We really enjoy the small group time of centers, as it targets the exact area of instruction for groups with similiar abilities. In the ususal format, there are two independent stations, which require kids to focus on applying their knowledge of literacy or math skills independently. The third station is formatted around direct instruction from the teacher in literacy awareness.

1.Make a Splash:This station has two parts, the first task is to complete the number line that is full of omissions....Once completed, the Black Bats partner up and play the card game of compare, which reviews our knowledge of greater than and less than.

2. Money in the Bank: Kids play with REAL pennies and special dice with word numbers to build up the money in their bank. At the end we count our pennies and the once with the most wins. A challenge extension is to trade in your pennies for more valuable coins.

3.Literacy with the Teacher: We are back at it with word families! The Black Bats now know- "if you can make one word in a family, you can make at least four or five! Hop, cop, mop, flop, slop....The fun never ends!

We really enjoy the small group time of centers, as it targets the exact area of instruction for groups with similiar abilities. In the ususal format, there are two independent stations, which require kids to focus on applying their knowledge of literacy or math skills independently. The third station is formatted around direct instruction from the teacher in literacy or mathematic awareness.

1.Egg Carton Math:This game makes working on simple addition problems fun. Each student has a empyt egg carton with the numbers 0-11 written in each hole in random order. There are two beans inside. The child shakes the carton, opens it up and creates the math sentence based on what number the beans landed on. Very fun, not predictable, and a fun game to play at home!

2. Rhyming with miniatures: A small group plays together and pulls small maupulatives from a box. They need to distiguish where the object should go. For example, a spool (of thread) should go in the circle with the picture of the pool and so forth.

3.Teacher station: This week, the direct instruction took a math turn. We are really spending some time on place value. Since we are still in the beginning stages, we thought it best to play the game "Place Value Stew" with the help of a teacher to make sure we were understanding this concept! The Black Bats are very intrigued in this higher-level thinking (and first grade) math skill!

We really enjoy the small group time of centers, as it targets the exact area of instruction for groups with similar abilities. In the usual format, there are two independent stations, which require kids to focus on applying their knowledge of literacy or math skills independently. The third station is formatted around direct instruction from the teacher in literacy or mathematics awareness.

1.Candy Shoppe:The Black Bats continue to work with money in this week's game, The Candy Shoppe.  Kids pick certain pieces of candy that cost different amounts and go to the cash register to pay. They use only pennies to pay at first. Once they have paid with pennies, it is their partner's turn, the cashier to trade the pennies if for coins worth more. The students go back and forth between roles in this game. 

2. Ending sounds with miniatures: A small group plays together and pulls small manipulatives from a box. They need to distinguish where the object should go. The objective is to match items that end in the sound sound. For example, a dog would go in the same category as pig, and so forth.

3.Teacher station: We continued with math this week, and specifically followed up with more work in place value. The kids used dominoes to "create" a two-digit number. Then, they would illustrate using the base ten block method to "show the number." Base ten blocks use single cubes to represent "one" and a tower or rod to represent 'ten."