Tracking Temperture

One of the ways I meet math and science standards it to track and compare daily temperatures.  I ask for donations of standard wall calendars so that each child has their own.  Each day we track and compare the temperature.  As we get better at writing numbers we include how many days we've been in school and how many eggs we collect that day.

Another way to track temperature is by filling out a small thermometer and making a thermometer line

like to a number line but with temperature..

This is a picture of my classroom thermometer.  We use the colors to help us determine how to dress for outside time.

 

Goats and Chickens!

Our school is very lucky to have therapy goats and chickens on campus.  Our Kindergarten class has recently taken on the task of the main egg collectors and distributors.  This has led to opportunities for math, data collection and animal interactions as well as inquiry into which treats the animals like the best and questions about the life cycle of a chicken.  Note, we do not have any roosters, therefore our eggs will not hatch.

Our two therapy goats, Cinnamon and Sugar, vying for a treat of carrots from the Kinders.

This is first time a chicken allowed me to pick her up and allowed the children to pet her!

 

After gathering we count the eggs and write the total on our calendar.  We also note the number of each color of egg collected that day.

We use the egg carton as a 12 frame to show the collected number a different way.

Checking the coop.  Note, this is an unusually large number of eggs!

Tic Tac Toe

This ear I am teaching in a new school and in a new district.  One of the district focuses in STEM.  I wanted to challenge myself and my students to daily work on developing and honing problem solving strategies and teamwork, particularly with hands on activities.  I spend the year seeking different games and activities that were very simple to create and maintain and that the students were able to do independently after a initial practice.  Tic Tac Toe came up as a familiar enough game that it was easy for most student to catch on to, but with enough strategy involved to keep them engaged.

I used coffee and oatmeal canister, covered with colorful paper and decorated with Tic Tac Toe designs.  I used a permanent marker to make X's and O's on the lids (4 of each).  The board is a place mat with a grid made of painters tape.  I use a tote bag and the transport and put away container.

The frog glyph and my thoughts on glyphs.

 I have never gotten into glyphs.  I never understood their purpose and they always seemed too complicated and needing too much class time without much learning.
I had an "aha" moment this past weekend listening to Deanna Jump speak at the Minnesota Kindergarten conference.
Mrs. Jump explained that the purpose of glyphs is to create data in a picture form but not to stop there.  Use the data created to make graphs and charts and then interpret the data.
She also stressed that Kindergarten glyph should only have 3 elements.  Any more than that is way too much information.
I was inspired.  I have been looking for ways to do more data analysis types of activities in my ongoing quest to teach math in more integrated and engaging ways.

As part of a recent unit of study on ponds I was able to create my first glyph!
We read several pond stories and all of them included frogs.  Frogs captured the imaginations of my young learners.

Here are the 3 questions in my glyph:
I think frogs are cool = a dark green frog outline
I think frogs are creepy= a light green frog outline

I have touched a frog = big wiggle eyes
I have not touched a frog= small wiggle eyes

I like Jump Frog Jump best = a long red tongue
I like In a Small, Small Pond best = a short red tongue

After creating the data we used graph paper and tally charts to collect the data and compare our numbers using greater than, less than and equal too terminology.

If you are like me and have never used glyphs before I hope you give it a try and see if they inspire you too!

10 Frame Math Games

10 Frame Cookies

You will need the 10 frame cookies and cookie jar.

A 10 frame activity sheet for each student.

Taking turns, each child selects a 10 frame cookie from the jar.  The student then reads the 10 frame and says the corresponding number.  Then the student fills in the 10 frame and the numeral on the activity sheet.

Mystery 2 digit numbers

You will need 2 decks of standard playing cards.

A 10 frame activity sheet or white board and marker for each child.

The game leader draws 1 card from each deck and sets them next to each other making a 2 digit number.

The students read the number, write the numeral and fill in the corresponding correct amounts of 10 frames.

10 Frame Games Activity Sheets

5 Little Muffins and teaching coins and values.

Rhymes and finger plays are great ways to introduce and reinforce content topics.  I found the following rhyme and finger play very useful for teaching subtraction and money.

So, There were 5 little muffins on the bakery shop, (Hold up 5 fingers)
You know, the kind with the honey and the nuts on the top. (Pretend to sprinkle honey and nuts on top of a muffin)
Along came (name a child) with a (name a coin), (Point to child)
And bought 1 muffin and ran away. (Hold up 1 finger and pretend to run away)

Final verse after all 5 muffins have been purchased the last line is.
What!? No muffins today!
Oh well, I guess I'll have a doughnut.

I created this visual manipulative game, a book and a rhyme card.
I used a metal muffin tin (test it first as not all muffin tins are magnetic).
I created muffins using foam sheets, permanent marker, hot glue and round magnets.
I created magnetic coins by hot gluing plastic coins to magnets.  I made 5 pennies, 5 nickels, 5 dimes and 5 quarters.  I introduce 1 coin at a time and as we recite the poem the child named trades a coin for a muffin.
After each verse count the coins and their values.

Counting by 5's

" Make a straight line over, then a strait line down, then a nice big curve half way around!  It's a real cool  number, come on let's try, sing along with me and COUNT BY 5'S! "  So goes the count by 5's song on Jack Hartman's Math All Around Me CD.  To enhance this song, and make the numbers more meaningful I made count by 5's gloves.

I acquired 5 sets of orange rubber gloves and 5 sets of blue rubber gloves.  I wrote the numbers needed to count by 5's in a pattern on each pair.  For example, 5 and 10 are on a set of blue gloves, 15 and 20 on orange and so on.  I did this so that if I had a small class, each student could have a pair of gloves but the numbers would still be in order.
To use the gloves, we stand in a circle and I pass out the gloves in order.  Some students get 1 glove, some get a pair, depending on class size.  As we sing the song, the student displays the number we are counting.  (I stand behind the correct number the first few times until the kids get used to holding up their number.)  I point out that each glove has 5 fingers, so we are counting 100 fingers by 5's.  A whole lot faster than counting 100 fingers by 1's!
Later on I will let the students use the gloves independently to put in order and count by 5's.
This also makes a great small group math game or center.

Boo Bowling

Draw a simple face on a piece of paper, attach to any type of stand alone container and you have a set of pins!

Halloween and our study of 3 dimensional shapes happen at the same time.  Here is  a fun, hands on Halloween and shape game.  Create a set of ghost pins by drawing a simple face on a white piece of paper and taping it to cylindrical shaped containers.  I used oatmeal containers and 1 coffee can.  Make 10 ghosts.

Use any ball or sphere to knock the pins down.

You can also create a graph of how many cylinders each student knocked down to teach graph interpretation and probability.

If you want to be extra thematic the students can wear a cone or pyramid shaped witch's hat or birthday hat and/or try using a cube or rectangular prism (made from appropriately sized and shaped boxes, such as a cereal box or  tissue container) to knock the cylinders down.  You can also graph which shape was used to knock the cylinders down and determine which shape is best at rolling.

Happy Bowling!

Number snowball fight

It was one of those days. The clock was ticking and we were not making any real head way with the lesson plans. Every time we gained any momentum something would happen... Like everyone would need to find their workbooks, or everyone needed their pencil sharpened. I was starting to get frustrated. But then, I remembered! Dr. Jean to the rescue. We could have a number snowball fight! Each student gets a small piece of paper and writes a number on it. I had my students make a circle and did a quick check to see that numbers were formed correctly. Then we crumpled our papers and had a snowball fight! After about 40 seconds I had each student pick up 1 snowball, uncrumple it and read the number. Then we did another round of throwing the balls. Repeat until all stress is relieved.

80th Day pie pan Frisbee

This was the easiest Zero the Hero project I have ever done!

I acquired a number of pie tins from my mom. I wrote 80 in the bottom of each with a permanent marker. The kids traced the 80 with white glue and added some glue embellishments.
Then we poured glitter into the bottom of the pie tin and gently shook it to cover all the glue.
I poured the excess glitter off.
We allowed them to dry and then practice throwing our new Frisbee 80 times.

Zero the Hero egg carton game

Try this fun and easy to make game next any time Zero the Hero visits! All you need are egg cartons (1 per student and enough to cut one egg cup per student), markers and cards.
Each student receives and egg carton and writes a unit of 10 on each cup. A sticker can be stuck on the extra cups to mark the beginning and ending spots of the game. Each child also receives 1 separate egg cup to decorate like Zero the Hero. (I glued water bottle caps to the tops of mine for easy grabbing.) Then each child makes a set of cards with the units of 10 written on each card. We used Shari Sloane's Zero the Hero cards .
To play each child needs to mix up the cards and place them face down. Then the top card is drawn and Zero the Hero is placed on the matching unit cup. This process continues until all the cards are drawn. When there are no cards left the student wins!

Patterning stations

I made this patterning activity with foam stickers and clothespins. I hot glued to stickers to the clothespins. The children use a ruler to clip a pattern.
These giant shape stamps are perfect for little hands. Students use paper strips and shape stamps to create shape patterns.
These linking family members were a "gift" from the Highlights Magazines. These are great for patterning by size.
This patterning mat set was available through Scholastic Firefly and Seesaw book clubs. I was able to use bonus points to order the set. The shapes a foam and the patterning mats help guide students.

Zero the Hero

Zero the Hero is a fun counting character used in Kindergartens all over the world. I put my own twist on this character. I ask a first grader, someone who had been in my class the year before to come in and be Zero the Hero. They dress up in the zero costume and bring in the bag of 0 activities. They wish everyone a happy _0th day and quickly depart. The first grader has an easier time doing this then Kindergarten students who tend to fee shy around their peers. And it is harder to guess the secret identity of the first grader.

Happy counting!

Number Worms

This idea teacher number sense, numeral recognition and is basically free to make! Plus the extra bonus of recycling. These are number worms. The heads are made out of the tops of creamer containers (such as Coffeemate, seen here) The creamer container tops already make a cute face. I added eyes and wrote numbers for the noses. The students create the body segments by adding the correct number of caps from other beverage containers. You can also write a math problem on the worm faces for a more challenging game. This is great as a center or even a take home activity. It is important to wash all the tops in hot soapy water and be sure they dry thoughly before using.

Mitten Match

During the winter months I like to brighten up my teaching with these colorful mittens. To make them you need a few sheets of compressed felt, (available at craft stores, it is the kind of felt that is stiff), fabric glue, buttons, fabric paint and other assorted trinkets. Cut out pairs of mittens and decorate them so that they are identical. These are great to use for math activities like matching, teaching the terms: alike, same and identical. These are also great for pairing students for other activities. Once they have been used in whole group, they can be part of a center or a choice time activity.

Reindeer Toast

Kindergarten cooking projects are one of those things that teach direction following skills, spacial sense and they are just plain fun!

I love doing reindeer toast because it is so easy to prepare and the kids love to assemble the reindeer.

You will need:

A loaf of bread and a toaster. I like to use a 4 slot toaster so that more children can get their toast at a time.

peanut butter or in case of a peanut allergy, chocolate frosting or other spread.

pretzels

chocolate chips

read candies for the nose.

Toast the bread and cut in half forming 2 triangles. Spread the peanut butter on the toast. Add the pretzels, chips and red candies to make a reindeer face. Eat and enjoy!

Halloween Math

I learned the following two games at a work shop from other kindergarten teachers and I've used them every year since. They are a nice structured way to celebrate, that includes learning and also lets the kids have some candy without going overboard.

This game is called Bag of Bones and requires a small supply of the different skeletal shapes. I found the bones candy in the Oriental Trading catalogue 2008 Halloween #20566D1, item #NY-25/4641 Bones Candy
Oriental Trading's phone # is 800-228-2269
So, you make a graph by drawing or tracing the shapes several times. Be sure to leave a space for students to write the number of bones they find. The students receive a bag of bones and graph the different types of bones on the correct line. Then the student writes the number in the space provided.
If buying candy is not an option, I've also made several copies the the different skeletal shapes on different colored construction paper, cut them out and made a "bag of paper bones" for students to sort, graph and count.

I also really like this game, ghost count. To prepare, you need white beans, several small containers and the ghost count sheet. Mark the white beans with 2 permanent marker dots. These are the ghosts. Put 10 ghosts in a film canister or other small container. The students shake the container and pour the contents out. Then the student counts the number of ghosts with eyes facing up. They note this by coloring a ghost next to the correct number. The game can be played until all ghosts are colored or it becomes time to stop. I save the ghosts containers to use year after year, but I have to check them because the "ghosts" can disappear.

To save paper I copy both the bag of bones and ghost count back to back because I know we will play both games.

Tricky Teens

This ideas is to help students identify their teen numbers and be able to pair up. I made paper cut outs of bread slices. I put paper jelly on half and paper peanut butter on half of the the bread slices. Then I wrote one of the teen numbers 10-20 on the peanut butter slices and made a matching jelly slice. When I want to pair kids up I pass out the bread and instruct them to find their match and make a sandwich.