Teacher Richa's first blog with lots of help from Jennifer........

Last week in the Purple Room, the kids were counting at the math station and practicing one-to-one correspondence. It is a foundational skill on which other math skills will be building later. It is a skill that needs repetition and abstract thinking, since it is not just rote learning and recitation.

They each had a mat with numbers from 1 to 9 and were to count out the counters to put on each square. Some of the older kids are starting to get that concept and the younger ones are just getting ready. They have to still learn that 2 is less than 5 and should have fewer counters than 5. The three children at the table in this picture are at very different developmental stages...

Learning to spell………..

In this picture, A. is  learning to spell, trying to spell out her sister's name. She started by sounding out the name and got the first 3 letters of her sister’s name…Yeah!

At the same time, some of the younger kids are exploring these letters too. They weren't ready to sound out words. Instead, they linked letters together and asked the teachers to read the made-up word. This, too, is a step in learning basic phonics and word-building concepts.

Reggio-inspired programs incorporate exploration everywhere, even into phonics and learning to spell. Hooray for Purple room :)

- Teacher Richa