One of these things is not like the others...

I just had to share this story, because it is a great example of what kids can do when you let them be creative.

The other day, I took my new sea creature math manipulatives to my kindergarten math groups, and I told the kids in each group to sort their pile of animals however they wanted. There are six different colors included in the mix and about fourteen animal shapes (although I would question whether some of them are really sea creatures. Tree frogs? Penguins?) Of the 30 kindergarteners who participated, most of the kids sorted their animals by color, and a few kids figured out that they could group all of the same animals together.

During one of my groups, however, one girl was busy sorting long after the others had finished. She had been asking questions while she worked, such as what some of the animals ate, but I wasn't paying close attention. When it came time for the students to share their method of sorting, she identified her piles of animals as "meat eaters" and "scaly animals." And I had to admit that she was correct! All of the animals in the "meat eater" pile did eat meat--even the seahorse, which eats teeny tiny fish--and all of the "scaly animals" did have a rough outer covering, or at least I could see how she thought they would feel scaly (this group included the turtle, stingray, and starfish).

I just love when kids surprise me with those unexpected moments of creativity and with amazingly perceptive responses. It's so great when they can think outside the box like that!

Writing about Animals

Blogging during the school year is harder than I expected! I have done a great job of documenting students' work and saving pictures in iPhoto, but I can't ever remember to post them on here.

I love creating enrichment projects for first grade, just little things that they can work on in their free time, and this year's group is just doing an awesome job with these projects! One activity I've given them is to imagine a day in the life of an animal. I have a box of animal names written on slips of paper, and they have to reach in and select an animal. I wasn't sure how well they would do at this, since they have to think from the perspective of an animal and then write about it--two things that are hard for first grade--but they are really blowing me away with their responses! Here are some of their stories:

"Slizzer"... how cute is that?!