Subtraction Bowling

We have been working with different manipulatives to become comfortable with composing and decomposing numbers.My kinders have really enjoyed bowling to see how amounts can increase and decrease. Michelle at Inspired by Kindergarten has a great freebie to go with this game!!! 

We didn't use the sheet until the students felt comfy with telling me how they were solving how many pins remained up. Then, they began recording it together and discussing how to record. Lastly, the game became a partner activity with desk versions of bowling. So much fun!!!

Ten-frame manipulatives

My teaching of number sense has improved this year. I've learned so much and have really applied it with the students! Another factor of growth includes the use of number talks and ten frames like these cool ten-frame trains and tiles! We use the printed kind too, but really prefer the more concrete versions! I can't say enough about these manipulatives!

Today we used the blue ten-frame trains to work on factors to ten. It is a review for some, but additional practice for others. They used dice to find out how many more they needed to get to ten.

 Another activity was representing teen numbers as ten and some more. They really liked this activity. They used two of the clear ten-frame bases and then helped each find out what Ten and _____ more is 16 or another teen number. Then they wrote those numbers as a number bond.

Fair Exchanges with Money

Sometimes working with money can be difficult to understand for young students because it is an abstract concept. When you show them different ways to make those connections, it gets easier and becomes less abstract. 
 

Making fair exchanges with money is difficult unless students have concrete experiences with it. Here is one way to make fair exchanges. It's like the rolling to 20 game, but you have to keep exchanging fairly and with the makeshift base ten blocks. The blocks are cut and hot glued or super glued together. If you look closely, you can see the small "n" written (for nickel) on the base ten block that is a group of five. When I tried to skip a trade, I was encouraged to keep making fair trades correctly. You can see that they're glued together in groups of 2 tens and 5 ones and can be fitted together like a puzzle to make groups of fifty and one-hundred. 


Anytime you can make learning fun, students learn!

Spotlight: Subtraction freebies and Clipboard storage

I always tell others that you can find anything online, because there are so many creative people out there actually creating!

Well, Mrs. Hicks at the The Alphabet Garden has posted a freebie Eric Carle subtraction packet. I think it's a great addition to a subtraction unit! Students will already be familiar with the characters and will love working with the colorful pictures for manipulatives! Thanks Mrs. Hicks!

Ashely at The Kinder Polkadot Patch has a fab, fab, fab idea for storing all of those great but pesky clipboards! If you hurry to Target, you'll be able to find to same container she uses for around $5.00. Thanks for help with this issue!

Ten Frame Pinterest Creation

I am so excited that I took a break from school work to create this from a pin that I pinned! I had enough to make one for one of my colleagues too! This is for next year and will help my students with number sense. I got this from fuel the brain. How great is this!?!?

Instead of having a calendar wall, I am turning it into a number corner. I've decided to totally revamp my calendar wall and meeting time to try something new! It will be half the size, but will turn into a mini math lesson each day! 

I just haven't decided if we'll write the number in each block of the ten-frame or just use a bingo/paint dabber to mark off each day of the year. We also have 10 furlough days, so we'll only use 17 of the 18 ten-frames to mark the days of the year!

  

Ten Frames-It Makes Sense

My mind is spinning around ten frames and number sense. Our school system has provided great training and some materials to get us started with the Common Core. Included in those materials was the book Number Talks.

I have watched the DVD and read a good portion of it. Then, I took what I was learning and brought it right into my classroom. Now I'm at a point where I've had to talk to the students about how to see it in the most efficient way. I was worried that I would putter out with it, but my sweetie pie friend and I enjoyed revving up the faculty about number talks! So that re-energized me, but what to do about my Kinders who need more? My brain is fried with APA papers, homework, and finals coming up in my UGA math classes. What to DO?


Ta Da...It Makes Sense!

This is the next step! It arrives in two days (thank you Amazon Prime!) I am so pumped to get going on this! I have used ten-frames, dot cards, tally mark cards, large dominos, etc. to do talks with. I know my Kinders will love these! When I was viewing some of the pages, the ideas from this book were great. Updates to come...

KEY words...

Disclaimer: I am not known for being tactful. I apologize in advance!

 Because my way of thinking about mathematics is changing, I am sharing and ready for discussion. Because we are moving to the Common Core, I feel that discussion about current and previous methods should occur. Let me know what you think!

I have seen some of the cutest Key Word (for addition and subtraction) anchor charts all over Pinterest and on others' blogs. While key words may work in some problems, we cannot always rely on key words. This is teaching students in an instrumental way.

Before instrumental learning is taught (teaching the rules), Relational learning (knowing the how and why) should begin. When working with word problems, students (even Kinders!) can usually find strategies to figure out how to find the answer to the problem.


Problem-solving strategies show students how to solve problems that they will eventually encounter when there are no key words, or the key words are used in a different way!

Word Problems Solving Strategies (Naneb, proteacher)

Find a Pattern
Make a Table
Work Backwards
Guess and Check
Draw a Picture
Make a List
Write a Number Sentence
Use Logical Reasoning

Examples:

• Amy has 12 ladybugs. How many more ladybugs does she need to have 21 ladybugs altogether?
• Katie had some pencils. After she gave away 8 pencils, she had 11 left. How many pencils did Katie have at first?

Grants and Common Core

I love getting things for free!!! So, I do enjoy (yes, I have a sick addiction) writing grants. This year, I've received three of the four grants that I wrote totaling over $1600.00!! I've gotten my HeidiSongs K kit and am currently waiting on these items to arrive:

1. 2 KP ten frame tile kits
2. Rekenreks

Our school district is really giving us training in how the Common Core is shifting the way we facilitate learning. Also, with my mathematics classes at UGA, my thinking and teaching has evolved in a way that the students are leading my instruction through their findings and discussion! Math is exciting-even my Kinders think so!

My next grant will be for these ten frame trains. However, I have ordered the starter kit below!!! I cannot wait to use them in my class!

 

The above items are tools that Kinders will need to explore the Common Core. Yes, I have ten frames galore, but prefer more concrete tools for daily use! The ten-frame trains are larger than the KP ten frame tiles and easier for less coordinated beginning Kinders to use!

Shark Writing, Problem Solving, and Tree Maps

I've been away far too long! I have really good reasons!!!! First, I have been overwhelmed with all of the training for the Common Core standards that we'll begin implementing (and RTI). Then, I had to get ready to begin UGA for my Mathematics Ed.S. degree. Whew, it's been a very long semester filled with so much work! I have two more weeks and then will be finished with the first semester. I love it and am learning so much!!!! Here's what we finished recently:

Shark word problems and writing activity. I found the shark pattern online (maybe Heidi B.) and drew out the tree map. Students worked together to solve the word problems and used a tree thinking map to organize their thoughts about sharks when writing. They used goldfish crackers to work with the problems. I had the teeth and fish cut and ready. I used fuzzy yarn from my closet to help the display;) They loved it!