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.