Monday Made It, a Winner & a Freebie

I was excited when I checked 4th Grade Frolics and found that Monday Made It was back.

 Here is a sample of my newest product that I have in the works.  Our corporation wants primary teachers to display numbers & number words, ten frames, number bonds & the "story" of numbers.  I wanted to  make something cute that wouldn't take up a ton of space.  Look for it in my TpT store in a couple of days.

 

If you've been following my blog, you know that our  little bitty apple trees gave us a bountiful harvest.  Here's hubby making his second apple pie! 

 I had hoped to link up the pictures of the teeny tiny christening gown earlier, and now I have my chance to show it off!  Click HERE to see the original post.

And, we have a winner!  Congratulations to Breanne S.  You have won all 42 of my current paid items in my TpT store and a 2014 Chevron Life Planner from Kinder Cakes

And, now for the Freebie!  Here is a number bond set you can use on your focus wall or in a math center.

 Head over to Lucky to Be in First to find some more fabulous freebies!

                                           

Five for Friday - Number Bonds Edition

I'm in a Linky mood tonight!  I am now linking up with Doodle Bugs for another fun linky. I love to visit all the great bloggers who link up, and my "following" list is growing.  (Hint, hint... If you follow me, I'll follow you.  Just leave me a comment & I'll pop over to your blog.)

 This past week my Kinders have been hard at work making number bonds and transcribing them into number sentences.  They have really grasped onto the concept and have had fun spotting number bonds in our environment!  Here are five things we did this week.

1.  We collaborated to make number bond posters.  The kiddos enjoy working together to make  posters for our Focus Wall.

 2.  We used these super cute work mat and animals from Learning Resources to make number bonds.  (Number card is an oldy-moldy card left over from our Saxon math series.  We use them all the time!)

 3.  Piggy number bonds!  Using tiny pigs to act out part-part-whole is lots of fun!  I have number bond flash cards available on my TpT store.  HERE

 4.  Flipping number bonds.  We flipped ten coins to complete the number bonds: part were heads, part were tails.  This was definitely a noisy activity, but they had lots of fun.  It was cute how excited they got when then got "doubles!"  There is something extra fun when you add the same number twice.  :-)

 5.  Looking for number bonds.  We took advantage of the beautiful weather one day and took a walk.  With "clipboards" (paper secured by a wooden clothespin onto their white boards) in hand, we went out to search for number bonds around the school.  The cars below were perfect:  2 silver cars and 1 blue car make 3 cars!  After we came inside the search continued.  While seated one student exclaimed, "We have a number bond at our table!  Two girls and two boys make four kids!"

I really can count.  Really!  I know this is #6, but I wanted to share the activity we did in our math station this week.  Get your freebie here.

Five for Friday

Once again, I'm linking up with Doodles Bugs for a Five for Friday linky party.  

1.  Yay!  No school today!  (Don't get me wrong... I love kindergarten, but an extra day off now & then sure is nice.)  We had today off because it was one of our built-in snow days.  We only had one snow day - which was made up yesterday - so today was a day off!  The really nice thing about today was that it was really nice outside!  Not that I did any yard work or anything,  (Some of you may have read in earlier posts that I really dislike gardening:  too much dirt, too many weeds, far too many creepy crawlie critters, etc.)  I did, however, take advantage of the beautiful weather to try out my new running shoes.

2.  Yes, I now own some running shoes!  It wasn't really that long ago that I didn't own any athletic shoes of any sort.  When I taught preschool I subbed for the local elementary schools on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Once I got a call to fill in for a PE teacher, but had to turn down the opportunity because I didn't own gym shoes!  (I do, however, have a bunch of cute heels!)  Our school nurse has organized a 'couch to 5K" program for the staff.  Wish me luck!

3.  Here is my new Decomposing Dinos Number Sense game.  I made it to give my Kinders practice composing & decomposing numbers to 20 using five and ten frames.  We recently read If the Dinosaurs Came Back in our reading series, so I thought it would be fun to have a dinosaur game for our Math Station.  Of course, I had to give it a *clever* name.  (Feel free to groan!)

 PS  Be sure to have your kiddos roll a die on each turn or it will take forever to finish the game.  I forgot to mention this in the instructions.

4.  In addition to working on composing & decomposing numbers with five and ten frames, we spent time working with number bonds this week.  Here's a little freebie for you!

To help my Kinders understand "whole" we put students in Mrs. Teddy's class.  Part of them went to work with Mrs. L. and part of them went to work with Mrs. S.  This really happens - part of the kids leave to work with different people all throughout the day, but they are still included in our whole group.  We aren't done yet with the concept of part-part-whole, but they are understanding the concept!  What lil smarties I have!  :-)

5.  I just finished reading Bowled Over, a cute mystery in a new series.  The next two books I have in queue are Sleeping Arrangements  and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.  I'm not sure which to start.  I love both authors!  All three books are real books.  I have both the nook & Kindle apps on my ipad, and sometimes purchase books to "e-read."  But, my sister and I often trade books, so I am more inclined to select the real deal.  Which type of book do you prefer?

Swimming with Number Sense

I do lots and lots of activities designed to help my Kinders to develop a strong sense of numbers.  One of the basic principles of Singapore math is to work with manipulatives, practicing skills until mastery.  My kiddos really love math!  In order to keep their interest and enthusiasm up, I like to create fun themed activities.  Here are some pics of one of my newest TpT offerings.

Under the Sea Number Sense Activities available on TpT

 After making five in different ways using counters (darn - I wish I had taken a picture...) the Kinders colored their fish and arranged them onto light blue paper to create a fish tank craft. 

I read Memoirs of a Goldfish earlier, inspiring many of the fish tank designs! 
                                            

 Seven seahorses swimming in the ocean.  Two are hiding behind seaweed, five are not hiding.  We had fun acting out number stories with paper seahorses & seaweed.

 Students worked in pairs to create seven in different ways using two sided foam counters on a work mat, and then recorded their combinations onto this number bond page.

  Octopus Eights.  An octopus is the perfect sea animal to use when making eight!  The cute sea creature clip art is from Teacherlisasclass.blogspot.com   http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lisa-Parnello

How Many Ways Can You Make Ten?

Our corporation's math series is modeled on the Singapore method of teaching math.  I had never heard of "Singapore math" until we adopted this series two years ago, and I must say I am a fan of this methodology.  Lots & lots of hands-on practice with a variety of manipulatives really does help Kinders to learn and to understand math concepts.  This past week we worked very diligently on making ten in a variety of ways with... a variety of manipulatives.  Here are some pictures of my cuties hard at work.

In the top two photos the students used our trusty number bracelets, two-sided counters, and ten frames from Sparkle Box to make ten in different ways.  The pictures below show students counting on from a given number and hopping to ten.  Get this in my Buggy for Addition set.

 
 These pictures show Kinders using the bug jar work mat from Buggy for Addition and counters to make ten (some in the jar & some out of the jar).  They recorded their number bonds on this Number Jars freebie.

 Here they are using linking cubes on the caterpillar work mat from the Number Jars freebie and a number bond page from Building Number Sense to continue practicing making ten in different ways.

I'm so proud of my little kiddos!  They worked very hard all week long As a reward for their diligence, they got to enjoy playing a favorite game:  Seahorse vs. Fish WAR!

...Speaking of this game, I am linking up with Teaching Addict for their Ultimate Freebie Celebration.  I was tickled to see my little seahorse - fish game mentioned on their guest list page!

Jolly Snowmen Pack Winner & a Sale

Congratulations to Amy M.!  She won all five of my Jolly Snowman packs.

Amy M. won these snowmen packs.  You can get them on sale at my Teachers pay Teachers store!

Number Bond Flash Cards

Cupcake Literacy Activities

Visit my Teachers pay Teachers store for a sale featuring these, and several other, items.

Learning Stations & a Math Craft

Here are the stations we began last week.  They will continue tomorrow and Tuesday.  We'll begin new activities on Wednesday even though the four day Thanksgiving weekend is coming up. 

Listening Station.  If you haven't read this book, try to get a copy before Thanksgiving.  It's really funny!

                                      

Mrs. S.'s Station.  This is week 2 of a three week rotation of sight word activities.  My two partners and I are taking turns with three of our Lakeshore Learning file folder activities.  We love these ready-made centers!  (But, I'm sure Mrs. S. is going to be tired of them at the end of the three week rotation...)  The candy jar page is something from an old book belonging to one of my partners.

 

Writing Station.Students write a sentence (or two) about Thanksgiving using the sight words we have studied thus far.  As for the other words, they are encouraged to use their "best kindergarten spelling."  So far, I have been pretty impressed!  :-)  Here is the writing page.

Word Work Station.  Super simple - this web is from the resource book included in our Reading series.  The Kinders trace the letters (T and I - not shown), and look for words that begin with the letter to write on their webs.  This seems so easy, but they have fun searching for the words!

My Station.  Another one of our nifty Lakeshore Learning Instant Learning Centers - week 2 of another three week rotation.  In this activity students sort out a variety of interesting items.

As with most of our Learning Stations, we like to have the students complete a worksheet or record sheet of some kind so that we can check their understanding, and give parents something to see. This page is from the old book (from my preschool days) pictured below.

Math Craft!  We have been working and working and working on numbers, so I thought that it would be fun to make a craft featuring numbers!  The kids loved making these links (in school colors) to show different ways to make six. 

Now that I am writing this, I realize I should have taken a picture of the first step...  Using the number 6 number bracelets, the Kinders arranged their beads as desired.  The number on the top of the bracelet represented the number of yellow links, and the number on the bottom showed how many green links.  They transferred this information onto their number bond page.  Once this was done, the fun of creating the links began!  And, I am happy to say that it went pretty smoothly.  As you can see from the pictures above the craft turned out very well. 

Building Numbers 3 - 5

We have spent quite a bit of time working with numbers - composing and decomposing the numbers 3 - 5.  My Kinders have really enjoyed using a variety of manipulative to create number bonds.  Our corporation adopted Math in Focus - a Singapore approach to teaching math.  I really like the hands-on nature of this method of teaching math.  And, I think the Kinders like it, too!

Here are the anchor charts I made for the numbers 3 - 5.  They aren't very fancy, but they do the trick!

 

I know this is weird - the kids being backwards and all - but here is a glimpse of an activity we did to learn about the number 4.  Hula hoops were used to make life sized number bonds.  The kids stood inside the hoops to show part - part - whole.

These cupcake puppets are included in my number bond kit on Teachers pay Teachers.