Numbers as Drawings

Kailyn came over to where a group of children was playing the Number Matching Lotto game with a teacher. She quickly picked up the rules of the games, and started identifying the number cards when they came up. First she drew a zero card, a very tricky card. "It's an O," she said. "O is zero."
Her next card was a seven. She counted the objects on the card, correctly stating the total as seven. "Its seven!" she declared.
In that proofs are the essense of math, her teacher asked, "How do you know?"
Kailyn traced a seven in the air, explaining, "Because a seven looks like this!"
She continued playing until she filled her card, and beamed when her friends sang her the BINGO song.
Kailyn has developed several important math concepts. She knows that one object corresponds to one number, is recognizing several numbers, and is even able to write some numbers when shown an example!

Kailyn Looking for Spring

A few weeks ago, with great hope in our hearts, the Turtles began to search for signs of Spring - but no one as wholeheartedly as Kailyn. She has an awareness of and interest in the natural world that makes every walk outside with her an adventure. Kailyn notices the tiniest changes in the trees and plants around us, and has a curiosity that compels her to question the how's and why's of her environment. Since we have begun to learn about buds and seeds, Kailyn has found new growth everywhere, and has collected an impressive number of seeds and seed pods. On this day, she found some buds with seeds that had blown down from a nearby tree and excitedly brought them over to examine with her teacher. She carried them with her the entire time we were outside, because she wanted us to bring them inside to look at with the magnifying glass. 

I Want to Draw this Kitty

Yesterday, Kailyn chose this photo to represent the "Colorful Kitten" character that she had proposed for the book we are working on. This morning, she asked me where the picture was, and then spent a long time just looking at it. Eventually, she came over and told me, "I want to draw this kitty, will you help me?" I told her I'd help her with my words, and we began to talk about what shapes she saw. With some assurance that we saw the same things, Kailyn made this beautiful drawing - using her "artistic license" to chose colors for the stripes. Kailyn has grown progressively more confident in her abilities and takes a great deal of pride in the art she produces. The kitten she  immediately hung up on the classroom wall.

Turtle Stories

"One day the Treasure Box was gone! One day the teachers were looking for the Treasure Box. One day everything was walking. And papers don't walk, and they were walking! The Treasure Box was not walking. He was at the window and noone grabbed it. The teachers said, 'Its cold outside and we can't go outside because it is cold!' The Treasure Box was walking and then it was flying in the clouds and it was on top of the cloud. And then something bumped it! And the teacher said, 'Where's our Treasure Box?' Now what happened to the Treasure Box? The Treasure Box was far away. They couldn't find it far away. And then I found it! It was at the beach! It was resting with a pillow. And then it talked. It was alive! We can't put stuff in it. We can't put anything in it. We only can put paper, not toys.
"Someone cut the Treasure Box. Someone cut the Trueasure Box in half and we can't have it anymore. And then he saw a piece of paper and everything was still working and it was squishing everybody. And then a piano was just standing there. And then everything squished and squished everybody. We didn't have room for our classroom and it just stayed squished. And then it exploded. Bukka bukka boom boom!"

Turtle Story

One day there was a unicorn and then he have a castle too like the little turtles. The unicorn named Kailyn and he was playing a puzzle and he had to go to the bathroom. And then he was painting a picture of a flamingo. And then he painted a picture of a squirrel, then I didn't know how to so someone helped me. So that's how you make a squirrel.

Kailyn - The Dancer!

On this day, the girls were excited to try out one of their holiday gifts - Kinect. It keeps the family active on dreary indoor days... This is Kailyn trying it for the first time. They love to dance, and this one just makes you smile.

Kailyn - The Dancer! from Crissy Caceres on Vimeo.

Pattern Block Designs

Kailyn has been exploring the new magnetic pattern blocks, and has been making different animals. On this day, she began with the grey diamonds, and built around them. "I make a bird," Kailyn said, "with his feathers spread down."

"Kailyn, what shapes are you using to make your bird?" her teacher asked.
"I'm making feather shapes. Its like a feather or a diamond," Kailyn explained.
 Kailyn's artistic talents were stretched in a new direction with this new medium, and she used her strong representational skills to create new forms out of the shapes.