Studying shapes this month has allowed the children to use their morning activity time to talk about and reinforce the shapes that are "ALL AROUND US!". The children enjoy identifying the shapes and even singing the songs as they work with the different activities. When they put together what they have learned during our lesson time to what they are doing in "real-life" events, they are making strong connections, and are showing the understanding of concepts and material that we discuss and work on. It is so exciting to see! 
The children usually work on something alone, unless it is an activity that they haven't done before. I then have one-on-one time with them to give a "mini-lesson", watch them try out the new knowledge as they work independently and to make sure they understand the concept and are ready to work on and eventually master the activity on their own. There are activities that the children can work on in pairs if they desire --- and today we tried 3 children on one activity...I remembered why it's a better idea to limit such activities to two children! They enjoyed themselves a lot - which is what I want to happen while they are working! -- however when more children work together it is harder to remember that we use inside voices so everyone can concentrate and enjoy the quiet time of gathering in the morning...
The children usually work on something alone, unless it is an activity that they haven't done before. I then have one-on-one time with them to give a "mini-lesson", watch them try out the new knowledge as they work independently and to make sure they understand the concept and are ready to work on and eventually master the activity on their own. There are activities that the children can work on in pairs if they desire --- and today we tried 3 children on one activity...I remembered why it's a better idea to limit such activities to two children! They enjoyed themselves a lot - which is what I want to happen while they are working! -- however when more children work together it is harder to remember that we use inside voices so everyone can concentrate and enjoy the quiet time of gathering in the morning...having 3 happy friends together was much too tempting although the giggles that came from the table were so fun to hear, but even better was when they all started to "practice" their song, 'I Am a Child of God' - that was incredibly precious! 
The above activity I switch around between having these beads to "thread" onto pipe cleaners or having large polished rocks that the children spoon from a main big bowl, into small dishes/bowls. Whatever is in the bowl, the activity works on hand-eye coordination, small gross motor skills, and when the children are interested they can begin to count the rocks/beads or put them into patterns...all beginning math skills! 
I'm going to use the next two children, and their activities, as examples of what we work on and how the children work on mastering the desired skills, and then once mastered how we will extend the activity so they continue to progress and move onto another level that will continue to stretch their abilities, imagination, and overall desire to keep learning and exploring!:
The above activity I switch around between having these beads to "thread" onto pipe cleaners or having large polished rocks that the children spoon from a main big bowl, into small dishes/bowls. Whatever is in the bowl, the activity works on hand-eye coordination, small gross motor skills, and when the children are interested they can begin to count the rocks/beads or put them into patterns...all beginning math skills! I'm going to use the next two children, and their activities, as examples of what we work on and how the children work on mastering the desired skills, and then once mastered how we will extend the activity so they continue to progress and move onto another level that will continue to stretch their abilities, imagination, and overall desire to keep learning and exploring!:
Ella has chosen other activities throughout the past month, but she works on these pattern blocks and pictures at some point each day. At first she was able to do one or two pictures during the time she set aside to work on these, but now because she has chosen this activity multiple times, she is able to pick and choose the shapes and identify where they go much more quickly, so that she has all 6 picture boards done well within the activity time. The next step will be to show and encourage her how to take the shapes and using her imagination and creativity to create pictures without the ideas and shape-matching provided from the picture boards. This will allow her to create and work on geometric shapes - which she won't realize that is what she is learning, when she is creating and enjoying seeing all her new and interesting shapes! Learning is SO cool!
Zack has discovered and LOVES this Thomas the Train puzzle. He usually starts out with some other activity, but inevitably he will take this puzzle over to the train table and spreads it out to work on it. The first few times I stayed with him, talking through and having a "mini-lesson" on how to look for pictures that are separated...when you see pieces that have the same color, or have pictures that look like they belong together we would try to put them together, trying different ways to hold the puzzle and fit it into the openings. Sometimes he had success and other times he began to realize that there might be multiple pieces that are the same color and look like they could go together. The wonderful thing is that today (1/28) Zack pulled out the puzzle and did it entirely on his own! He didn't turn to ask for help as other times before, but was excited to show that he knew how to do this puzzle...he had it mastered! Now for this activity, the way to extend this is to introduce another puzzle while he has the excitement to try this activity, and see how he applies the same knowledge of puzzles to a new one that he has never done or seen before. We will introduce a new one on Wednesday and see if he is ready to try it, or if he'd rather wait for another time to try it out...either way, he had success and was excited to see that with practice and patience he figured out how to do this puzzle. Way to go Zack! 
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