Bonds to 10... Friday Game Day

This little game is great for practicing Bonds to 10 (or rainbow facts, friendly numbers - they seem to have many names!). I haven't played it in my class for a while, but I was playing with a group of kids this week and they loved it, so I thought I'd share it with you too :)



Here is a little free Bonds to 10 poster

To play this game, you'll need a 1-10 die or a 1-10 spinner and each player will need a piece of paper (or little whiteboard) with the numbers 0 - 9 on it.

This spinner is from my freebie on TPT... click here to download :)

To play, the first person rolls the die/spin. Then, on their whiteboard/paper, they need to cross off the number that goes with it to make 10.

So, if I rolled a 3, I would cross off the 7. Then, the next player then has a turn. The winner is the first person to have all of their numbers crossed off!

I normally play the game in pairs... if the groups get too big it can get a bit tricky. Also, I often start off giving kids a copy of the rainbow facts to refer to, which I take away as they become more fluent with them.

It's such a simple game that doesn't need a lot of prep, but its really effective, and kids love it!

Goodbye laminator :( and some favs

 

We're nearly half way through term 3 now... time is flying! I have had such good intentions to blog in the last couple of weeks, but somehow it just hasn't happened!

The week started off with a bit of a laminator crisis...

 

I let my daughter put in a laminating sheet without watching what she was doing (WRONG move) and a sheet got jammed. It started making all sorts of not-very-good noises and then seized up altogether!

To top it off, I sat down to write this post tonight and my laptop has given up the ghost :( I'm just not having much luck at the moment!

But back to more positive things...I was having a look for different maths resources during the week, and I thought I'd share a couple of my favourites.

This first is my absolute favourite maths book - it's my go-to book for whenever I'm planning or have any questions about maths concepts and how to teach them.

Teaching Primary Mathematics.. (Booker, Bond, Sparrow and Swan)

This book is AMAZING! It's quite pricey (I think I saw it for $115 at a book seller stall the other week) but totally worth it! Written in a really easy to read but comprehensive manner, it covers the concepts that kids need to know, the sequence for learning, common misconceptions and examples of activities too. PERFECT!

 

Another resource that I love to use in the class, are the Targeting Maths Literacy books. There are four sets, each has a big book and 12 (I think) small books to go with it.

 

Here's one set of the small books

 

They're suitable for Reception-2 and cover a range of topics from Number through Measurement and Geometry. I love using the big books with the class as a part of our whole class focus time, but I find both the big and little books are popular with kids when they have free reading time. The little books are also fantastic for small group work - I use them when I have support staff in my room - they can take a book and a couple of kids and focus on a particular strategy or concept.

I would love to hear about some new maths resources....what is your favourite?

Roll, add and colour... an easy dice game

This week's game is a little bit late for Friday game day..... but better late than never! ;)

 

 

 

This game is great for practicing addition, but it can easily be adapted for subtraction or multiplication... and it's so easy to differentiate. To play, you need two players, a couple of dice (0-6 to start with, or 1-10 for those kids who are more confident with their addition), a different coloured pencil each and a photocopy of the game board.

 

Player 1 rolls the dice and then adds the numbers together. they then colour that number of squares on the game board. Player 2 then has a turn and the game continues until all squares are coloured in. The person with the most squares in their colour is the winner!

 

For older kids, I use graph paper, and have them multiply the numbers on the dice - it's a great way to reinforce multiplicative thinking using Arrays.

 

This game is great for early finishers, as a Maths warm up or for those times when you have a spare 10 minutes before the bell goes (not that this happens very often in my class though... we always seem to run over time!)

 

If you'd like to grab a copy of the game board, just click here :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'My House' freebie

 

Hi!

 

I've been working on a resource lately - well, trying to, it's been a pretty busy time in our house with both my little ones hit with gastro :(  I thought I'd share a page from it with you.

 

It's basically a little activity to get students thinking about Number in the context of addresses and house numbers. As a part of History in the new Australian Curriculum, we look at families, so I thought this would be a nice little way to tie in some Number work with that theme.

 

Graphics c www.KPMdoodles.com

If you'd like a copy, just click here :)

 

I'll be back with a game for Friday Game Day tomorrow (hopefully!)... have a great end of the week :)

 

 

 

Beginning of term Sorting Assessment

This has been first week back for the term for me, and it's been busy! I've hit the ground running... which is probably a good thing - otherwise the term is half gone before I realise it!

I'm working across classes R-7 and I thought I'd share the simple little activity we did in one of the Reception classes this week. We have termly intakes in S.A. (for the last time, we start annual intakes next year) so we've had quite a few new kids in the Reception classes this week. Perfect time for a simple little formative assessment activity to get an idea of where the newies are at, as well as seeing how the older kids are travelling!

We gave each child a copy of this sheet (enlarged to A3 so the pics were easier to cut out)....





Click here for a copy of this page, and one other :)



....and asked them to sort the shapes in a  way that made sense to them. We didn't give many instructions, as we really wanted to see how the kids went about it. It was really interesting to see the different ideas kids had, and to get an idea of their sorting and classifying skills.

To extend those kids who could easily classify the objects, we asked questions such as...

Can you count and record how many are in each group?

Can you order the groups from smallest to largest?

Which group has the most/least?

What other ways could you have sorted....?

Are there any objects that could have fitted into more than one group?

We recorded the conversations with students and their explanations on their sheet so we have a record of their thinking..... a simple but effective way to get a snap shot of kids' understandings!

Problem solving pizzas!

 

Last week of holidays for me (and it's rained ALL week long!), so I've been busy planning for the term. I thought I'd share a little problem solving activity that I'm planning for one of the classes that I'm working with this term (I'm working as a Numeracy Coach for the rest of the year). It's a simple little activity to develop problem solving skills using a pizza theme. The class is a multi- year level class, and there's a pretty wide range of abilities, so I wanted to make an activity that could be easily differentiated, using the same material.

 

I'm going to give each student (or pair) a paper plate (which will be their pizza) and a set of pizza toppings (thanks Scrappin Doodles!). Basically, all kids are going to be working on a question relating to making pizzas, just at different levels.

 

 

 

Level 1:

Design a pizza for your friend/parent/teacher. How many pieces of topping are on there? What is there the most of? Least of?

 

Level 2:

I'm making pizza for me, my husband and my two kids. We each want pineapple pizza. Each will need pieces of pineapple, can you help me work out how much pineapple I will need?

 

Level 3:

Each pizza needs 5 pieces of pineapple and 6 pieces of tomato… how many pieces of topping altogether?

 

Level 4:

My daughter's two friends are going to join us for dinner. How many pieces of pineapple now? If a can has 15 pieces in it, how many cans will I need?

 

 

I asked my daughter to have a go at the first question - she really enjoyed it! Hopefully the class does too!

I'll let you know how it goes! :)

 

 

Friday Game Day - The Tens and Ones game

 

 

 

It might be holidays but I've remembered its Friday.... I obviously need a few more weeks holidays! I love it when I forget the day - a sign that I'm truly relaxed and enjoying holidays!

 

Today I thought I'd share a game that was actually taught to me by one of my Prac teachers when I was at uni... it's a game I've played with so many classes since and it's always really popular.

 

 

I call it the Tens and Ones game - not very creative, but it does the trick!

 

The game is played as a whole class, and is great to use as a 'warm up' game with your class at the beginning of you Maths lesson.

 

To start, you will need a pack of cards (Ace=1, picture cards=0) and you'll need to draw the following groups on the board:

 

 

 

The aim of the game is to get one number in each group before getting three strikes. One student takes two cards from the deck of cards and then makes a number from them (for example, if I pulled a 2 and a 4, I could make 24 or 42) and writes it in the correct group.

 

 

 

The next students than takes two cards and does the same, if you can't make a move (the group already has a number in it) a strike is recorded. you continue playing until either all groups are filled (game won!) or you get three strikes (game lost!).

 

 

An easy, fun card game that's great for developing place value concepts as well as strategic thinking :)

 

Which cards games do you like to play with your class?