Rainbow teen numbers freebie

We are celebrating St Patrick's day this week in my room. We started talking about leprechauns this morning...it's always funny to me to hear them recount the havoc that leprechauns caused in their VPK rooms the year before. We read Jack and the Leprechaun and then talked about what kind of treasure we would want a pot filled with other than gold. Then we did this super cute crafitvity (thank you Pinterest) from Peace, Love & Learning. I forgot to snap pics of their writing but some of my favorites were "spiderman toys" "monster trucks" and "donuts".  

We also did a  directed drawing activity for a leprechaun. They turned out hilarious. You can download the instructions here.

 We have been working a LOT with hammering in the base ten concept with teen numbers. It seems like they get comfortable with it but it doesn't always stick. Today we built the numbers together using some base ten blocks and then I set them loose with their own set to build and record the numbers. It was great to see the ones that couldn't be bothered with the blocks because they could decompose the numbers fluently, but the others really benefited from using the manipulatives. Hello differentiation :)

You can grab a copy of the activity from google docs by clicking on the picture below.

 Don't forget to head over to TPT to take advantage of some March Maddness savings!!

Getting ready for bats!

Wow...October 14th already?? This fall is FLYING BY. I am so so so excited to start my bat unit this week! It's ironic because I had a "run in" with a bat a few years ago that resulted in my sister and I needing a round of rabies vaccinations. The sounds of live bats still kind of give me the creeps so I might have to plug my ears for some of the the discovery streaming videos I found to use this week ha! We will be using Caitlin Clabby's AMAZING bat unit. Go check out her post with her cute activities here.

I made another set of number bonds to use in math. We are just finishing up decomposing the number 4 and moving on to 5 this week. I'm moving slower through the numbers this year because last year I started to rush it a bit and my kids fell apart when we started decomposing 5 and 6. You can find some number bonds and brace maps for 4 and 5 below. I made a color teacher version of the number bonds also. I usually use these and just stick a post it note over one of the numbers and we talk about what number is "hiding". I think half the reason I'm excited about teaching bats is that KPM Doodles' clip art is just so darn cute! I am trying to use Google Docs again. PLEASE let me know if you have trouble downloading or accessing the file. You SHOULD be able to click on the picture and get to it :)

Scarecrow Number Bonds

Just wanted to share this cute number bond activity for decomposing 4. I started using these last year and they are a great assessment to really see where the kids are in terms of working with a particular number. I copy the two pages next to each other on an 11 x 17 paper so they are nice and big. Stay tuned for more of these as we move through the year and let me know if you download :)


Scarecrow Number Bonds

Lightbulb moment

You know those moments when you come up with a great idea WHILE you are in the middle of a lesson? I had one of those moments on Friday. I was sitting down to sing a counting song with my kiddos and the whole idea came to me about a way to help them visualize base ten concepts with the teen numbers. Frantically I put on a silly song for them to sing with each other and started cutting up index cards, writing numbers and drawing dots.

In my right hand I held up a big index cards with a 10 written on it and ten dots drawn underneath. We talked about what number was there and how many dots were on the card. Next I held up in my left hand a smaller card with the number 1 and 1 dot. We talked about the number and how many dots were there. Then I said "What if I did this" and pulled the cards together placing the 1 card on top of the 0 of the ten and the kids all yelled "11!" So I asked them "What if you wanted to WRITE 11, what would you do?" and they said 1 and 1" Then I said "What if you want to BUILD 11, what would you do?" They thought about it for a second and one said "Put a 1 with the 10" Bingo! So we did this over and over with all the numbers from 11-19. Each time I would ask the process for writing vs the process for building. I would also show them with the number cards how to bring the numbers together to build the number.

I have since made a nicer set of cards (the index cards and marker dots got ruined pretty quickly) and they are up for sale in my TPT store along with a student flap book to go along with the activity.

Click here to find it :)