The young Kinder students are so open and they will enjoy and learn the attitudes of the adults around them. So, if you feared Math, guess what? Your children will fear it too!
It is all about how you present it and play with it. Yes! I do admit it, I do play, and yes I enjoy playing, it is so much fun! No wonder those kids are so addictive to "playing video games" they do it because it is fun and under the pretense of "playing" children get challenges in front of them and many times they do it without much thought. This is where having young kids addictive to playing video games can get serious. Young children do not have the capacity of decision making like an adult would have. Even teenagers lack it. This will be another post to talk about: when the brain develops decision making in teenagers.
Back to Math, I have been working with a friend who happens to be a Bilingual Mandarin Teacher. I have learned so much, and I want it to include at least the numbers in this Math center, my students are very much enjoying it.
One of the ways in which I have been teaching math is by exposing my students to all different ways we can count--you know, numeric representations: tally marks, number lines, ten frames, dominoes, dice, rekenreks, etc. This build up automaticity and subitizing of the numbers. So that mental math becomes easier and basic operations of addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication become faster so that you do not have to take 10 minutes checking the change you got from the store cashier and you hold up the line.
Math is everywhere!
So one of the activities I do is that I give each student its own copy, so they can create their Chiqui*book. They write their name below the number, we cut it, and staple it on the left corner. I did not want to add page numbers because I want each child to order it their own way.
For the regular Spanish and English Language art Chiqui*books I do place number pages for the sake of reading, but this is more free---if you will.
One of the centers that I create is that I make about 7-8 copies in different cardboard and laminate it. So then, I choose all the ten frames of each number and create a center, I do this with each page of the book. So that there are all those cards in each center. I add the subtraction and addition cards so that students can create their own number sentences. I also add in other centers the Venn diagram that we can of created it as a group----since I have not yet introduced shapes in a formal way--the Venn diagram will go through some metamorphosis later. Right now, it is simple and to the point.One of the games I play with the students is that I set different numbers of strings, so that the students learn to practice counting from that number like 3-9. So the first number is 3---not a 1 or a 0. Another set is 8 to 14, another one is 13-19, so that when the students hold the card up they have to figure out that the first number is an 8 or a 13.
I had to do this activity for a whole week before they started to understand that there was not a number 1 to start the string of numbers. Now, with all the practice they are starting to get it. I will not claim any victory until May. When we have done it over a zillion times. Practice make automaticity and comprehension happen at the same time.
Anyway, what games do you play? Share them here with us, so we can all learn and do them as centers or math activities. I do like the fact that Common Core is bringing and validating that there are different ways to learn. I really like it!
Have a great class day!
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