Back to School and Numbers

Happy Saturday!  I'm stopping by to tell you about a fun number pack I created for Back to School!  In this pack I focused on working with numbers 1 to 10 in a variety of different ways...one to one correspondence, number identification, five frame, ten frame, dot plates, dice, and dominoes.  Here are some pictures to help you get a "feel" for the pack. 

These are the "dot plates" included in the pack.  I printed the circles for numbers 1 to 6 and taped them onto paper plates from Target.  The mini erasers are also from Target (more about those in a second.)

How to use the "dot plates"

I asked my little man/helper to first point and count the pencils.

 



Next, I had him use the mini erasers to cover the pencils and count again.  (This is another way to practice that one to one correspondence.)

Since I know his math ability already, I had him tell me how many after he had covered and counted.  That's the cardinality piece some kids need additional support/practice with.

 

These numeral cards and mini erasers could be used to work more on that one to one correspondence.  Pull a card and count out the number of apples.

 

These cards are a friendly and fun way to introduce the five frame. 

 

Pull a card, figure out the number represented, and then mirror the number on own five frame with the mini erasers.

 

After a comfort level is reached with the five frame, these are great for introducing the ten frame.  They will offer that challenge for your fast learners as well.

 

They work the same way as the five frame. 

Pull a card, identify the number on the ten frame, and mirror the number with the mini erasers.

 

You can click on any of the pictures to pick this pack up in my store.  It will be on sale for the big TPT Back to School sale.  Like past TPT site wide sales, don't forget to enter the code before checking out for additional savings.

 

 

 

Don't forget to like my Facebook page.  There will be a surprise on there today, but you will have to like the page to be part of it.  :)

 

Erin



 



Snow and Cold, Oh My! and a Giveaway

I don't know about all of you, but Wisconsin had yet another run of terrible cold days.  I'm talking -50 windchill here people!  I have used these extra two days to cuddle up with my favorite little man, enjoy some movies, and to get some things made for the classroom. 

My little owls are definitely plugging away at their learning at this point, but I don't want those valuable foundation skills to disappear as we enter the world of challenge.  When I made some of these new activities, I kept that in mind.  It also adds for some great differentiation since I do have owls still working on getting some of these skills mastered.

I have added the following products to my TPT store and have marked them 20% off until this Friday!  Click on the images to take a look at the product descriptions.

 

Now how about a GIVEAWAY!  To help keep us all warm during this crazy winter, I will pick three different winners tomorrow to win a copy of each of my new products.  Leave a comment telling if you had a snow day or cold day this week and how you are keeping your classroom thinking "warm" thoughts!  :)  Don't forget to leave your email address as well.

 

~Erin

 

Numbers, Numbers, and More Numbers

We are reaching that point in the year where I expect my owls to have a strong handle on numbers, not only identifying them but really understanding them.  I really focus on numbers and sprinkle in other math skills, like shapes and basic measurement, up to this point because I dive into addition after our little Thanksgiving break.  We will still work on numbers in math stations, but my whole group instruction with them is now on the back burner.

To have a bit more fun with our last days of numbers, we have been playing around and working with the two following activities-

For this activity, the owls spin a spinner with numbers they needed work on and then built the number onto a ten frame mat.  Super simple and little prep needed!

My owls L-O-V-E playing this game!  We started the year out by playing the alphabet version of this game and the owls were beyond engaged.  When I brought out the math edition, they went crazy!!!  To play- Divide the class into two teams.  Two players come up at a time and each will get a "splatter" (fly swatter.)  Teacher calls out a number and the first player to "splat" the correct number gets the point.  Again, super simple and little prep needed!

 

Click on the pictures to take a better look at the activity in my TPT store.

 

~Erin

 

Now I Know My 123's

Just like with the alphabet, I start my math with a quick number recognition activity.  This again is a quick, action packed 5 minutes and it is done.  It wakes up their brains and gets them thinking "math" in the afternoon.

During this fast paced time, I use dot plates, ten frames, five frames, number cards, fingers, counting the circle, basically anything that is fast, fun, and number oriented.  I recently brought in this little activity and the owls ate it up.  The owls are big fans of any BANG like game, so this was an instant hit.

All I did was printed and laminated the numbers I wanted the owls to focus on with a few additional challenging numbers, hot glued them to wide craft sticks, and POOF! I had a fun game that allowed my owls to get the extra number practice they needed.  The trick is to put small Velcro pieces at the bottom of each stick and on the back of the "coned" cards, so you can change what numbers have the game ending piece.

My little man has lots of construction trucks, so I just found a small enough one that I could fit the sticks in and we pushed it around the circle as we played.  (Sorry, I didn't get any pictures.  Silly camera battery died!)

Click on the picture to download this super fun and super free game for your little ones!  Comments/feedback always appreciated.  :)  (The dot cards and ten frames I use during this time can also be found in my TPT store.)

~Erin

* I also noticed that I have been blogging over a year now.  Boy, time flies when you are having fun.  If you would like to help out with a giveaway in the very near future for this milestone, please leave me a comment.  Thank you in advance!

Numbers vs. Letters

Hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen, I am about to blog!  :) 

Once again, time has gotten away from me and I haven't been able to get anything up on here.  I ended up getting a 24 hour flu bug over the weekend, which turned into a head cold, which led me to the state of exhaustion that I currently find myself in.  Enough whining and belly aching from me, let us get to the good stuff.

Before school started I bought this absolutely adorable book and knew that I would be reading it several times at the start of the year. 

Oh my word!  If you haven't seen this book, please do yourself a favor and click on the picture.  The book is an argument between the number 1 and the letter A on what the book is really about, a number book or a letter book.  It goes back and forth introducing numbers to 26 and the entire alphabet. 

Perfect for helping your little ones see the difference between numbers and letters and how they are used.

The first time we read the book, I used two hula hoops and simply labeled one letters and one numbers.  The owls took turns pulling a card from a bucket, telling the class if it was a letter or a number, and sorting it into the correct hula hoop.

The second time, I gave each owl the following page to sort independently and to use as a simple assessment piece.  Click on the picture to download this for yourself!

 

Please let me know if you have any trouble with the download. 

 

Enjoy the rest of your week!

 

~Erin

Creative Juices are Flowing!

I will be honest, I have been working on school "stuff" on and off since we started our winter break.  I wanted to try to get ahead of myself a little bit before I got back into the normal routine of juggling school and family.  So as my little man was playing with all his Christmas toys and I mean ALL of his Christmas toys.  It seriously looked like a hurricane of toys had blown through our living room!  I was watching him and mentally preparing a to do list of different skills I wanted to review/focus on when we returned.  We had just started really getting into composing/decomposing numbers before break and the kids were really getting into it.  I made those baggies divided by duct tape that are floating around pinterest and the blogging world.  My kiddos loved it!  Even my ones who are a little more reluctant about math, dove right in.  Keeping that in mind, I knew I wanted to continue down this path of excitement.  I ran to Wal-mart today, picked up some inexpensive 10X13 frames, grabbed Super Mario duct tape at Target, and pulled out the ever growing supply of felt that I have.  With these wonderful pieces and the baggie inspiration, I came up with this....

I ended up making 3 of them today.  They are super quick to put together and I figured they would be super fun in a work station after some small group use.  My favorite part of this is that you can use a dry erase marker right on it!  I wrote the number under the pom poms on each side and where the tape is wrote an addition sign.  Doing a little equation writing!  I haven't decided if I want to make a recording sheet to go with or just to have the kiddos manipulate and write on it for the time being.  Thoughts?

~Erin