Reflections from a Kindergarten Lesson (Part 2)

After a lunch break and change of teachers, we experienced our afternoon model lesson. Here we continued to look at kindergarteners and how to all students to own their learning through Math Workshop. There were many similar thoughts and reflections from the morning groups of teachers.

Model Lesson: Afternoon Session

In this unit, students will be exploring measurement by developing strategies for measuring the length of an object. Students will practice recording their measurements. 

Model Lesson: Kinder Unit 4 Session 1.3
Date: November 17th, 2016
Presenter: Dr. Sandy Fluck

Math Workshop (Investigations Style)

Math Workshop is designed to:

• Provide students with repeated experience with the concepts being learned and time to practice important skills and refine strategies. 
• Provide time for the teacher to work with individual students and small groups and to assess students' learning and understanding. 
• Help students develop independence and learn to take responsibility for their own learning as they choose activities, keep track of their work, use and take care of classroom materials, and work with others.

Setting up the Lesson & Math Workshop

The opening and closing discussions are a critical part to the day's lesson. In this conversation, Dr. Fluck was asking students to consider how to measure the strip of paper. Students shared a few different ways:

Should they be lined up (up and down) and lined up across the strip (picture on the left)? or 

Should they be lined up around the edges of the paper strip (picture on the right)? 

Asking questions that guide students to think about which method might be better here is a challenging task, yet critical in allowing students problem solve.

In Kindergarten, teachers may feel the need to provide structures and support for students to engage in independent learning through Math Workshop. While grade level, class size, physical space, students population and management styles are all factors in designing a Math Workshop for your classroom, do not be afraid to give students full access to choice.


The video above demonstrates a lesson where students engaged in Math Workshop with complete control over the activities they chose for themselves. The introduction to the lesson provides the structure and expectations for Math Workshop. The picture to the right shows the students the 4 options for activities during workshop time:

1. Counting Jar
2. Measure paperstrips A, B, & C (with craft sticks)
3. Measure footprints (with snapcubes)

One the concepts the students will explore through the Unit is measuring various things using different units of measure - some big some small. Students will be ask to think about how many small units it takes compared to how many big units it takes. Which will take more units and why?
Asking students the question early in the unit allows students to begin to think about it and consider it as they gain more and more experiences measuring different items.

Classroom Layout & Manipulatives Management

Every classroom is different in regards to layout and space. However, consider how you can place manipulatives so that students can gather and cleanup manipulatives themselves. For the model classroom, the materials were either on a table or at the front of the classroom. Students selected their materials and were able to work either on the carpet (Counting Jar and measuring footprints ) or at the table (measuring paper strips). In addition, you may consider using various tubs, cups, plastic bags or bins to store manipulatives and materials that allows students self-manage their materials.

Measuring Footprints

Students used snap cubes to measure pre-drawn footprints. Snapcubes were located in one large bin in the middle of the carpet area for everyone to use. Students collected a footprint paper from the table and sat on the carpet to measure and record.

Monitoring Students

The teacher's role during math workshop is to walk around and monitor student progress. Many Investigation sessions provide Assessment Checklists or questions to guide teachers in what to look for.
There is a careful balance between guided students and allowing students to make discoveries on their own.

The picture to the right shows students measuring their own feet (which they did earlier in the week). However, today students needed to measure pre-drawn footprints that students had brought in from home.
While you may check for understanding before releasing students to Math Workshop time, there may be a need to check-in with each group or "station". Guiding students to stay on track to the goal of the activity may involve careful questioning so that students problem-solve themselves, or you may need to correct off-task activities.

The Counting Jar

The Counting Jar is a very important classroom routine that support students' Number Sense. While Number Sense is a cognitive skill that is related to brain development, young students need plenty of experiences and a variety throughout the year to target where they are at developmentally.
Students are working on a variety of skills that impact Number Sense:

• one-to-one correspondence
• number conservation
• number sequence
• cardinality
• subitizing

When students are counting objects from the counting jar, can they:

• count in number sequence
• count each object once (1:1 correspondence)
• know how many (total) 
• represent the quantity with a numeral
• represent the quantity with the same number of a different object

Measuring and Recording

Keeping track of student sheets can be a lot of work. There may be piles of papers everywhere is your classroom. What might be some solutions to managing all the student papers? Here are a few suggestions. Consider what might work in your classroom and tweak it to fit you and your students.
Possible ideas:

• using a student folder
• "station" bins for done work
• math notebook

Lesson Closure: The Discussion

Probably the most important part of the lesson is the closure discussion. Here students share what they noticed. As mathematicians, we are always looking for patterns. What did you notice about today's math investigations?
It may also  be a time to just listen. Listen to what your students notice about the activities. Used this information to inform how to move forward with tomorrow's math time. It may guide you in what the emphasis might be in your work.
In the discussion, you can also gather students insights and expand on them to provide students the formal understanding for the lesson.
There are a variety of purposes to the discussion time. Use the "Ongoing Assessment Questions" and the "Discussion Check-in" to guide your conversations. Each session included these two components.