Shapes and Kinesthetic Learning

In math this week we are learning about shapes!  On Tuesday I asked my students to try to make certain shapes with their body and this led to one of my students getting some volunteers to lay on the floor as he explained how to lay down and make a triangle!  It was awesome!  So, we split up into groups and laid down to make shapes:

 Square

 Triangle

 Circle (or at least an attempt)

 Not really sure why my pictures all turned upside down when I added them into blogger... Sorry if it's messing with your eyes!!

Then today I took out some long circles of string that I use every year for this activity.  Small groups used the string to make different shapes! It was really fun and one of those perfect lessons that you wish your assistant principal could walk in and see- well, she did! YES! ha!

Rectangle (they couldn't figure out how to have the 3rd person help with this...)

A Beautiful Triangle!

Square

 We had a great time, did some kinesthetic learning, and learned to work with others!

In other news: a huge THANK YOU to my coworker Kristen who gave me an idea for transitioning between centers.  Those boys of mine were great at cleaning up when the timer went off, but would end up wandering around instead of staying at their center and pointing to their next one.  SOOOO Kristen's idea was to have them put their hands on their head and freeze when the timer goes off, then listen to directions, then clean, then point.  We started today and IT WORKED!!  They handled the transition very well today! It's Amazing what having them freeze and listen before cleaning will do!