Is everything ready to go in your classroom but you're struggling to get your students to follow your directions. Do you explain everything very clearly but somehow still find yourself going over simple steps again and again? Do you need something new to try to encourage focus and direction in your lesson introductions?
The Stop Look Listen strategy might be just what you need to try!
Support your students in the classroom with listening - hop back to this blog post to learn more about Stop Look Listen.
Students will work towards an understanding of early addition and by seeing how numbers can combine to make a total. They will count in sets of 1 and 2 to make a total.
use number cards 1-10
1s and 2s are placed in the window spaces (one for the 1s and the other for the 2s)
students flip a number card placing it on the door
students then take 1s and 2s (dot cards) and count with them to the total, placing them in the windows (make piles if multiple cards are needed)
encourage students to count as they go and stop at the total
once the total is reached - here in the photo, 3 - have students discuss how they made the total - e.g. the house of 3 is made with a 1 and a 2, the house of 5 is made with three 1s and one 2.
After playing this math warm up several times, your students may be ready for more work with addition. Find 5 sequenced activities in Math Pack 9 for the addition concept.
Combine counting, writing numbers, craft and creativity with a circle caterpillar craft. Everything one child needs is on one page to print - available to our Pond Coloring Club members.
Your children can:
track (trace inside the lines) the numbers 1 to 5
color or paint the pieces
assemble their caterpillar
After making their caterpillar, play a number game with dice and counters: Butterfly.
Math Warm Up Roll and Cover: Butterfly
roll a standard dice
if you roll a 6, roll again
roll a 1 to start, covering number 1 on your caterpillar with a counter
keep rolling and cover the numbers in counting order
when all 5 are covered- call 'cocoon'
to finish, remove counters, counting backwards
optional: score a butterfly sticker or stamp - collect 5 over the week each time you play (collect on an Itty Bitty for motivation)
Combine learning about 2D shapes in kindergarten with learning letters of the alphabet along with drawing and creativity using my shape drawing pack. It includes step-by-step drawing pages along with sheets for writing too.
Here is the project for the letter k - koala!
To complete their koala, your children will draw:
a circle
pentagons
an oval
a triangle
half circles
After, they can add more detail, paint and cut it out.
Here are the steps to follow along here on the blog:
Find this and more engaging projects for helping your students discover how to draw with shapes, over in my TPT store!
Remind students of the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction while building knowledge of addition and subtraction facts with these house activity cards. There are 59 cards in the pack - you can use all of them or just choose a selection from the board range to suit your grade.
Presented with a triangle of 3 numbers your learners will record 2 addition and 2 subtraction sentences to complete the card. They can do this directly on the card or in their math book, using the activity card as a task card.
the bright colours and clear layout will engage your students
laminate and cut each house or put the page in a sheet protector to write on
use expo markers (dry erase markers) to write-n-wipe
use in math centers, math groups, rotations or for early finishers
easily build fluency and practice facts
Using activity cards like these one, consistently in your teaching program will allow for periods of independent practice - freeing yo on to work separately with small groups of additional students.
I’m so glad you could be here with me on the blog to get some creative ideas for making math fun and skill focused. Bookmark the blog home page so I can help you more regularly.
Integrate writing some swirly s shapes (to support handwriting the letter s) into your fine motor activities with a spaghetti bowl craft!
Your children can trace, color. paint then cut and glue. For extra fine motor practice squeeze white glue onto the spaghetti strands and add wool, yarn or string (entirely optional).
Add a decorative pattern on the bowl too.
Extend the idea into your daily writing warm up or after your formal handwriting lessons with a page of fluency patterns - with a spaghetti twist (see the video below).
Play a letter recognition game too:
take a bowl of magnetic letters (bowl of pasta)
give students a turn to take a letter (not looking) and try for a strand of spaghetti (the letter s)
they must identify the letter sound and suggest a word that begins with the letter sound
line up the spaghetti strands as they are found by various students
aim for six spaghetti strands before the game ends
Creative paper craft activities support your students’ emerging independence, organization and fine motor skills and can help you nurture your classroom community. Students love seeing their work on display and you can use the experience to springboard into a range of language, literacy and math lessons.
Drawing and creating art projects in the classroom helps you integrate creatively, fine motor skills and a springboard for literacy and language activities. Today I wanted to remind you of the penguin drawing I’ve shared with you here on the blog.
Your children can follow along with the steps and then:
paint
add crayon detail
add a background or more drawings
The penguins look great on display for January and you can extend your students’ learning with a follow-up writing activity:
Add some robot fun to your math wall and activities with the new cards in the bundle! In addition to using them as a number line reference they can be an interactive display - with students taking them down temporarily for math activities, games and warm up.
print a second set and have students match as you do daily counting
print them 2-to-a-page for card games
use the plain set for math activity mats
Here is one idea for a Robot Math Warm Up.
Robot Repeat
shuffle the cards
flip the first card and place additional counters on the dot arrangement to make 20
with each counter added, let students make a robot sound
now have the robot repeat the process, but say the number names - the students here will count as you point to (or remove) the counters - e.g. on card 14, they will count 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
There are new pages in the Pond Coloring Club for your children to complete! Here is a page for them to draw an adventure. Talk with them about an imaginary trip they would like to take in 2023, perhaps reading some books about journeys to start. Our Island by the children of Gunana is a lovely read.
If you're not yet in the club, we'd love to have you. You'll find pages to complement your teaching, learning or home program and they are ready to print.
Another page I've just added to the library is this one, where your children can find the matching balloon pairs. They can color them to match using pencils, crayons or paint.
Play a pairs game as a lesson transition too.
Find a Sound Match
this quick transition activity is easy to implement, requires no prep and engages children to help manage the group
ask one child to find something in the classroom equipment that interests them and bring it to the group - e.g. book
optional: have the other students count to 20 while the object is found
ask a second student to find an object (not the same) that begins with the same letter or sound - e.g. ball - and bring it to the group
record both words on chart paper, talking about the letters and sounds in the words (you could draw a balloon shape around both words if you like)
variation: find objects of the same color, shape, material
return objects and choose another student for another round of play
Hot air balloons can be fascinating for children. They are fun to draw, have an interesting history and can ignite a curiosity for a wider unit on transport or travel. If your students are interested, do some research reading and writing about hot air balloons. Explore different modes of transport and talk about how this one is different, charting the ideas your students generate collaboratively on the board or chart paper to come back to during writing activities. In the writing center or in small groups, you can use a structured writing scaffold to support your students writing.
While you're setting up a classroom door display, take a few extra minutes to print a second set of name cards and make a tub of pick-me-sticks to help manage transitions and turns in the classroom.
Simply print, attach to a craft stick and write your students' names. Pop them in a cup, mug, container or tub. I used a small pink planter pot - it's not too heavy but strong enough to hold a class set of names.
My door display sets include editable message boards. You can type or write your classroom name or a simple welcoming message. Here are just a few different ideas for this set:
All those happy faces at the classroom door may provide you with the opportunity to discuss other emotions and feelings with your children too. The little blackboard I used for this photo has a magnetic set on the back to help guide a discussion. It's important for young children to know that there is more than one way to feel and to begin to recognize and identify different emotions.
Have your children count birthday candles onto their cake game mat to practice counting with 1:1 correspondence and establishing the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.
They will roll a standard dice and count the candles.
keep rolling and adding more candles to begin early addition concepts
start with 20 on the cake and take each roll off, establishing and understanding of the take-away concept for subtraction
have students play in pairs and ask them to compare numbers - lining up the candles if needed for direct comparison of numbers (who has most/least - which number is bigger/smaller)
