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Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Using 21st Century Skills To Create Our Own Math Games, a 3D Shape Challenge, and More

The kids really enjoyed the math challenges that I set out for them! Here are a few!  One challenge was to use the their creative thinking skills and the materials shown below to create a math game! They were very creative! As they played the games with each other, they were learning and practicing patience, taking turns, collaboration and problem solving. They used speaking and listening skills as they taught the class how to play their games. 


One friend came up with the idea below. You roll the dice and put that many beads on the ten frame. Your partner does the same. Whoever fills up both of their ten frames first wins. This game helps kids with subitizing (saying how many without counting), and using ten frames. Since there are two, the ten frames show that teens are a group of ten and some extra ones, and twenty is two groups of tens.


Below a friend came up with the idea of rolling the dice and putting that many beads in your side of the balance scale. Whoever has the heavier side at the end of the game wins. This works on subitizing and comparing weight. 


Here, each player picks a row. You take turns rolling the dice and move that many beads over. Whoever gets all of their beads to the other side first wins! This helps them learn subitizing, and shows different ways of making ten on he abicus.  


Here is a game where you collaborate. You each roll the dice and put that many hexagons on top of each other, creating a tower. If you make it fall, the other wins. 


Here a friend used connecting cubes to create a game board. You roll the dice and move that many spaces on the game board. Whoever gets to the end wins! There were so many more that I did not get pictures of. Some made game boards out of blocks or on paper also. All of these games also help with one to one correspondence when counting.


There has been a big interest in three dementional shapes. They need to be able to name them and describe the attributes of thhe shapes. I set up the invitation below for them to create both 2D and 3D shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks. They loved this! They also had to try their best to draw and label their shape. 



They glued a label onto their shape that had their name and the shapes name. 



Here are some of the literacy explorations I had set up as well.  This challenge is called Stack It. You build a castle with these sight word cups, but you can not use the cup unless you could read the sight word on it. 


Build sight words on the pipe cleaners and record them. 


Time how fast you can read the sight words. You can't put them in your pile unless you can read them. Count how many you could read in that amount of time. 


Pick a tile. If you can read the word, put it in one pile. If you can't, put it in another pile. See which pile is bigger. 


Be a detective and see if you can read the teeny tiny sight words with the magnifying glass. Record the words you can find. 


Pick a picture. How many syllables does it have? Put that many cubes on the picture. 


There are more but I did not get pictures. The kids work on math or literacy goals of their choosing while I work with small groups. They look in their data folders where all of their goals are, decide what they want to work on, then find the materials in the room to help them work on that goal. These are also always available during our Thinking, Learning, and Discovering Time for the kids to choose. 

12 comments:

  1. Hi Darla,
    I love that you have the students make up their own games! What a great way to enhance their creative thinking skills! Can you tell me how much time is spent when the students choose the math or literacy skills that they need to work on and you are pulling small groups? I would also love to see a sample of the student data binder that you refer to. I would like to try that with my class but can't quite wrap my head around where to begin. I love all the things you do!
    Chris

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    1. Hi Chris!
      Thank you! Once they choose their goals, I will give them a strategy to use independently to work on that goal and encourage to use the strategy and materials during Thinking, Learning and Discovering Time, or during Station Time. Kids that have similar goals I will try to pull maybe once a week to see how they are doing in a small group and give them a mini lesson or time to work on it using a strategy we talked about.
      I will be blogging about my student binder and planning pages soon. I am getting a lot of requests for them but I am having trouble finding an easy way to upload the PDF's onto Blogger that is not time consuming! I will try to get it up as soon as I can so that they can be shared and downloaded.
      Sincerely,
      Darla Myers

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  2. Hi Darla, My closet partner and I look forward to your blog. We are always asking each other, " Did you see what Mrs. Myers class did? " You inspire us! I was interested in your student binder too.
    Thanks so much!
    Darlene

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your kind words Darlene!! I will be blogging about my student binder and planning pages soon. I am getting a lot of requests for them but I am having trouble finding an easy way to upload the PDF's onto Blogger that is not so time consuming! I will try to get it up as soon as I can so that they can be shared and downloaded.
      Sincerely,
      Darla Myers

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  3. Hi Darla,

    I just discovered your blog and I'm so excited! I'm new to teaching Kindergarten and looking for ideas! Keep up the fantastic work! :)

    Andria

    Andria

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  4. I have also just discovered your blog and have found great inspiration in your teaching style. I love how you incorporate writing throughout the day and in multiple ways, especially with these literacy games. How would you incorporate writing in math. I struggle with finding enough authentic experiences for students to practice printing numbers.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words Danielle! That is also one of my struggles. During the second half of the year I have them think up and write math stories where they have to write the math problem to go with their story. I also have paper with 20 squares for them to practice writing their numbers to 20. When they can write them neatly they are allowed to try to write their numbers to 100. They love a challenge! I still have a math/literacy time where they have to work in the areas where math and literacy experiences are set up. During play they write numbers to record measurements, show a number story of an experience they just had, or measure distance. They record what they noticed or discovered at one math experiences that were set out for them. During projects they often have to record measurements. I hope this helps! Good luck!
      Sincerely,
      Darla

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  5. I want to be a learner in your class! You are inspiring :)

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  6. Kindergarten themes often play off of what children already know, such as holidays and seasons. Having prior knowledge gives young children confidence and opens them up to learn new information. When the same concepts keep popping up, children can continue to build on prior knowledge with each new lesson.
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  7. I love your blog - it's so creative and has got me all excited about the things I would like to do in my own classroom.

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