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!