Week 5: Counting, Counting, Counting

I am hoping a few pictures will give you an idea until I have a moment to explain. :)

 Roll a  number   The children roll the die and write the number on the graph.  It is that simple.

This is a great way to make munbers using snap cubes   It can be a little tricky, but they turn out great.  I will try and find the link for this activity. Here it is!

I have so many apps for counting on our iTouches, I allow students to go to anyone they would like.  Grandpa's Workshop is a great one and Caboose Express.

We are finishing our shape book.  Here is the link.

This is a great counting game and I encouraged my friends to try and know the answer quick, without counting each fish if they could.  Here is the link.

Week 4: Numbers, Counting and Printing

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!

ALL the dot cards are here.  This is a favorite activity, they just copy the numbers and then connect the dots.  It takes a bit of prep work, but it will be used for years to come!

Printing number with the Letter School app.

A Lakeshore game that is really great and very interactive.   Here is a link.

And since we were working with shapes AND finishing our Brown Bear book, here is a cute little teacher directed activity.

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)

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.  We do this for a couple weeks.

Dot to dot cards finished!

Beginning of Kindergarten 2013 - Exploration

First three weeks of school:  Exploration

I work on opening, team captains job, cleaning up, freezing when the bell rings, moving from tub to tub, etc.  For the first two week, I move the tub, the third week, THEY move so we will be ready for the real deal next week.

Nomination for the Liebster Blog award

Nomination for the Liebster Blog award

 I'm happy to say that Lucy over at Kids Math Teacher has nominated me for a Liebster Blog award.  Thanks, Lucy! 

The Liebster Blog Award is given to up and coming bloggers (less than 200 followers) by established bloggers, in order to recognize them, let them know that they are appreciated, and to spread the word about new blogs. The rules are:

• You must post 11 random things about yourself.
• Answer the questions that the nominators set for you.
• Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.
• Choose 11 blogs you love (with less than 200 followers) and link them in your post.
• No tag back, (but please leave me a comment on this post with the URL to your Liebster post so that I can learn more about you!)

Ok, so here are 11 random facts about me:

1. I love teaching.
2. I love animals.
3. I love to travel.
4. I work hard all year so I LOVE summer.
5. Night owl, not a morning person.
6. I want to write a children's book - maybe one day
7. I wanted to be anything, not a teacher.
8. Now I couldn't imagine doing anything else.
9. I love to watch movies with the family.
10. I love technology andI can loose sleep when ideas get rolling in my head!
11. I'm into scrapbooking, but I will have to say, I will soon move to all digital - that will be a sad day.

Questions asked by Lucy:

My questions to my award nominees are...

1. What are a few of your goals?  to make learning fun, EVERY day in EVERY way.

2. Who's your hero?  Mrs. Alexander - the first Kindergarten class I walked into and her moto was to love them first - amazing classroom full of loved children that loved learning.

3. Favorite thing to watch?  Children learning - eyes lighting up, and any movie at night (while I am working on school work.)

4. Favorite sport to play?  Use to be basketball, now . . . running I guess - getting to old for sports!!

5. Personal positive quote?  Everyone makes mistakes!  Even grown-ups

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Questions I'm asking my nominees?

1. Why did you get into education?
2. How many years have you been teaching?
3. What made you decide to start a blog?
4. What's your favorite season and why?
5. Morning or Night owl?
6. Pets?
7. Hobbies?
8. Best thing about teaching?
9. Worst thing about teaching?
10. Cool fact about your school?
11. Neat fact about your classroom.

Blogs I'm nominating:

1. The Wild World of Kindergarten
2. Kindergarten Fever

Don't forget to comment and leave a link to your post when you've answered :)

My questions to my award nominees are...

1. What are a few of your goals?  to make learning fun, EVERY day in EVERY way.

2. Who's your hero?  Mrs. Alexander - the first Kindergarten class I walked into and her moto was to love them first - amazing classroom full of loved children that loved learning.

3. Favorite thing to watch?  Children learning - eyes lighting up, and any movie at night (while I am working on school work.)

4. Favorite sport to play?  Use to be basketball, now . . . running I guess - getting to old for sports!!

5. Personal positive quote?  Everyone makes mistakes!  Even grown-ups

Addition fun in Kindergarten

This is a little game that can be used several ways.  The children can count out items and place them on the jar card, and then record it on their recording sheet, but I rotate quickly, so we only had time to draw a card and record that number and dots on the sheet.  This took two days to complete. (my tubs only last about 5 minutes) 

Sorting is another thing we are working on as a TEAM.  They are to sort together and then count each group and decide which group has the most, least, and if any have the same. 

Teen tic tac toe is a favorite.  It is not Common Core, but my students need to practice writing numbers so we do!

We are still working on making five.  I am hoping that soon they will have these facts in their head and it will all make sense.  We will see! The link I included is different than this one pictured, but this one I mentioned in my last post.

And we do it here . . .

And here . . .  And here is the link to this lesson. (thanks for the blackline Laura, what a great idea!)

Beans are used for two things, to quickly show the student the beans in your hand and to ask them how many are there (without counting!) and you can use the spray painted beans as addition problems.  Just have the children spill the number you are working on, onto the table and write the math sentence.

Subitizing -  You can find these in this great find.  You can play all sorts of games with these, go fish, memory, matching, etc.

And I found this link for these - it has ALOT of great things!

These are just cards I use at a math tub, the adult at this table just flashes these daily trying to teach the students "tricks of the trade" on how to quickly figure out the dot card number equivalent.

And I have written about the bowl game and then I found this!   Just a great extention of great game.

We needed a little work on One More - she here is a little game.  The children just roll a die, add one more to their rolled number, and put their color piece on the board.  They are trying to get four in a row.

And on computers we are still working on the ten frame game.

And I found this wonderful web site that has some great ideas WITH links to the blacklines.

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.