I recently spent two days in a kindergarten classroom. It was a lovely experience, and I had such fun working with these little children. They were so excited about all of the things they were learning. It was a joy to see them excited and learning new things.
I was in the classroom for two days, and as I was looking at the next day’s lesson, I noticed that they were learning how to count their numbers. However, having experienced their working knowledge of counting numbers the day before, I was quite certain they were ready for more.
I printed off ten frames sheets (example below) and found manipulatives to use in them. When each group came to me for their math lesson, I used the UNO cards the teacher had left, the counting manipulatives (mini-bears), and the 10 frames counting mats to help the students learn a little bit more about counting on and counting backwards.
I explained how to use the mats (we fill them in on the top row starting in the upper left hand and move across the row, if you fill the row then you start on the bottom row starting in the left corner moving to the right.)
I then gave them each an UNO card and had them “make” the number on their 10 frames mat. I had them each share their number and count it using the manipulatives. We did multiple practices of this. They we decided to build the number 11.
You can’t use one 10 frame to build 11, so we used an additional mat. They thought this was great! However, I thought it was great too!
We then worked on the idea of adding up to get a total. How? I had them all start with 7 on their mats. I then asked them to use the bears to figure out how many more bears they would need to get to 10. They grabbed their bears and went to work. They filled the rest of the spots and then reported that they needed 3 more bears.
We did multiple practices of building up to a number and I kept using the terms let’s add. Then I would say what is the sum? I wanted them to understand this new terminology. They thought it was great!
I finished their lesson by starting with a full 10’s board and then asking them, “If I started with ten bears, but I only wanted 7 bears, how many would I have to take away?”
They went to work again, and discovered they would have to take away 3 bears. We kept doing examples until our time ran out. I kept using the words like, take away, and difference so they would start to understand the terminology.
This is a great activity to use to work with beginning math students. It is a great way to help students learn not only counting, but also a great introduction to addition and subtraction.
Give this idea a try! You will be amazed at how this supports your child’s understanding of counting, number building, and introducing addition and subtraction.
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