Common Core Addition

Wow, I think it has been over a month!!

I took a little time off to assess last quarters goals, and then just to wrap my mind around all of this addition at this point in the year and how to make this work.  I will show you a few things that I have been trying, I am struggling with this because I am suppose to introduce addition, but I still have several children that do not have a true grasp of a number.  So now I have to teach them how to break down a number???  This is crazy, so I am trying daily to do something that will make sense to all of my friends.

I am using Domino Math and the Bowl Game.  Both of these I have used in the past, so I will put the link here.


I am also using a an old AIMS activity called Solve It!


Here is a cute teen bingo game that I will use to help reinforce our teen numbers.

This is from last year.  Here is the link to the file and here is the link to my blog.

I started addition with these story boards,  I started with little stories like "Sam saw two flies on the long, three more flew in, how many flies on the log?"  And this week we have bumped it up to "There were two logs in the forest, one log had three flies on it, the other log had the same, how many flies are on both logs?"  And then next week I think I will bump it up to one more or one less on the second log, etc.

Tic tac toe using teen numbers

 Roll a teen number (this link is to the 1-6, but I just used the same form and copied it front and back and changed the numbers to 2-12 since I am using two die now)

 Making teen numbers and here is link to last years blog.

And this download comes with a black line copy for the students to glue and a color copy that you can use the manipulative.  You could run them front and back and just use one with color that is very easy and then the one on the back all blank and it makes it a little harder.

I also use this cute song from You Tube between math tubs or before or after so I can set up or put away. 

I will continue to post slowly as I am trying to grasp all of these new changes!

Common Core Catch up. More or Less, comparing attributes and positional words

Since positional words kind of sneak their way in with shapes, I decided to pull out this little game.  Mister Mouse is a cute little game that just has the children put their bear on the picture of what they draw from the stack - like the mouse may be under the pumpkin, or above the pumpkin.

Jack be Nimble is a game working with matching sets.

And I am thinking about using this game I found a long time ago, for counting.   When they land on a number they have to count to that number.

Since Comparing Attributes is this week, I like to start with sorting.  I think I will sort things by color in a couple groups, like boats and bears.  Then the next day I will have the students sort by shape using my spaceships and then on the third day I will have them sort by size.  After they have this mastered, I will introduce these leaves to sort  I use baskets for the students to place these tags in front of and they sort together as a team.

The more or less game is a favorite of mine to teach and for the students to play.  They LOVE it, and it is so simple.  All you need is a mat (piece of felt), tape down the middle, unifix cubes and a cube with the words more and the word less on it.  Each student has a stick of 10 unifix cubes and they place it on their laps.  They say together, "One, two, three, break, one, two, three, show" and they place their pieces on the board.  Each child says what they have. "I have more, I have less" and then the person with less rolls the dice.  What ever word it lands on wins all the cubes on the board.  And they play again.  When they are all out of cubes or out of time, they lay all that they have on the board and say "I have more, I have less" And the one with less rolls and that roll determines who wins the games.

One of the new skills in Common Core is to count objects and to record the number.  So I decided to tie in shapes with this skill.  I filled brown bags with various shapes and made a check sheet that I will change each day.  Each bag has a label on it so the students will know how which bags they have counted.  Here is the sheet that I made up to go with this activity.  I hope this makes sense??

Geometry task cards are just a higher level thinking activity to secure their knowledge of shapes.

Enjoy!!  Lots to do, only three weeks left in this first quarter.

Understanding numbers

I have a student this year (well, we really have at least one like this every year) but she only recognizes number 1 and 2.  She does not have an understanding of 2 consistently or any number up to ten.  I send home a note explaining my concern (we have been working with numbers for six solid weeks!) and her mom said she was so shocked and she knew that this little girl knew how to add and subtract.
It really bothers me that parents truly do not understand the importantance of a basic KNOWledge of numbers.

Anyway . . . enough of that.  This week we will be working more with showing a number (0-10) in various ways.  We will also continue exploring and understanding shapes.



Here is an activity that will go with the Ratuki game I have later on in this blog.  The children will sort a number, tally marks, and hands that go together.  I need to cut these apart, but I wanted to show you the game.  I will just have the students work on this as a team.

Fall Leaf Bump - Just like the Rainbow Rump, this game will just be played with a roll, cover and bump if you roll the same as your friend.  If you have two unifix cubes on the same spot, you are locked in and no one can knock you off.

 I found this last year on Heidi songs blogspot.  It is just a cute quick assessment that the students will color after a teacher has checked that they can make a set for that number.  It takes several days to do, but you do have something to show for it when you finish.

 Pete the cat BUMP game - just something different.  I always hate using the same game board so I like to switch it up so they don't get bored.  Same concept, just a different look.

 Same game, but on this one they will play it by themselves and roll and color and not cover.  I ran this for the class for the beginning of the year, but I am just now getting to them.

This is an easy game to show a number several different ways.  I made the number rubs by punching out numbers out of posterboard and mounting them on a square piece of poster board.  The children are instructed to place the number under the piece of paper and rub it with a "naked" crayon.  Then they draw a line up, down, and off to the right and left.  Then they come up with four different ways you can represent the number.  Here I drew a dice, tally marks, a hand and four hearts.  They also could draw a domino, write the number word, or maybe even an addition problem.  They LOVE doing this and it is really great for number representation and sets.

Snake Ten Frame game - I think I will use this game as a gameboard and just have the students roll a dice and move to that spot and then tell the number the ten frame represents - quickly.  You can use unifix cubes for your pieces and dice can be bought at the Dollar Tree.

My students have really gotten into the Ratuki game.  I don't play it exactly like the directions, but here is what we do.  Each child gets a stack of cards, they take 3 cards off the top and hold them in their hands.  I put down a number one or something representing a one to start the game.  The next child lays down a card one number greater or one number less than the number down.  What a great higher level of thinking!  So the next person will put down a 2 or something representing 2.  You may also play a Ratuki card and then put down a number you would like to start with.  If a child does not have the card they need, then I just had them draw and continue to add to their hand until they had something to lay down.  The hardest thing with this game is that they are use to playing uno, and laying down cards that are the same.  The deck also has number word cards.  I left them in for the first couple of times, it was really neat to see some of the children use the word cards correctly.  I might take them out the next game.

Numbers, Numbers and shapes

I am moving this week to more sets and numbers.  We are still working on a number book in small groups in the morning, they are learning the poems and the correct way to write the number.  I am down to only three children who do not recognize all their numbers, so it is time to move on to sets!

I posted alot of items in my last blog, some of which I am still introducing this week, so I only have a few things new for this week. 

I found this cute game on Pinterest and the students did really well yesterday with this game.

Show me the number game

O.K.  I try to teach math one day a week or every two weeks, whole group.  This gives me an opportunity to teach a new concept.  I also use my Morning Meeting time to review various skills.   Here all the children have a set of card like those below (I made them with index cards and rings- all found at Walmart)  The children have the numbers 0-9 on their ring and I have a piano.  I tap out three keys and the children are to show me their number card three.  I continued this mixing the numbers up, sometimes fast and some slow.  This is a great activity because the children really have to listen and the room is very quiet. :)  Last week I did only this, now this week I hope to add manipulatives. The children will show me the number card and then they count out the number with the manipulative on their table.

Now here is a link back to last week, I am still using several of those activities.  And if you did not follow last year, I will also be throwing in some of the activities from this blog.  Enjoy your week!

MORE Printing numbers

Printing, Identifying, and making numbers will continue to be my focus.  Here are some activities I will be doing this upcoming week.  I always include MORE than just my six tables, but that allows for me to change out a station that the students are getting bored with or that may not challenge them.

I found this a while ago, I believe on TPT, but I can't find it now, a cute game and they match numbers to a ten frame set.

I was hoping with the Google Drive update, I would be able to turn a picture, but not yet, so sorry about the sideway pictures. :)  Anyway, this is Roll a Number.  The students roll a number and write it starting at the bottom and form a graph of the frequency of rolled numbers.  In this center I can monitor how the children are forming their numbers and I can reinforce graphing concepts.

A simple little mat with a number, the students just show the set with a manipulative.

I found this on Heidi Songs website, they cost, but the numbers go through 30 and the students really love doing this.

I found this somewhere, I can not take credit for it.  I remember it was with a little old lady roll and cover up games.  Here is a scanned copy of this game. BUMP is the name and it takes two players with two sticks of ten unifix cubes and die with the numbers 1-6 (bought these at a craft store) The children roll a number and cover that number.  The second child rolls a number and uses a different color cube to cover his/her number.  Back to the first friends turn, if they roll the number the friend covered up, they can BUMP them off, if they roll the same number that already has their piece on, they can attach another and "lock" that number as their own.  The person with the most unifix cubes on the board is the winner.

This is an old Math Their Way activity.  It is several numbers dotted on a card.  The children trace over with a dry erase marker.  It would be easy to make and just laminate.  I have found a magic eraser is much easier to clean the boards.

This game was a favorite of mine last year.  I found it on TPT for teen numbers.  I made my own 20-30 game, and now I made the 0-10 game.  I can't wait to try it with the kids!

And here is another quick game I found on Heidi song blog.  I usually start this with only number 0-5.  I have the students place those numbers in order and then match the set to the number.  I will add additional numbers as the students are ready.

This is just a great game I will keep handy when I have a parent helper in the room.  It is called Shape Adventure and I bought it from Carson Dellosa.

That should do it for the week!  Here is the link a good SMART board lesson I will use this week.  It is simple, but a great independent one.

Until next week . . . . . . .

Printing Numbers

 It's all about printing numbers this week.  We can ALL use a little practice with both identifying and printing.

Here the children will write the number in the square that will be on a sheet of paper.  When they lift the template off, they connect the dots and make a mystery picture.  I will put just a scanned copy here, they are old Math Their Way cards. On the back I have stickers representing the number on the front so the kids will count the stickers later and write the number.
Dot card 1
Dot card 2
Dot card 3
Dot card 4
Dot card 5
Dot card 6
Dot card 7
Dot card 8
Dot card 9
Dot card 10
Dot card 12 Back too
Dot card 13
Dot card 14

ALL the dot cards are here

I love the Illuminations Ten Frame web site, the students need to listen and count.  I only use the How Many game right now.

I made this little game.  The students simply place the correct number of dots in the ten frame.  Very much like what they are doing above and on the SMART board last week.  Here is the link. Combined sheets are here.

Monkey Math on the touches.

Duck and Moose has a great app for counting.

 I quickly made a SMART board lesson for printing numbers 0-10, I put our poems on the top so if I have a parent helper to help me, they can use the same language the kids are use to.

Oh, everyone LOVED this one.  I found this idea on Pinterest.  They just roll the number die I made out of squares from AC Moore and then roll the color die and stamp that number with the dots.  (Dollar Tree Bingo Markers)

Printing numbers again.  One side is all the numbers and the other side is just ONE number they may need help with.  I have included a small version of this and you can just make little ones, or big ones on your own.

Ratuki is a cute game that shows numbers in different ways.  I play this game when I have a helper.  I found it at Walmart, but for a little more, you can pick it up at Target too.

Geoboard fun here and here -

That's it for printing numbers this week - I do have more to come next week! 

Welcome back to 2012-13!  Sorry for the delay, but the beginning of the school year always wears me out!!  For the past 10 days, we have been just "exploring" in math tubs.  The students have enjoyed checking out all of my math manipulatives and they are even choosing various ones during play centers.  Well, as much as they enjoy exploring - I do not. :)  I feel like I am wandering aimlessly around the room, I guess I like more of a purpose.  So here we go!  Today was amazing, the volume went down tremendously and I could really see weaknesses in my group ( and strengths) :)

I started a group at the SMART board just using a quick game I made - I will load it soon to SMART exchange, but I can't seem to do it on a Mac. :( The students simply roll the die, move the chips into the ten frame to make the number and then write the number.  (BIG weakness in this group is writing numbers)

I found this activity on the Pocketfulofcenters.blogspot.com.  I can't seem to put my finger on it, but I scanned it.  The children pick a number, circle all of that number they can find and then count how many they could find.  (my assistant monitored and checked this table as needed)

I found these on Pinterest (oh how I love it).  The children simply identify the number and clip clothespins to the dots as a one to one correspondence.  Click here for the link.

Now this is cute and fast.  The children place these little puzzles in order.  They have them 1-5 and 1-10.  I used the 1-5 today, but I did need to throw in a 1-10 for a couple students that needed a little more.  Here is the link.

We have done a lot of Pete the Cat stuff these last 10 days, so I thought we would work with buttons on Pete.  I found this cute activity that the students LOVED.  All they do is draw a card, identify the number and place the correct number of buttons on the shirt.  Simple but fun.  Here is this link.

So, we will continue this week using these math activities, I will change out a couple to help the students stay engaged all week.  I will also need to do a whole group math one day to introduce geoboards and making numbers and shapes.   I am also working on a shape book in my morning groups with my assistant.  They are saying the poems and cutting and glueing shapes.


I added one additional activity to help with number id.  Here it is (I believe it is on page 48)