My “Instagram Friday” post is a bit late this week. There is lots happening at school, so I got a little behind with my blog posts but I hope to be back on track by next week. Here is a look back on some of my Instagram posts from this past week:

This invitation to draw allowed students to closely look at the roses and to draw what they saw. I love their creations and it was a great way to introduce the art supplies to our students. They were able to use pencils, pencil crayons, crayons, or oil pastels. If there was a colour or supply they wanted, but was not at the table, they were encouraged to get it from the art shelf. I hope to be able to continue to encourage our students to create and draw using a variety of materials.

During the first few weeks of school, we focus on students writing their names. This center encouraged them to use the different alphabet materials to build their name. In this tray: braille alphabet tiles, letter rocks, letter wood slices, and alphabet lima beans. I made name tile cards for students to use to match the letters in their names (from here), and these helped a lot with students who do not yet know how to spell their names. They also use them when they have to write their name on their work, they can bring it over to the table to help them remember how to write each letter in their name.

Since it is the beginning of the year, we started off our math loose parts center with simple items and simple provocations. The number formation cards were great for helping students make each number and they can be found in my Number Sense activity pack.

After working on simple number sense activities, we moved on to showing numbers in a ten frame. After a large group discussion about what a ten frame is and how to fill one in, students were invited to fill in ten frames on their own. The ten frame cards can also be found in my Number Sense activity pack, and the Number 1-20 Posters (numbers 11-20 are on the back) are available in my store also.