Color words have been our focus in reading groups these past two weeks. We focused on the spelling patterns -ee, -ay, and -ow. Some of the color word activities included building each word with Play-Doh, reading multiple emergent readers with color words, covering color words with color stickers to create a rainbow gum ball machine, and color the illustrations in our readers to match the color words in the text. We incorporate coloring into many of our activities. Coloring has an important place in child development. It provides an opportunity to practice and develop many skills such as concentration, fine motor and coordination for early writing skills and correct finger grip.

We have been working hard this month on our addition math study unit…we have used many different manipulatives such as marbles and unifix cubes to learned the fundamentals of addition.  According to learning theory based on psychologist Jean Piaget’s research, children are active learners who master math concepts by progressing through three levels of knowledge–concrete, pictorial, and abstract. When children use manipulatives it allows them to explore addition at the concrete level. When students manipulate objects to solve addition problems, they are taking the first steps toward building understanding and internalizing math processes and procedures.  They will then use the base knowledge to develop more sophisticated problem-solving strategies in the future.

What color is the Recycling Bin?

We have been working on learning to read the color words during the month of April and it continues this week…earth day style!  What Color is YOUR recycle bin?

We continued working on color words as well as patterning during our reading groups today.  Color words are a great addition to your basic sight word list if you child is ready!