Hopping into Spring: Fun with Place Value, Reading Numbers, 10 Frames and Addition

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It finally feels like spring and I couldn't be more excited to get the extra time outside and to stop wearing a coat and boots!  With spring break coming to a close and the end of the year in sight, it is very important for me to make sure kids stay engaged and have the skills they need.  I want to share with you today some resources I use in Kindergarten and first grade as spring comes to keep the kids engaged and learning the skills that are most important.

10 Frames and Combinations of 10

I have written before about how much I use 10 frames in the classroom, the importance of kids knowing combinations of 10,  and some of my favorite iPad apps for practicing these skills.  I created this set of 10 frames with frogs and flowers to use at the end of the year to make sure kids have the skills they need.  Want these 10 frames for your own classroom?  You can head to this post and get them for FREE! 

Here I practice combinations of 10 with a K student

Here I use a full ten frame with a partial one to talk with a second grader about combinations of 20.  

Recognizing Numbers

Another important skill for primary students is the ability to recognize numbers.  I use arrow cards, extend that to place value, work specifically on numbers over 100 and seize teachable moments.  Despite my best intentions this time of year my formative assessments are still showing me that some kids still don't have the number recognition skills they need.  

To address these ideas at the end of the school year while still keeping kids engaged, I created 3 different versions of I have, who has? 

Level 1 includes just numbers up to 20.  This is a great version to play with kids who are still a bit shaky on their teen numbers.  

Level 2 has numbers up to 100 with an emphasis placed on numbers that typically challenge students such as 19 versus 91 and 16 versus 60.

Level 3 has numbers up to 120.  This is a great version to play with students who need a bit more practice with those numbers between 100 and 120.  

Addition Facts

I have a few fun spring ways to work on addition facts.  Making sure kids know their doubles is the first step for learning some of the harder facts.  I do this by using a simple doubles game that just takes a dice and some bingo chips.

First I make sure kids can double numbers from 1-6

Next we move onto doubling numbers from 5-10

You can grab this doubles game for your students!  It is a freebie!

I also use my frog and flower themed true/false game to help solidify addition facts and ideas about equality.  

Place Value / Ordering and Comparing Numbers

I made these sweet base 10 cards and a few game to go with them that my K and first graders love using in the spring.  I also use these cards to do other place value activities.  As a busy teacher I love having one deck of cards that has multiple uses!

Kids love using this board to practice using the greater than and less than symbols.  

This year's group of first graders love bingo games!  Same deck of cards, another game!

What spring themes do you use in your classroom?  Please respond in the comments below!

Fun Free Computer Games: Math Madness

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I am always on the lookout for more fun free computer games that provide excellent math practice.  I recently found a new treasure!  

This game is called Math Madness.  It has a basketball theme and its customization options make it a great game for grades 1-5.  Students can work on addition, subtraction or multiplication and can choose easy or hard levels.  Check this out!

The home screen allows you (or your students) to choose the skill and the level

Here is addition set to easy.  Students move the mouse left and right until they are "shooting" from the correct number.  A simple mouse click releases the ball.

Addition on hard.  This is a great way to work on fluency with double digit addition.

Subtraction on easy

Subtraction on hard

If your students are working on multiplication facts, choosing easy multiplication is the right choice!  They are all missing factor problems so your students are really thinking about division!

I love how the hard level of multiplication encourages estimation and thinking about extending the multiplication facts.   

Can you see your students using this game?

Monday Math Literature Volume 41

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If you missed last week's post about my favorite money books, check it out here!

This week I have been thinking a lot about multiplication.  As the school year draws to a close, I am always concerned about making sure my students are solid with multiplicative reasoning.  I have written before about my favorite You Tube songs for multiplication, the best teacher book for this idea and some of the fact strategies my students use.  Today I want to share with you my new favorite math literature book for teaching multiplication.  

You Can Count on Monsters: The First 100 Numbers and Their Characters

This book is beautiful.  I was first introduced to it by an art teacher I work with and immediately added it to my collection.  I have used this book in grades 2-6.

The main concept of this book is prime and composite numbers.  It also can be used to talk with kids about prime factorization.  It shows each number from 1-100 as a series of "prime monsters."  Each prime number is represented by a different monster.  Composite numbers are represented by several prime monsters. 

I have had adults I work with exclaim over this book and how well it helps them understand prime factorization and how prime and composite numbers are different.  The math is presented in such an artistic and easy to understand way that is is accessible to young children.  It is equally as useful with fifth and sixth graders who are learning about factor trees and factor diagrams to help them make the connection to prime factorization.

This has become one of my top 10 favorite math literature books.  It is a must have for anyone who teaches multiplication!

For more practice with prime and composite numbers, be sure to check out this print and play math center!

Teaching Math With You Tube Videos: Teen Numbers

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Recently I posted some of my favorite songs and videos about shapes, counting, multiplication, coins, time, fractions and area and perimeter.  Today I want to share with you some videos about teen numbers.

These can be the most challenging numbers for K-1 kids to learn and this videos are a fun way to reinforce important place value and symbolic notation ideas.

Numbers in the Teens Have a Group of 10

This is a great song focusing on the ten and some more aspect of the teen numbers.  

Numbers in the Teens, They Start With a 1

This is a short but very catchy tune about teen numbers starting with a 1

Teen Numbers Song

I love the connection this song has to numbers on a twenty frame.  It also does a nice job of focusing on them being 10 and some more and takes them through the counting sequence several times.

Numbers in the Teens, they start with a 1

Your students will love watching and singing along with these other kids as they perform this song.

Teen Number Song

Teen Number Workout

What You Tube videos have you been using in the classroom?  Please respond in the comments below!

Follow up your teen number fun with this great craftivity!

Another AMAZING FREE counting tool

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Last week, I posted about Flip Counter which is a great free tool for counting forward and backwards by 1's, 10's and 100's.  After reading this post, a teaching friend suggested another counting tool to me.  

This tool is the Super Sequencer.  As much as I love Flip Counter and will continue to use it in K-3 classrooms, the possibilities for Super Sequencer are amazing.  Check this out!

This is what the start page looks like.  You can enter the start number of your choice as well as what you want to count by.  You then choose if you want it to count slow, medium or fast.  Love the choices!

For young children, I can pick a number under 100 and have it count by 1's

Something else that is amazing: you can enter a negative number and get it to count backwards!

Here is what happens when you click on instructions.  Look at all the options! 

You can enter a decimal number as your start number and/or  your increment!

Here is what it looks like when it is counting.  You can pause it at any time as well hit rewind to start back at the beginning.  

I can see myself using the Super Sequencer in grades K-6!  I love finding a tool that is free and easy to use and can be adapted to so many situations.  

For more fun free ways to increase your students' counting abilities, check out the estimating and counting routines I do in my classroom!

Monday Math Literature Volume 40

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Welcome to the 40th installment of Monday Math Literature.  If you missed last week's post about some of my favorite books for telling time, check it out here!

I have recently been writing a lot about teaching money. I have shared some of my favorite activities for counting coins, you tube songs about money, a computer game and some money activities for morning meeting.

Today I want to share with you a few great books about money!

Bunny Money

This book is part of the very popular Max and Ruby series and is a great addition to any collection.  In this fantastic story, Ruby and Max want to buy their Grandma a birthday present.  They keep spending their money and hope they have enough left to buy her something she is going to love!  I love how this book talks about money and about the relationship between a Grandmother and her grandchildren.

You Can't Buy a Dinosaur With a Dime

I love how this book is written with rhymes and love the opportunities to talk about money.  I also like how this story shows a kids saving his money up for something, thinking about buying it and rethinking his purchase.  It is a great lesson for kids to learn in addition to how to count and work with money!  Learning to save early is important!

How the Second Grade Got $8,205.50 to Visit the Statue of Liberty

This book is the most complex of the money books I use with young students but I love how it teachers a valuable lesson in financial literacy while at the same time being a great jumping off point for discussing money.  

The Coin Counting Book

A must have for anyone who teachings coin values and counting American coins!  Also great about this book is how they show different ways to make the same amounts of money.  Really good, clear pictures make it easy to see even when used for whole group lessons. 

This set of number puzzles in one of my favorite ways to follow up with counting coins at math centers.  

 What are your favorite money books?  Please respond in the comments below!

Check out these other ideas for teaching money!

Teaching Math With You Tube Videos: Coins

How Much Money? Counting Coins

So Does Mine! Coin Identification

A Game for Counting Quarters

Counting Coins with Second Graders

Fun and Free Computer Games: Coin Combo

Number Puzzle Fun

New Blog Design!

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Hi all!  I am so excited to show off my new blog design done by Ruby Slippers Blog Design.  After just over a year of blogging, I was ready to get rid of the generic template and make my blog more personalized and fun!  I have big plans to make my blog even better in the next few months and will be adding a lot to my other pages that you now see displayed at the top.  

To celebrate this big change, I want to highlight 10 of my most popular blog posts from the last year.  If you haven't already, you might want to check them out!

My MOST POPULAR Monday Math Literature was a recent one on learning to make circle graphs using the story Tiger Math. 

My new series on Teaching Math with You Tube Videos has also been immensely popular.  The fan favorite so far has been the ones about Area and Perimeter.  

A topic very close to my heart is making sure kids know their combinations of 10 so I am thrilled with the response I have received to this post on using technology to practice combinations of 10.

Here is a simple and quick way to increase numeracy in your students.  A very popular but short and sweet post about making subitizing cards and double flap dot cards with your students.  So easy to do!

For teachers of students in grades 4-7, here is a must read post on using the area model to teach multiplication of mixed numbers.

Here is my most popular post about math apps to use in the classroom.  These two apps are still some of the most used apps on my iPad

Place value and counting activities are so important in grades K-2, here is a super popular post about all the ways I use place value decks in the primary classrooms

I write about how I use formative assessment a lot on this blog but here is my most popular post on the basics of formative assessment.  

This post about Common Core standards for first and second grade fractions has been amazingly popular.  I have some definite opinions based on research that I have read and my own experiences about teaching fractions.  This will give you some things to think about!

Posted EXACTLY one year ago today, my ideas for increasing additive reasoning using dice has been by far the most popular post on my blog.  It currently has over 9,000 views!  There are ideas for grades K-6.  Easy and low prep, a teacher favorite!

What blog posts have been your favorite?  Please respond in the comments below!