Tag Archives: Kingore

One More Time: Analogies with Mrs. Berger

We had one more Kingore lesson this past week with Mrs. Berger.  This time it was analogies.  Man, these can be hard for first graders, but like with most every time, we had some great examples before we got started.  We tried some together (with pictures to help us out!) and then she read to book Animalogies to us, which was written by some other kids and involved analogies that were all about animals!

And…just like last time, we smelled brownies!  What great opportunities we’ve had with Mrs. Berger to think in a new way, stretch our brains a bit and show how creative we are! We will definitely continue to put these skills to work in the classroom as we go forward in first grade! 🙂

Another Kingore Lesson: Pentominoes

We have visited Mrs. Berger many times recently to stretch our brains and show our ability and creativity.  Recently we went to work on pentominoes puzzles.  Basically, a pentomino is a plastic piece (labeled with a letter name because of its shape), made of 5 small squares.  They can all fit together to make a rectangle, but can also be used to create other shapes and designs.  That was our job on this day. 🙂

After the explanation and some “try-its” together, we got to work, using our grit and perseverance to figure out the puzzles on the sheets Mrs. Berger gave us.  Some of them were really hard, and you had to turn the piece around and around and over to make it fit.  We were all able to do it, though, and the smiles on faces when they got it were priceless.  I heard so many “yes!”‘s and it made me smile, too. 🙂

Perhaps the best part was when we figured out what our class grit smells like (which you can smell in the room when we’re all working hard and using it!): chocolate chip brownies right out of the oven. 🙂

Another Kingore Lesson: Patterns!

We went back to Mrs. Berger for another lesson–this time it was patterns.  We started on the circle rug by the big screen first and tried out some growing and repeating patterns together.

After we did some SUPER thinking together, we showed what we could do on our own papers.  Some of the patterns were tricky, but we were dedicated to working hard, using our grit and pushing through to the end.  We did a GREAT job!

Two more to go!  Stay tuned to see more of our super first grade thinking!

Pentominoes!

This week we went to visit Mrs. Berger on Thursday instead of Friday. And this week our Kingore lesson was on pentominoes!!

In case you’ve never heard of them, pentominoes look like this:

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Mrs. Berger explained about the pentominoes, and then about our job: use the pieces that are shown and fit them into the outline on each page.  This was a tricky deal, and they got harder on each page.  We had to use our grit (which smells like cookies, remember??) and try, try again if it didn’t work the first time.  We had to turn and rotate our pentominoes so they fit, and often it wasn’t the way we first thought they’d go.  We had to use our positive self-talk to remind ourselves that we could do it, and I thnk at one point I even heard someone growl.  Ok, well, she said “grrr!” which is maybe what her grit sounds like! LOL

After we finished (which was after about 15 minutes), kiddos got to do whatever they wanted with their pentominoes for a little while.  Man, where they creative!  Many noticed that two pieces seemed to stick together and they looked like a microphone.  This was a big hit.

Then I saw lots of animals, people and just creative shapes emerge.

What fun and challenge we had with Mrs. Berger today!  We never cease to stretch our brains when we work with her!

Ten Black Dots

One of the great things that happens at the beginning of first grade is a series of Kingore lessons that Mrs. Berger comes to do with all of our classes.  We gather together 6 times, doing a variety of different types of thinking over the course of the lessons.  The first one was related to the book Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews.

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In short, the lesson asks kids to think outside the box, and create a picture using 10 black dots (or in our case they were red or green circles!).

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First Mrs. Berger read the book to us.

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I had to try it out first. And man…it’s hard work thinking like that on your feet in front of a rug full of kiddos! She didn’t tell me she was going to ask me to do this, so the “thinking face” I have on is a real one!

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I started by putting my dots all in a group, and suddenly an idea came into my head.

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Mrs. Berger challenged me to add some details so that my audience could tell for sure what my picture was. I added some lines on my circle. Can you tell what it is yet?

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A few more details…

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My finished Ten Dot picture: a pizza! I know–kind of an obvious choice. This was a HARD job! Wait til you see what our kiddos came up with….:)

Kiddos were then asked to count out 10 dots from a bag, and get to work on their own Ten Dot creation.  I’m excited to share their CREATIVE thinking:

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How is that for a showcase of some AMAZING thinking?!  I’m trying not to be embarrassed that I made a pizza….:)  GREAT job, Rm. 202 kids!