Counting Dots Game

I needed a quick math game to fill some time one day.  My lesson just didn't take as long as expected.  The kiddos really liked playing the following game.

Directions...

1.Place a bucket of linking cubes and a pair of dice on each table.

2.  The first player will roll the dice and count the dots.  Then, he/she will collect corresponding number of cubes. 

3.  The next player will do the same.

4.  Play continued in this manner until one of the players has reached 30 cubes or 3 sets of tens.

*NOTE*  If needed, use one die and play til a player reaches 15.

GoGo Math: Part 2

Check out my previous post on GoGo Math to learn how to use GoGo's for addition and subtraction before reading this post.

Here's How To Play:

Write the numerals 0-20 on index cards and shuffle into a pile.  Lay the pile near the players face down.

Line up 10-20 GoGo's in a row on a hard surface such as a table top or hardwood floor. 

Select one of the GoGo's and flick it at the line up.  Try to knock down as many figurines as possible.

Count how many GoGo's are knocked down.

Draw a card from the numeral stack.

State if your # of GoGo's is greater than, less than or equal to the numeral on the card.  For example: you knock down 5 GoGo's.  The numeral on the card is 8.  You would state... 5 is less than 8.

It's that simple.

Ocean Counting Book

image from amazon.com

I read George's Store at the Shore by Francine Bassede. It is a simple book about a duck named George and his cat setting up a beach side store. Children quickly realize that it a counting book. After reading the story, we made our own counting books. My example is below.

Decide how long you want the book to be and write the title, __'s Store at the Shore by __. Have your child decorate the front cover to look like a day at the beach.

I used a repeated phrase for the text in our book, so that the children could easily remember the text and begin to use one-to-one pointing to read the words. The phrase we used was... I have __ _____s at my store.

For kindergarten, I allowed the children to write the text and decide on a counting sequence (counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, or 10s). For little ones, you would need to write the text for them.

As for the illustration, we wrote a big numeral on the page corresponding to the number of items to be drawn. The children then drew that many items on the page. For little ones, I would use stamps or stickers for the illustrations. I love using stickers because of the novelty and ease of use by kids of all ages.

After the book is completed, point to the words as you read the book to your child. If your child is able, have him/her point to the words as you read. The next stage would be to have your child take over the reading and point to the words as well. At a young age, your child will be doing the reading by memory... which is perfect by the way. Praise all efforts and assist as needed. The repeated reading from memory will quickly place some of the words from the text into your child's memory word bank. Before you know it, your child will be able to read one or two of the words in other contexts as well.

Happy Learning!

Snap It

You will need 10 items that snap together if possible. At school, we use unifix cubes. At home, you could use legos of different colors.

If you do not have anything that snaps together, just gather 10 small items such as pennies. You would then need to alter the activity by placing the items in a line on a flat surface and removing items from that line.

Directions:

1. Count the ten cubes with your child. If this is too many, start with 5 items instead.

2. Explain that you will be taking away some of the cubes and placing them behind your back. Your child will get to see the remaining cubes.

3. Your child's job is to figure out how many cubes you removed and placed behind your back.

4. Your child will need to view the items that are remaining to deduct the answer.

*REMEMBER: It is always important to have children explain their thinking. Ask, how did you figure out how many cubes I have behind my back? How do you know that is the answer? ETC.