and dance during our good morning song! Hooray!