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Category: Mathematics -The Elementary Years

Big Dice for Little Kids – Practicing Number

Big Dice for Little Kids – Practicing Number

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How do we get our young children comfortable with numbers? We count things with them. Lots and lots of things. We count the number of forks on the table, the number of grapes on the plate, the number of pennies in our pocket. Counting just becomes something we do. Here’s a fun, hands-on project that turns counting into a game. You’ll need: -1-2 empty “cube” tissue boxes (the boxes are not exactly cubes, but close enough) -colored construction paper -glue…

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Pocket Chart Sorting and Classifying in Grades K-1

Pocket Chart Sorting and Classifying in Grades K-1

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Got lots of left-over greeting cards? Here’s one fun way I found to use them with kindergarten and first graders. I sort the cards into two categories and the students try and figure out my rule. In the example above, I sorted the cards into pumpkins and hearts. It was pretty easy for students to figure that one out. But, after that, they can get pretty tricky and student really need to look carefully for similarities within groups: cats vs…

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Family Math Night – Posing Thinking Questions

Family Math Night – Posing Thinking Questions

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Our most recent Family Math Night event was done at an International Baccalaureate (IB) elementary school. The two teachers I was working with to organize the event wanted to find a way to include an inquiry-based question for students to answer. Their students have had a lot of practice with inquiry-based curriculm, which is a heavy component in the IB program, so it would have been a missed opportunity had we not tied IB in with math night. We decided…

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A Yummy Way to Practice Number Facts

A Yummy Way to Practice Number Facts

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How yummy is this activity! Oh yeah…and it’s a fun way to practice beginning number facts. I use the double six dominoes, but it’s easy to diferentiate by providing only dominoes that represent the facts you want students to work on. In other words, if you have a student who is still struggling with adding one to a given number, then use only the dominoes that have one dot (pip) on one side. For example, five dots on one side…

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