Week 8 and 9, 2014: subitizing, sorting, writing numbers, making numbers, shapes, positional words

Activities:
     *Subitzing dot game

     *Sorting Leaves

     *More or Less game

     *Shape and count roll 

     *Fabulous Worm Game
     *Roll a fall tree
     *Tic Tac Toe

     *Write a number on the long strip

     *Dot to Dot 1 to 10 - Computer game

     *Number Match - Computer

     *Dot numbers on ten frame

     *Positional BUMP

School Year 2014-2015 Week 1-3

Welcome Back!  So sorry for the late post, but everyone knows how crazy a start to Kindergarten is AND trying to get your scedule to work.

Week 1
We started the school year with just exploration,  Tubs are set out and the students simply explore what is there.  It give them a chance to get their "play" out.  Everyone wants to run their fingers through the buttons, but if you start right with a job for them to do, it is hard to focus with their desire to just play getting in the way.  SO you fix that with "explore" time.

Here are a list of some of my math tubs:
Links
Unifix cubes
Boats (from Oriental)
Keys
Pattern Blocks
Cubes
Tiles
Seashells
Squares
Shapes
Lids
Snap Cubes
Fish
Dinosaurs
Bread ties
Pentograms
Tangrams
Buttons
Jewels
Leaves (plastic from Michaels)


I usually move the tubs the first week, but due to our schedule, I needed for the students to move.  Here is why.  I have Math at the end of my day.  We have first lunch this year so I need to fit in packing up AND snack into my schedule without loosing instructional time, so I have one table for snack and one table for packing up.  I have continued with this for two weeks, and now that I have the students trained to pack up and I have taken that out of our rotation.

Week 2
Still exploring all five days.  Six tables with activities, remember two of those table are occupied with snack and packing up.  To make the packing up table independent, I used this packing up chart and the students checked off as they completed each item.  It made it so I could float and not stay just with packers.

Week 3

Monday:

Introduced 4 new jobs, still have packing and snack as the other 2 jobs.

    *Fishy Count on Computers - Great for counting, recognizing numbers and mouse practice.

    *Geoboard numbers - just making numbers on the Geoboards using picture cards to help.

    *Pete the Cat and his groovy buttons - Draw a card and place the correct buttons on Pete

    *Shape Book - my assistant is guiding this table with glue and scissors - Today is a Square House

Tuesday:
Moved packing up to before specials, opening up an additonal math tub
    *Fishy count
    *Geoboard numbers
    *Pete the Cat
    *Shape Book - Color and glue macaroni on triangle
    *Dot to Number - Tap not splat, students roll two die, one has a color dot and the other has a number on it - students tap using bingo markers on a blank sheet of paper.  Roll again, continue until the bell rings.

Wednesday:

Early Dismissal day so I had Math first thing in the morning  - so all 6 tubs were up and running

    *Fishy Count

    *Geoboard numbers

    *Dot to Number

    *Count and Write on iTouches

    *Dot to Dot Cards - students simply write the number and connet the numbers making a picture
    *Shape Book - Triangle carrots

   
Thursday:
    *Fishy Count
    *Geoboards
    *Dot to number Bingo dots
    *Shape Book - Color and glue Q-tips on rectangle
    *Snack with Count and Write on iTouches if they finish early
    *Dot to Dot Cards


Friday
    *Fishy Count - last day of this
    *Geoboards - last day of this
    *Shape Book - Rectangle window
    *Dot ot number using Bingo dots
    *Snack with Geoboards on iTouches if they finish early

Happy New Year - ways to make numbers

MAKING NUMBERS

Well, this new Common Core has been very different than the way I have done things in several years, so readjusting Math Tubs has been quite a challenge.  Sorry for the delay and slow post this year, I am just trying to find the best way to teach several concepts with the least amount of steps.  So here I go . . 

I made this to work with combinations of numbers.   I wanted children to organize their thoughts so that they will be able to find ALL the combinations possible without question.  I hope this makes sense to you!  I created a sheet that has five squares.  I had the children put their name and numbers on the sheet first.  Name at the top and then they numbered the lines of squares 0 - 5 on the left hand side.  Pencils down and then they glued a purple square in the left corner and a green square in the right corner ( I also did this with circles and we used bingo markers and they used the two colors I gave them)  The squares are just to help them remember what they are doing.  So now they have a 0 under the purple square meaning NO purples go there, so what goes there?  Well ALL green, then the next row has a 1, telling us 1 purple, and the rest are green and so on.  When they finish that all the way down the paper, they then write the numbers down the right side of the paper.  They count the green squares now and write that number on the right side.  So they should have the numbers going backward 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.  

After a couple weeks of doing this, I have explained to my higher children how to use those numbers to  make a number sentence under each one.  

I have been doing this for several weeks now, I moved to the number 6 last week and I think my students have finally caught on to the pattern that I have tried to create.  

 This is the start of the paper.

This student is putting on her squares.

 This student is counting her green squares and writing the numbers beside.

I am surprised by one thing - not one of my students have just automatically written their numbers down the right side.  Now some of them have written them without counting - but not just as a set up tool, I have waited to see, but no one yet!  

On this occasion, I picked the colors, the place to put them and how it was to be done.  Since this activity, the students have had the opportunity to pick their color choice and how they arrange their color choices.  

WORD PROBLEMS

These are old AIMS cards that I picked up years ago.  I just laminated them and put the cards on rings and the children read the cards and "sketch" out their pictures and write their answers.  This math tube was teacher directed, and has now become independent.  The only thing I might do to change this is to write the number under the number word, but my students have learned to use the resource in the room to figure it out, so I will not change this now. :)

 I still love this website, I have saved it on the desktops under my log in and I can quickly pull this up and the students do not log off, they just walk away when the bell rings to change.

They are now up to game number 4, add.  The students are given a math problem, and they make the first number on the ten frame, then they make the second number on the second ten frame, and then they put the two numbers together.  The students then types in the correct number to answer the addition problem.  LOVE this game

I have also found this great book to help with Story word problems.  I do these mainly whole group, and I have the students use white boards to show their answers.  It quickly shows how some are catching on and others, well not so much.  I am always surprised when some of my top kids get tricked by some of the problems.  I love how this books starts WAY back at the beginning, sometimes we as educators jump in assuming the children know how many legs a bug has, or even a hen for that matter!  

I am still working on making teens with some of these activities from last years blog, and I am using story mats, and  the bowl game.