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!

Math Monday--Missing Addends and a FREEBIE!

This week I have been introducing missing addends to my kindergarten kiddos. I'd like to think I've done some sneaky teaching...you know, playing games and having fun so that students don't even realize they're learning! 

One of our games is called Piggy Bank. The object is to make 5 using 2 numbers. Each student gets a piggy bank and a stack of cards with 0-5 pennies on it. 

 

I flipped over a card...let's say it had 3 pennies. Then students tried to flip over a card with 2 pennies. When they did so, they "banked" the cards (put the cards on their piggy bank).

 

 

The kids LOVED it! And they started getting faster and faster at recognizing what number they needed to make 5. 

We also used these cards to play a matching game. Students turned over a card and then had to say what they needed to make 5 (and match it, of course!). 

 

Click {HERE} for this FREEBIE!

My para played a board game to make 5. Kids rolled the dice, but didn't move the number shown. Instead they moved the number needed to make 5. So if they rolled a 3, then they moved 2 spaces. If they rolled a 6, they had to move backwards a space. Whoa, right?! It was tricky at first, but they got the hang of it. I wish I had gotten some pictures!  

With all of our games, I don't think my kids even realized they've been learning this week. Bwahaha!

Five For Friday, April 10

Aaaahh! Spring Break! Just what the Dr. ordered!
 

I'm linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for 5 For Friday. Thanks for hosting, Kacey!

 

(Okay, okay...this is TECHNICALLY not from this week...please allow me to share, anyway!). Before we went on Spring Break, we were finishing up addition and subtraction. We read Pete the Cat's Four Groovy Buttons.

Then we did some groovy button subtraction freebies that I found {HERE} and {HERE}.

And then we made these cute little guys with word problems to go with them.



I am NOT a cook, which you can read more about {HERE}. But I did make this yummy dessert over the break!

Click {HERE} for the recipe

I've also been catching up on my reading and TV watching over the break. I've been reading The American Heiress which I totally recommend for any Downton Abbey fans out there!

It's set in the late 1800s and is about a very rich American girl (named Cora..coincidence??) who wants to marry an Englishman with a title. She then has to navigate English customs and society which are VERY different from American culture. FASCINATING!

Troll the respawn, Jeremy!

The hubby and I have also been watching the Netflix original The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. It's created by Tina Fey and stars Ellie Kemper (Erin from The Office). It's got a super quirky sense of humor. If you like shows like Community, 30 Rock, or The Office, then you'll probably like Kimmy.

On to next week! We are starting a 2 week plant unit next week. Our standards are mostly to describe plants and compare them to other plants, so my goal is to show my kiddos all of the different things that are plants...flowers, grass, bushes, trees, fruits and veggies, etc. I've spent this week working on a plant unit for TPT, but I want to test out the activities on my kids before I put it for sale. Be on the look out, though!

COMING SOON!

Like I said earlier, we just finished our addition and subtraction unit. My kids did really well, so now we are going to dive into some 1st grade standards and learn about missing addends. Have you heard of Dr. Nicki?? She's a math GENUIS and has lots of great concrete activities for kids to practice fluency and missing addends (without really knowing that's what they are doing). Watch the video to get some great ideas (it's 7 1/2 minutes).
 

Happy Friday!

Math Monday--Easter Math!

 It's almost here! It's getting so close I can taste it!

 

SPRING BREAK!!!

 

 Just 4 more days...

 

To celebrate spring and the upcoming break and Easter and the end of our addition and subtraction unit (we really believe in celebrating!), we are doing some EGG-cellent math this week!

 

Sorry for the pun. I know it was terrible. I blame it on needing spring break! 

 

SO! Back to this week. For my first activity, I have a basket filled with these little guys...some addition and some subtraction.

 

The kids pull out an egg and record their problem and answer on this recording sheet... 

 

...that I found in this super awesome freebie!

Click {HERE}for the freebie

 

The kids loved it!!

 

 

My second activity is the Great Egg Race partner game!

 

One partner rolls 2 dice, adds the numbers, and colors that number on their egg. The other partner repeats. The first player to color all of their numbers wins!

 

I found this activity (and a lot of other great ones) from this freebie!

Click {HERE} for the freebie

 

In less egg-y activities, other students race the clock to sort addition facts...

 

...and subtraction facts.

 

The last group works on the computer.
If you need any great computer games, try Sheppard Software. The games are SO much fun and great for lots of levels of learners. My personal faves are

Fruit Splat
Math Man
and
Monkey Drive
These are also great if you have an interactive board.

 

That's All Folks! Have a HOPPY Easter!

 

I know. That was another terrible pun. I REALLY need spring break!

Math Monday--ADDITION

It's ADDITION time!!!!! I don't know why, but I just LOVE this unit!!

Our students come in with a wiiiiiiiddddde range of background knowledge, so we start with a pre-test (which will also be our post-test).

Click {HERE} to see the test we use, and then use it, tweak it, or ignore it!  =)

We do A LOT of concrete activities to start our unit. Even the kids who come in knowing a lot about addition don't necessarily understand what they're doing, so I like to start with lots of manipulatives.

Our first activity is WHOOSH CLOUDS. The kids put blocks in the first small cloud, put blocks in the second small cloud, and then WHOOSH them into the big cloud at the bottom!

 

 

 

I just drew my whoosh clouds, but you can click {HERE} for whoosh clouds already made!

 

 

 

After that, I have to admit that I copied, borrowed, and stole my addition ideas from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten. Her ideas are genius, and you should TOTALLY check them out!!!! She combines literacy with her math and LOTS of concrete activities. Oh yeah, she has lots of FREEBIES, too!

 

Here's one of her ideas. Read If You Were a Plus Sign and then let students make a class book with their own addition stories.

 

 

Of course there is always the over achiever...   =)

So that's our addition intro. LOTS of concrete!

Five for Friday, January 9

 

The hubby and I went ice skating! Check out these Michelle Kwan moves!

 

 

 

This week we have been measuring EVERYTHING! I totally recommend checking out the blog by Kindergarten, Kindergarten. It's basically been my lesson plan this week because her ideas are so hands-on and inspire so much critical thinking!

 

I've been surprised this week at what my kids get and don't get.

 

Does that happen to anyone else??

 

For example, I gave my kiddos a popsicle stick and they had to find an object that was shorter and longer than that. No problem. The next day, I gave everyone an object, and as a class, they had to put the objects in order from longest to shortest.

 

I didn't take any pictures, so I'm stealing borrowing this one from Kindergarten, Kindergarten's blog

 

Oh. My. Gosh. You would have thought I asked them to solve world hunger! I get that they are two different skills, but I'm just baffled by how they can do one but not the other? A mystery. Today we tried again. We made wiggly worms and ordered the length of those. We still have some work to do....  =)

 

Another borrowed picture  =)

 

This week we also talked about winter. We read winter books and made text-to-self connections. We also used our sequencing words to tell how to build a snowman. We made snowmen using this puffy paint (by mixing 1 part shaving cream and 1 part glue together).

 

 

 

I spent a lot of this week updating my word families packs, and they are finally done! They're on sale in my TPT store through Saturday.

 

 

 

You can also get all 5 packs for half-price in this bundle!

 

These packs include picture and word cards, picture sorts, puzzles, practice sheets, magnet letter activities, and differentiated write-the-room activities.

(Pardon the product promotion. I'm just so super excited that these are finally finished!)

 

 

Not school related: How cute is this totally destructive dog?! I bought some Christmas toys for her in the after Christmas sales and she obliterated poor Rudolph in mere minutes. I believe she's what the dog toy companies call a "power chewer."

 

Also, Jenna may or may not get excited about going on walks...

 

  

That's all, Folks!