Blog Archives
Learning to Write Numbers
In Kindergarten, it’s important to have students practice writing and recognizing numbers as soon as you can. There are so many other things that students will need to do in the first few weeks of school that involve reading, writing, and recognizing numbers! With a few simple activities, your students (and mine) will be writing and recognizing numbers in no time!
I’m a big fan of anything that creates a tactile learning experience for my students because its another way to cement the learning in their brain. In an age where so many things are learned through digital media, it is sometimes nice to just have your fingers interact with another surface. 🙂
I’ve got three super easy activities that your students can use to help them read, write, and recognize numbers. You can start with the numbers 0-10 and add in 11-20 as you find your students mastering the first group of numbers.
My students LOVE using each of these activities and its already given me great insight into who knows which numbers. I sit with my students as they use these materials and am quickly able to find out which numbers they know and which ones they are still working on (check off those number id standards!).
You can read more here and get everything you’ll need to get these easy, fun, and tactile number making experiences going in your classroom!
Math Work Stations
We started our Math Work Stations the 4th week of school. Here’s a look (in pictures) of what’s in the tubs right now.
Interactive Number Line
I took a STEM (mostly Math) workshop the first two weeks after school got out this year and after listening to our instructor talk about Number Lines, I decided I wanted to make one that was more interactive than just a line of numbers stuck on my wall. I wanted my kiddos to be able to use it and grab parts of it if they needed to; so I came up with this number line!
I’m super excited that my kiddos can un-Velcro any card they might need to help them identify numbers.
Right now, the number line only goes to 10, but I may increase it to 20 if I think my students need it.
I’ve represented each number in a variety of different ways to meet the needs of my different learners:
- tally marks
- dice
- ten frames
- unifix cubes
- rekenreks
- finger counting
- number word
- number
- base ten blocks
The number symbol goes at the top and it permanent. Each of the cards below hangs on a ribbon and is attached with Velcro. {The Velcro is not included}.
Photo directions are included {and so is a diagram!}. You can get yours from my Teachers Pay Teachers store! 🙂
New Math Work Stations
I was able to take some pictures of the new Math Work Stations that I introduced today. Normally, I introduce them one at a time over several weeks, but we needed to start with a clean slate today and the kiddos were ready to listen, so I went for it and they did GREAT! Here is a look at our newest work stations:
This is one of A Differentiated Kindergarten’s Spinner Math Fun Galore pack. The kiddos spin the spinner and write the number and corresponding number word.
This is also a free game Marsha has in her Tpt store. We needed to practice addition and subtraction and have some fun at the same time! 🙂
We are studying community helpers so I brought out my community helper greater than, less than, equal to clip cards. The kiddos look at the cards and decide if the picture on the left is greater/less/equal to the one on the right and place the clip on the appropriate symbol below.
This is a little activity I made this past weekend. The children find a baker and read his ten frame. They then find the corresponding number and number word cupcake and base ten block cookie and match them in a group.
We are also reviewing our measurement work and to tie in with our community helper theme, the kiddos are measuring different tools a construction worker might use. They measure the length or height in cubes and bears and then record how many.
We are also reviewing 3D shapes, so this quick game is called 3D Grab a Shape. They grab a 3D shape card and record it on their recording sheet. (This isn’t the actual recording sheet, I just had these left over from the last game {3D Spin a Shape-its also included in this pack} and wanted to use them up).
This game is also from Marsha’s Spinner Math Fun Galore pack. This game is called Spin and Win and these kiddos are working on recognizing numbers in the teens.
The kids did so great with these today! I’ll snap some pictures of the other stations that were not open today and our new Literacy Work Stations. 🙂
P.S. Don’t forget Tweet Chat is tomorrow night with Vanessa Levin from @PreKPages as our guest!
Winter Break
How many of you go back to school tomorrow? I’ll be with you, but I wanted to share some pictures of some work I did last Friday at school to get ready for my K’s to come back to school.
We are going to be learning about Community Helpers the next 6 weeks, so I switched out my Science/Sensory area to a Community Helper sensory bin. I used some well washed rocks from the playground, and got a pack of 5 CAT construction vehicles from Target {My favorite place on earth–other than IKEA!}. I also added some Matchbox construction vehicles and some IKEA community helper people and cars.
I also switched out my sensory bin {using A Differentiated Kindergarten’s January Sensory Tub pack}. There are letters hidden in the bottom and the children will make their sight words as they find the letters.
I also got a new shelf from IKEA. You might remember that last summer I invested in a “rainbow cart” when they went on sale at Michaels. I still really like it, but two things made it not work out so well for us. 1) We couldn’t put our pocket dice in them and they kept getting separated from our Math Work Station, so we couldn’t do our work! 2) The tubs that came with it were difficult for my K’s to put back in. We already have one of these shelves from IKEA for our Literacy Work Stations, so we already know they can hold more and are easy to put away. I think this new system will work so much better for us!
I’ve re-purposed the “rainbow cart” to an area behind my desk. I will use it to stash upcoming Math and Literacy Work Stations so that I can stay on top of switching them out. I think it will help me and the K’s!
Stay tuned for some more new organization! I’m participating in a blog link-up with my friend Tammy at Live, Love, Laugh Kindergarten. She’s created a monthly link up to help get different areas of your classroom organized. First up is the teacher desk area/binders. I bought some cute things at Target over the weekend to help get things in order on my messy desk, so I’ll be sharing those soon. You can participate even if you don’t have a blog! Just post the pictures to Twitter or Instagram using the #TeachersGetOrganized2015 and be sure to tag Tammy!
Also coming up on Tuesday we have our weekly Tweet Chat with guest host Vanessa Levin from @PreKPages. She’s hugely talented and shares amazing things on her Facebook page and blog.
Don’t feel intimidated! Tweeting is really easy…even if you just lurk in the background, I promise you will get some great ideas! You will need a Twitter account {its free to sign up} to join us, but after that, you can use my tutorials to help you:
Tweet Deck is another platform to use when tweeting. I find it easier to use than Twitter because I can narrow my screen easily down to the one conversation. On Twitter, all your conversations appear at once, making it harder to follow along. 🙂 Give it a try and watch for me giving out prizes!! My twitter name is @fuzzlady77, so be sure to tweet me if you have any questions!
Have a GREAT first day back!!
W
New Math WorkStation
Here is a picture of a new Math Work Station I introduced this week. In the past we played this game with 5 chips and I noticed that we were getting bored with 5 so I increased the game to 10. The children shake ten chips in a cup and record how many are red and how many a yellow.
Kristen 🙂
Kristen's Kindergarten 