Kindergarten Addition!

We have been working on our addition skills!  There are many fun partner activities that I have had my students do to help strengthen their addition skills and increase their fluency.  Here are some of the activities we have done:

Addition Plates: I got these from the dollar store.  They are a great way to help students visualize addition and to have them use manipulatives to solve.  Children take turns rolling a die. They place a set of cubes for each number in the two smaller portions on the plate.  Their partner writes the number sentence.  The children solve the problem by placing both sets of cubes in the large part of the plate.

Addition Play-Doh Mats: This is great for a center or RTI!  Have children use play-doh to complete each addition mat.  You can also place each mat in a dry erase sleeve.  In the picture above, I was working with a student for RTI.  These mats help children visualize addition and solve problems on their own.  You can find these in my store: Addition and Subtraction Play-Doh Mats

Making 10: Children work with a partner and use ten frames to find out how many more they need to make 10.  They use a dry erase board to write number sentences.

Other addition activities I used came from Miss Ricca's blog.  She has many great and FREE activities that you can find here: Miss Ricca's Addition Activities .

I hope these activities help add to your addition learning in your classroom!

Irregular Ten Frames to Build Number Sense

Do you use ten frames in your classroom?  How about irregular ten frames?  I use both standard and irregular ten frames and have seen so much growth in my students' number sense.  Irregular ten frames require higher level thinking and promote children to develop their own strategies to count.  I want to share how I use irregular ten frames in my classroom.

I begin each math lesson with a number talk.  For each number talk I choose two irregular ten frames.  I draw the frames on chart paper and cover them up so the children cannot see the ten frames.  

I flash the first ten frame for about five seconds.  The children have to count the dots as quickly as they can.  If they know the amount of dots, they give me a thumbs up right below their chin.  I flash the ten frame once more to give the kids another chance at counting.  Then, I ask some of the children the number they counted. I choose two children who counted correctly to share their strategy for each ten frame.  I record their strategies on chart paper.  We compare and contrast the different strategies shared.

As I do more number talks in my classroom, I have seen my students' critical thinking expand and number sense strengthen.  They begin to group the dots in ways that make them easier to count (foundation for addition).  They no longer count the dots one by one.  Some children are even moving the dots in their head to make them easier and faster to count.

If you would like to use irregular ten frames in your classroom check out my FREEBIE below by clicking here: Irregular Ten Frames

Let me know how you use irregular ten frames in your classroom!  I would love to hear how you use them in your classroom!

Kindergarten Winter FREEBIES!

Are you looking for fun winter activities to begin 2015?  Blogger Teacher Tam, posted 11 fun winter freebies you can use in your kindergarten classroom....and one of my winter freebies is posted as #7!  Take a look at all the freebies you can download here: Kindergarten Winter FREEBIES