Exploring Teen Numbers

This week my kiddies have been reviewing teen numbers, so I thought I would share some of the games we have been playing in Prep. I have also added in links to some cool activities I have come across in my Pinterest wanderings too.

Teen Numberline

Sweet and simple :) You know how I love my paper plates and keeping things easy!

Find the Fish

Another easy one. I just happened to have a laminated penguin and a fish in my teacher kit - you could substitute in anything you like.

Count 'em Up

For this activity I gave the kids (in pairs) 10 blocks in 1 colour and a handful in another. The kids then had to put the blocks together and identify the teen number they had made, and write it on a whiteboard. The kids can then pull them apart and swap with a friend and do it all over again.

Toss, Roll 'n' Count

A favourite among my kiddies and super easy. I printed off some cute pictures of different clipart actions and filled a pocket dice with them. A kiddie hops up, rolls the die for an action, then tosses the beanbag to tell how many times the class will perform the action. Chalk one up to whole body learning!

Giant Tens Frames

I really do try to keep things simple in my classroom, and when I find a game my kids really enjoy I milk it for all it's worth!

In the first game, I have a hoop filled with fish with numbers 1 to 10 on them, 2 tens frames on the carpet - one filled, one empty, 10 spare cones/markers and whiteboards and markers for each child. One kiddie will hop up, pull a number (1-10) and build that in the 2nd tens frame. We then talk about what the teen number is with 10 added. We use our Magic Pointer Fingers to write the teen number in the air, then on our whiteboards.

In the second game, both frames are empty and a kiddie tosses a beanbag onto an overturned paper plate and builds it in the tens frames. Again, we write the number on our whiteboards.

Guided Math Baskets

These baskets are lifesavers for me! Everything my table groups might need for showing numbers is right at their fingertips. We often use these when we are looking at showing numbers in multiple ways. I have 1 basket for each table group, and in each I have linking cubes in sticks of 10, pop sticks and bundles, MAB blocks, counters, hundreds boards, 10s and 20s boards, and whiteboard markers.

The next activities I will show you used these buckets to show tee numbers.

Toss, Turn 'n' Build

This was another pair activity I played with my kiddies. We tossed a beanbag onto a number, then worked in pairs to build the teen number. I encouraged the kiddies to start with one rod of 10 and count out the extras they would need. Great for team work, and especially good for differentiating as I could pair up children who needed a little support with children who could work independently at this level.

Toss, Read 'n' Show

This activity is pretty much the same, but you can substitute in any way to show numbers. You could even give s couple kids pop sticks for tally marks, some could have cubes, some 20s frames. You could then have the kiddies stand up and move around - like musical chairs - to show the next number in another way.

Sensory Numbers

My kiddies love to play with anything sensory! Building numerals is always one of our math work stations. These are a few ways we have tried - match sticks, marbles, kinetic sand, play dough, wiki stix, multilink cubes and sand trays.

Building Teen Numbers

I have found a million and one of this type of number mat on Pinterest. They are great for working on number knowledge and can be used with a whole range of manipulatives.

Outside Links

These are some awesome looking teen number activities I have found on Pinterest in my late night searches. I have added the links to each picture below for you to follow if you would like to find out more.

These cute cards are from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits and would be great for working on building teen numbers using place value.

I just love the look of these chains from Forever in 1st! I remember seeing them up in one of the grade 1 teachers classrooms in my school - They looked brilliant!

Probably my favourite - and definitely the cutest - way to show teen numbers is this adorable craftivity from Primary Press.

This Montessori-style board looks great from A Handmade Childhood and would be fantastic for teaching the connections between teen numbers and 10s.

Hope you found something useful!

Five for Friday - November 27th

Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday :) If you click the picture above title, it will take you to Kacey's post where you can view all the other link ups.

You might remember last post, I broke my thumb at work and ended up on 'forced vacation-time' as I like to call it. Well, last Wednesday I finally got the all clear from my Dr and went back to work Thursday - Happy Dance!!! Plus I got my cast off, and am now rocking this snazzy number, accented with 'oh-so-in-right-now' purple velcro :) Very happy to be back at work, PLUS I can finally wear a watch again (no more excuses for being late!) and my beautiful wedding rings :)

Since I am back at school and I have finished off our assessments I thought it was about time to do some fun revision. We have been playing games all week long for sight words, teen numbers, number words, letter sounds, and anything else we could think of :)

Speaking of finishing assessments - we finally have had some time to do start Christmas Crafts! This is the beginning of our fun :)

Our school is having a Arts Carnival next week and today we submitted our art works -The left is a gorgeous collage of work from my little treasures. We experimented with patterns, lines and colour by filling in the Christmas pictures I purchased from 'Art with Jenny K'. If you would like to check them out, just click on the link below.

The pictures on the right are some of my own which I have shared with the school for the carnival :)

Today I finally gave in as well and purchased this little beauty I have been eyeing off for months now! I am very much looking forward to trying it all out next year :) Again, I have given you the link if you would like to check it out - It is sooooooo worth it!

Speaking of next year, look what turned up in the post this week...my very first Erin Condren order, complete with Teacher Planner, notebook, Life Planner, pens, pretty stationary and a carry-all case! I was like a kid on Christmas morning when this arrived! Soooo pretty - Ahhhhhh!

Til next time!

Decomposing Numbers - Guided Math Ideas

Hi again! I am thrilled to have been able to return to work today! After having 2 and a half weeks off recovering from surgery on my hand, I was absolutely chomping at the bit to get back to work with my little kiddies - and they certainly did not disappoint!

I would like to share some ideas I have used myself when beginning to work on decomposing numbers, but before that I wanted to share some photos from today.

Last week I shared a post all about hands on activities for learning word families, and I had a question on another post about whether I do these activities as a whole class or in small groups, or how they look in my own classroom.

I played a game of 'Hop it Out' today with my little munchkins and I thought I would show you an example of how I like to tweak games to suit the group size. The pictures on the right is the one I shared in my post last week, which is a great set-up for a small group situation. For this size grouping my kiddies would use a teddy to help them 'hop it out' and we would use the cards on the carpet. You can read about it HERE.

The picture on the left is from today - the same activity, just in a whole class setting. I had my kiddies sitting in a semi-circle, leaving enough space for my hoops. I started by showing the whole class the picture (ideally I would be using larger pictures and letters), and had the kiddies think about the sounds they could hear in the word. Next, one child hopped up and we sounded out the word. After this we went back through the word and spelled it out using the letter cards. We also had a little practise reading words by putting a word in each hoop and having the kiddies toss beanbags into the correct hoop as I said a word.

This is just an example of how I like to tweak games and activities I find to suit my classroom. Once you start, it is really easy to tweak activities like this.

 Anyway, on to the REAL post...

I haven't got any clever names or such for these activities, so you might just have to cope with my terrible explanations today. These activities are all about different quick and easy ways to decompose numbers. I have used small numbers to make the activities simpler, but I will eventually get around to sharing ideas for larger numbers.

For this activity I have the kiddies look at tens frames (given one focus number at a time), quickly identify the number of dots, and then talk about how you see the dots. This is a great stepping stone for subitizing and number recgonition. This is a great oral activity to do with a whole class with large flash cards. You don't even need to print cards. Just photocopy a tens frame multiple times and either draw on the counters or use sticky dots. Or even better, use a small magnetic whiteboard and magnetic counters to show numbers quickly and easily.

This is such an important skill that repetition is the key. To avoid my munchkins getting bored I like to mix it up with different manipulatives - blocks, teddy bears, two-sided counters and beads are just a couple of ways you can keep this concept fresh for your own kiddies. In each activity, give the kiddies a starting number and have them experiment to decompose their number, show it, and record it.

Who doesn't love bowling? And I just adore these little 'Old McDonald's Farm' skittles I picked up at a clearance store, and so do my kids! You can make your own with old bottles with a little rice in the bottle. I have a set made up with mini coke bottles, rice inside, a foam sphere on top and painted with bright acrylic paints which work just as well :)

This was is great for whole class activities it is much larger and all kids love playing with beanbags.

More ways to show decomposition. I have found that sometimes it can help to show the different parts in separate containers. I also like to use my flash cards with tens frames on them to help kids visualise the numbers.

And this is a quick game which my kiddies enjoy playing in my guided math groups for decomposing the number 10. They each have 10 cubes to begin with and a blank tens frame, whiteboard and marker, and a die. The kids roll their die and place that number of cubes in the tens frame. They they work out how many more will make 10 by looking at the empty squares and write their response.

Lastly, this is a very cute idea I found over at the Math Coach's Corner. Donna has shared a few different ideas for how to use these cards within a guided math context, which you can check out HERE.

Anyway, that's all from me :)

Hope you have a great night all and... TGIF!!!!!

Learning Number Words

Every early years teacher knows that number words can be tricky to teach and even trickier to learn. Below are some fun, hands-on games that can help make this a little more fun for you and your students :)

Number Puzzles

A quick and fun activity for connecting number names, numerals and collections. The best part about this is that you don't need any expensive materials or equipment - just a pen and some paper! By making them yourself, you can also interchange different ways of representing a number. You could easily swap out tally marks, pictures, or 5 or 10 frames. Either work as a whole class or as small groups - either way this is great practise for your little kiddos.

Number Word Bingo

An oldie but a goodie! Pretty self explanatory. Again, no need for expensive materials, cardboard, markers and counters will do. Add in some practise writing numbers by having the kiddies create their own boards with whiteboards and markers.

Number Word Hop

This one is great for any concept you want to teach. Use cards on the carpet with fly swatters or write words on the carpet and have the kids hop on them.

Paper Plate Match Up

I love my paper plate numbers :)

Read 'n' Toss

More practise reading and recognising number words, and connecting them to numerals. Again, just plastic buckets or bowls from a $2 store or paper plates, paper and pens, and whiteboards if you like.

Read 'n' Write and Roll 'n' Write

Both these games play the same way and are great practise writing number names. Display the number names you are going to focus on for the kiddies to refer to and to encourage correct spelling throughout the game. Either display a numeral or roll a die with numerals on it and have 2 or 3 kiddies find the matching number word and write it on a whiteboard. If you were to display the words a little larger and had a class set of whiteboards you could easily have the entire class writing the words at the same time.

Word Puzzles

A pen and some cut up paper and you have a fun word puzzle ready to go. To make it easier I have written each number on a different coloured paper. This would be good to add to a math rotation and have your kiddies write the nuber words they make on whiteboards, or make a few sets and challenge small groups to build the number words together.

Do you have any fun games that have helped your students learn number words?