Guess who's unnaturally excited about math tubs?!?!

Ok...are you ready for a HUGE teacher nerd moment?? I have been SO excited about my math tubs this week! I mean, like really, super excited! Not quite Christmas excited, but dangerously close...

We're doing our counting unit, so I want to give my kids a lot of practice counting, making numbers, and sequencing numbers, so here are my differentiated math tubs:

Tub 1:
We're making numbers 11-20 with geo-boards and practicing putting the 1 first in these tricky teen numbers.

You can get these number geoboard cards for FREE {HERE}.

Need more help with this concept? Here's a catchy little video to watch (seriously...it'll be in your head all day...)


Tub 2:
It's probably not going to be the favorite station, but good ol' fashion handwriting is always a need.  . I love the worksheet below. It's free from a site where students can write to 10, 25, 50 or 99/100.

Get this freebie {HERE}

Tub 3:
My school is working on becoming a STEAM school, so my kiddos are working on this marble run activity at our STEAM station. Kids are practicing working together to build a structure that the marble will roll down as well as looking at the motions of the marble.

Tub 4:
This tub is good ol' fashioned counting. Students complete a differentiated counting sheet or a spinner sequencing game. Then they choose the "Count and Link" elephants from Lakeshore or a counting puzzle I think I got from Wal-Mart.

Tub 5:
More building numbers! Here the students are using unifix cubes to build numbers 1-10 and make sure they're going the right way. They have a model that shows how many cubes to use for each number, but boy was this station tough!! This little guy got it, though!

Get these mats for free {HERE}

Tub 6:
Computers!!! A crowd favorite. My kids went to Starfall and ABCya and chose math games to play.

So those are my 6 tubs. Not all of my math tubs are differentiated, but some are. For these tubs, I let kids know which activity to do with different shapes. Each child's name tag has a shape on it (written with a vis-a-vis marker so groups are easy to change). The bags at the differentiated stations also have shapes on them. Kids have to get their activity from the bag with the matching shape. Of course they need help with this at first, but I know they'll catch on quickly.

That's all, folks!

Color Words with LOTS of Freebies!

I've made it through my first month of school, and I finally feel like more of a teacher and less of a cat-herder! Happy dance time! One of my first learning goals for my kinder-kiddos is COLOR WORDS. We start by reading Pete the Cat and Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

By the way, this little joke just makes me smile!

Anyway, after reading the books, we color pictures that have color words. Students have to read the words and use the correct color. This is also a great time to practice neatness and fine motor skills. For extra help,  I give each student a color chart. They keep these in their crayon boxes so they are always handy.

Click {HERE} the get your own set...for FREE!

At stations, students...

1. Stamp color words in play dough and with ink stampers

Get this stamping freebie {HERE}.
Warning...it takes FOREVER for kids to finish. Plan accordingly  =)

2. Put together color word puzzles.

You can get these puzzles from my TPT pack...only $1.50!
What a steal!  =)

Higher students unscramble these color word sentences.

What's that? You want another freebie? Ok! {HERE} it is!

3. Play computer games with color words. 

PSA: Spelling City is a great site for this. Sign up for a free account and add a list of color words (or any other sight word). Students can play all sorts of fun games like unscrambling the letters, finding the missing letter, and a hangman-like cat and mouse game.

What are your favorite COLOR WORDS ideas??