Fun Manipulative Found at Target's Dollar Spot

If it's the end of July....It's time to check out Target's Dollar Spot for great classroom materials.  I receive no compensation for this.  I just love to share good finds with other teachers!

Today I picked up five bags... yes for a whopping five bucks... of these cool toys:

There are 28 pieces in a bag.  They are advertised as being for children four years and up. These colors were packaged for "girls" and there were primary colored ones for "boys."  I chose these ones because I like the fun colors.    

This is what five bags (140) look like in one of those large school supply boxes:

These toys are great for fine motor development.  They are not hard to snap together or to take apart.

They could be used to make patterns.

They can also be snapped together verically (sorry for the fuzzy picture).

I plan to use them for counting, color sorting, and as a construction toy during free choice centers.

Blessings,

Eilis

Day 3 of the 2014 NAEYC Conference

On Friday morning, I saw Michael J. Rosen present on his book, You, Me, and the ABCs.  He shared many wonderful multi-sensory ideas for caregivers to use in introducing letters to children.  My new favorite is having the kids (sitting in a chair) "write" letter with the toe of one foot.  I will be using this for sight words too!  We were each given a copy of the book in both English and Spanish.  They are available in bulk for as low as $2 a copy by contacting youmeabcs@icloud.com if your school might like to order them for parents.




I also loved a presentation by Peter Nosalik on Learning math without knowing it: Fun ways to integrate early numeracy into all subject areas.  



He shared great ideas for combining numeracy, art, and science.  One of the items he shared were these Straws and Connectors.  I am already a HUGE fan of these.  I purchased them in
August to improve the choices in the block center.
My students love to build large structures with them at center time.  We have also used them to create cubes, rectangular prisms, etc.  They are QUIET.  I store them in a clear shoebox so they do not require a lot of shelf space.  I find that girls are just as drawn to them as boys.
Peter pointed out that they could be used to show how long a whale or dinosaur would be.  I can't wait to try that!  (This is an Amazon affiliate link, but the views I am sharing are my own.)

Check back in the next few days.  I have picked up so many great freebies from all the vendors here, that I have decided to bundle some of them as a giveaway!

Eilis

Free Printable Tally Race to 30

I was inspired to make this printable by a Roll and Tally to 100 that I saw on Tales from a K Classroom. Sara offers a treasure trove of free printables on her blog!  I was unable to print her "50" version, so I decided to create one for tallying to 30.  I will have two students take turns rolling a die or number cube.  Each player will draw the appropriate number of tally marks on his/her recording sheet after rolling the die.  The winner will be the first person to reach 30 (or more).  I will be laminating this for use over and over with dry erase markers.  I love simple math games.

Click HERE to print my free printable.

If you print this, please leave a comment.  Hope you are enjoying the rest of your summer!

Eilis

Dollar Store Day

If it's July, it must be time to start haunting the dollar store for classroom bargains....

Here's what I found at the Dollar Tree today.  (Target, if you are listening....please load up my local Dollar Spot with classroom goodies soon....)

A pack of 20 foam circles (about 6 inches).  I wrote the numbers 1-20 on them in Sharpie marker.  I will pass them out to students to put the numbers in order (as a whole group activity).  I will also have the kids put the specified number of manipulatives on each circle in a math center.

Five (one dollar each) frog bath mitts for acting out Five Green Speckled Frogs at the beginning of the school year. Who can resist those grins?

I have walked by these foam puzzles before, but plan to put the letters in a bag and have kids pull them out of the bag and place them in the frame as a beginning of the year ABC center.  The kids could color this oldie but goodie printable from GrowinginPreK.com for accountability (and fine motor skills).  Click HERE for the free printable:

The original post is HERE

And... happy dance to find lots of the primary lined journals with room for pictures for a dollar each!

Last but not least... These plastic flip top jars were two for a dollar.  I think they will do double duty.  I will use them to hold smelly items for science during a Five Senses unit.  The kids will also count items in them for a beginning of the year math activity.  I need to stop thinking about it or I will go back for more than I have already bought!

Have you found any great bargains yet this summer?

Hugs,

Eilis

Student Rekenreks

Happy dance.....I have been looking for a frame to make my student rekenreks on. I wanted something sturdy, that I wouldn't have to drill, without sharp corners, kid proof, etc.

Target came through again!  I found these sand toys in the summer section for 99 cents each. They stack. They have handles. They come in fun colors (blue, green, orange, and pink).  Does it get any better? Well, I guess if they'd been on sale that would have been better. But I'm still as happy as a teacher on summer vacation!

Hugs,

Eilis

Soccer Odd and Even Number Freebie

Do your students love soccer as much as mine do?  I hope they will enjoy this fun freebie. You can download it at my TPT store.
Two players take turns pulling the numbered soccer balls from a bag.  If the player needs the number, he places it on his mat.  If he does not need the number, he returns it to the bag and his turn is over.  The winner is the first player to fill all five spaces on his mat. There are also game mats without numbers for children who already know which numbers are odd/even. This could also be made into a file folder type activity for independent practice.

The cute clipart is by Kate Hadfield.

I am working on more soccer themed activities, so please follow me here, on TPT, or on Facebook for updates.

Happy Summer,

Eilis

I'm Joining the Rekenrek Fan Club

Last week, I went to professional development class on developing number sense in K-2. Before the class I had a vague familiarity with what a rekenrek was.   After the class, I knew I wanted to use them in my classroom next year.  I spent some time on Pinterest searching for ways teachers made them.  I thought THIS IDEA (free on TeachersPayTeachers) was great. Debi Goodman used two magnetic curtain rods (Walmart) for a demonstration rekenrek.

I tweaked her version a little putting mine on a cookie sheet and using wooden pieces from Hobby Lobby. The bag of 20 was around $3. (Sorry about the fuzzy photo.)

 I also plan to make a student set using pony beads.  I am still deciding whether to put them on foam bases or use something else as a frame.

Here are some more interesting links:
K-5 Math Teaching Resources
Mrs. Kurtas on YouTube

Hope you're enjoying your summer!

Eilis

Whole, Half, and Quarter in Kindergarten

This is a little booklet I had my students make this week.  We are working on equal/unequal parts, whole, halves, and quarters.  I did something similar years ago when the curriculum called for "fair shares."  In that case the wording was "One kid can eat a whole cookie., Two kids can share a cookie..."  with the appropriate number of faces drawn in.  In either case, the kids love adding "chocolate chips" to manila di-cut circles.

I drew lines in pencil for the cookie on the last page to make cutting easier.  This page could also say "4 fourths."

These are two free printables that I made to give my students more practice in coloring a half or a fourth of a shape.  Click on the images to print them.

Of course we also read Give Me Half!



This led to a discussion of how greedy the kids in the book were....

And the pizza restaurant is set up in dramatic play.  I use a set like this one



with pizza pans from the dollar store.  It gives the kids some hands-on experience with fractions.  (We don't actually play the game with the pieces.)

I'd love to hear how you teach these concepts.

Hugs,
Eilis

Come Along on my Search for Free Math Centers and Activities

I have a large block of time for math each day and I am on the look out for new activities to add that will help my students develop number basics.  Here are some great freebies:

I found this colorful printable  1-20 Number Train at Kidsparkz.com

These Woodland Animal trains start at different numbers.  There are several sets free at  Karen Hill's TeachersPayTeachers shop.

This free I Have, Who Has Numbers 1-30  game can be found at  Thinking Out Loud on TPT.  I love that the kids have to figure out the number they have by looking at ten rods and units.

There is also a free printable 1-30 Number Bingo at Allison Covington's TPT shop.

I love Kinder-craze's free printable interactive number line.  I have it in my classroom twice.  Once as a reference on the wall for the kids to look at, and again on my metal desk as an interactive center.  (I don't have a white board in this classroom to use it on the way Maria does...).  Here's the link to her free printable,  but be sure to visit her blog to see it in use!

And finally, here's an almost-free Pinterest inspired manipulative I made.  I used a 39 cent 5 gallon paint stick from Wal-mart, 25 clothespins, and a Sharpie marker.

 I'd love to hear about your math center finds!

Eilis

Tens and Ones

One of the adjustments for me in teaching kindergarten instead of Pre-K has been working with a consumable math textbook.  While there are suggestions for using manipulatives with the textbook, I am looking for more ways to reach some of my students.

At this point in the year, the students are supposed to be able recognize numbers up to thirty-one by looking at sets of ten and extra units. A few of the kids have struggled with this concept.  This magnetic dry erase board (from Wal-mart) has been wonderful.  I printed tables with ten cubes (on colored paper) and attached them to pieces of magnetic adhesive strip. I also made some individual unit squares.  I can quickly ask "how many tens?" and write the number with a dry erase marker, "how many extras?" and write that number with a dry erase marker, and get them to read the two digits as the total number.

We have also begun estimating numbers as "about 10," "about 20," or "about 30."  I wanted some plastic jars with a wide opening to use in introducing this with manipulatives.  I now have lots of scented Epsom salt from Dollar Tree....
I used them in a lesson modeling "guess and check," then I added them to the math center.

Totally unrelated but...

Since today was the first day of Catholic Schools Week, we had a crazy sock day (in addition to free dress day).  Here are my crazy alphabet socks.

I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Eilis

A Peek into my New Classroom (and a FREEBIE)

I've been in my new classroom for two weeks now.  At the end of last week, our math program jumped into the numbers twenty to thirty.  Many of my students speak English as a second language and were not grasping the idea of ten unit cubes being equal to one ten rod, etc.  I LOVE math games, but couldn't find one to help us through this.  So, I came up with this one:  Race to 30.

The kids loved trading in ten unit cubes for one ten rod.  The goal of the dice game is to be the first player to  accumulate three ten rods.  It is free to print at both my Teachers Notebook and TeachersPayTeachers shops.  I'd love to hear if you find it useful.

I am working on lots of fun math songs and activities.  I hope to have them available at both shops soon.

I have also been very busy nesting in my new classroom.  It looked pretty sad when the last teacher moved out and the Christmas bulletin board was down...

There were boxes of wonderful manipulatives, but.... they had all been dumped in together!

After some organizing...

It is coming together :)

The Math Center

The ABC/Word Work Center

The New Word Wall

Colorful Storage in the Cubbies (This is the area above the part the students use)

Many of the printables are from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten.  I was inspired to add the cloth boxes from Target after drooling over Kinder-Craze.  I have lots more to share, but that's it for now.

Hugs,
Eilis