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Fun and Easy Tool to Teach Number Sense for Kinesthetic Learners
Here is my absolute favorite session from NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics). The presenter was a lady from Canada who brought The Learning Carpet for us to see. The learning carpet is a 10 by 10 grid of empty squares that you can use for many things, but it is especially useful for a large 100′s chart.
The number cards are 6 1/2 inches square and made out of card stock. Students in groups of five can see how fast they can place the number cards on the carpet. This can be easily differentiated by giving the easier numbers to the struggling learners and the larger numbers to the students who need a challenge.
Students can also be asked to pick up the numbers whose digits makes sums of 10 or any number. Students will start to see patterns such as how different sums follow diagonals. I felt dumb when she showed us this because I had never noticed that the sums make diagonals.
In the above picture you can see the gray squares on the mat. You could easily make this on a tarp with paint or tape to show the number boxes. The gray boxes are 6 1/2 inches and the black stripes on the grid lines are 1/2 an inch. If I made one of these carpets, I would make the squares actually bigger so that feet could more easily fit inside the boxes. I ordered the book with all the games that you can play so I could make my own if I wanted. Next year, there may be money in the budget to actually purchase some of the carpets.
The amazing thing about the fact that there are no numbers on the grid actually teaches more number sense. Students are made to think about number relationships to find spaces on the grid. If asked to find any number on the blank grid students have to understand the relationships between the numbers. For example, if trying to find 57 on the grid, students will know that all the sevens are in a column so that 57 will be in the column with sevens. A marker can be thrown on the grid and then students have to tell what number space that it landed on. They can walk on the carpet to help them figure it out.
The grid can be used for bar graphs or coordinate grids. The grid can also be used for area and perimeter like below.
There are so many fun activities you can do with this carpet, and I love the idea of the students actually being able to get up and stand on it to be involved. If you want to order the resources you can buy learning carpets and resources here. The kindergarten teacher who designed these is in Canada, and this is the only place you can buy them. They don’t sell through a larger distributor like Amazon etc. I have no stock in these, I just think that it is a great idea whether you order the ones she makes or make your own.
Try This Incentive to Encourage Students to Count to 100
The idea of belonging to a club makes kids feel like they belong. With that said, one of our kindergarten teachers came up with the idea of belonging to the “100 Club”. What does it take to belong to the 100 Club? Well, you guessed it…you must be able to count to 100! I took this idea a step further and suggested that we hang all of the kids pictures on the wall that were in the 100 club. We will add to this as the remaining students are able to count to 100. The kids have taken an extra interest in counting to 100 especially if their pictures aren’t on the wall! This display of the students’ pictures has grabbed students’ attention of course as well as parents and staff members. We even have a kindergartener that told her teacher, “I counted to 100 in my pillow 3 times last night before I went to bed.” 
Do You Need an Idea for Family Math Night?
As promised, here are a few snapshots of our Family Math Event/100th Day of School Celebration!
Students built number bonds with Legos, and got to take a few Legos home!
Students built 10 groups of 10 to make 100 with different small food items. This was one of kids’ favorites since food was involved!
As you can see in the picture above, this is one of the staff members that dressed up like she was 100 years old. She said she got her whole outfit at Good Will for $4 with the exception of her wig from Party City.
Students played Race to 100 on the 100′s chart with dice. They rolled and added the number that they rolled each time on their 100′s chart.
Double dice subtraction is a game idea taken from the Georgia Department of Education resources.
How creative! This teacher made a multiplication/division edition of chutes and ladders complete with spinner. Kids loved this activity.
Kids flocked to this booth where they made chocolate chip cookie dough. Students mixed up the dough in a gallon baggie to prevent mess. The math was in the measuring cups fractions. They had to figure out how many small measuring cups to use in lieu of the larger cup sizes. For example, if the recipe calls for a cup and a half of flour, how many times will you have to fill a 1/4 measuring cup?
We can’t forget the Estimation Station! The closest guesser got to go home with the jar including candy! We gave away five jars.
One of my personal favorites…maybe because it was my idea 
, is the 100 scavenger hunt. Students had to find index cards hidden around the cafeteria. Each card had an equation, but only some of the equations equaled 100. If the equation made 100, students could then bring it to the scavenger hunt booth for a prize.
Students used different fruits and vegetables to equal up to a pound in this next picture after first estimating.
At the probability booth students used fractions to predict the chances of landing on a variety of spinners. Students got to take home their own spinners.
We also had a technology table where students got to play math games on our schools mini laptops.
Moe’s Southwest grill kindly donated tortilla chips for us to have nachos! And, the church next door to our school kindly donated lemonade! We also got plastic sacks donated to us from a nearby restaurant so that students had a bag in which to place all of their take home math activities.
The kids went home with smiles!
Family Math Night…I’ll keep you posted!
I’m planning for another Family Math Night. This time since the 100th day of school is the day after math night. Because of this, I am incorporating our 100th day celebration along with Family Math Night. I’m thinking about doing some fun things like…maybe a 100 scavenger hunt. I am going to hide signs around the cafeteria which are equations that equal 100. The catch is that some of them won’t equal 100. Students who find the equations that equal 100 will get a prize. I’ll keep you updated and be sure to post some pictures of all of the activities and ideas I have as they come to fruition!
Are You Wondering How to fit a 1,000′s Chart on Your Wall? Try this!
I just finished these Smart Board Number Charts to 1,200 and I will be using them with some second graders next week. I have been working on this Smart Board lesson so that students can see a lot of patterns quickly without having to change all of the number cards on a hundreds chart. While the hundreds pocket chart cards have value, it would just take too long to see all of the numbers to 1,000 quickly enough to see how the patterns within the centuries repeat.
Oh, and the best part? The Smart Board number charts are on sale for 20% off ,and tomorrow they will be on sale for 28% off for the Cyber Monday sale! (YAY!) And, you will even get a few charts for free if you stop by my store and download the preview!
There are 1-100 and 1-120 number charts and fill in number charts for K and 1st.
This set of number charts includes charts that start 10 before and 10 after a century so students get practice crossing a century. Counting before and after a multiple of 100 is difficult for many children, and requires practice.
There are also number charts and fill in number charts that count by 2′s, 5′s and 10′s.
There are number charts and fill in number charts in increments of 300 for students to recognize patterns across multiple centuries.
What Will You Do for Family Math Night?
After previously being at a PTA meeting, one of our parents voiced her opinion that many times students brought home homework with which parents weren’t able to help them because they were unfamiliar with the content. Since our parents have been in school themselves, many math strategies and methods are available to teach students–to mention a few–ten frames, ladder division, open number lines, compensation, bring it down addition, window method for multiplication. Because of this we set up five stations for our parents in addition to the stations for our students. We really wanted to reach our parents because isn’t that what Family Math Night is all about?
We had six parent stations to teach parents what their children were learning at school–ten frames, addition strategies, subtraction strategies, multiplication strategies, division strategies, and technology. The technology station gained much traffic due to its popularity. We had a lap top d and an Ipad displaying websites and apps that parents could use at home to teach their children. Many times when parents are sitting with their children in any waiting room, they hand their children cell phones to occupy them. To capitalize on this, why not show them educational ways to occupy their children’s time?
For our students teachers developed all types of math stations. We had three K-2 tables, three 3-5 stations, an estimation station, a technology station, and a music and math station. The K-2 tables included dominoes and equations, ten frame games, and legos with number bonds. The 3-5 tables included combinations with outfits, clock fractions, and measurement with paper airplanes. Our technology booth for students was also a big success as students explored different math websites on laptops.
To encourage parent attendance, we served dinner, had door prizes, and announced our 100th Day of School dress up winners. We hope for even more attendance next year. Pictured below are some of the stations and activities.
Clock Fractions
Cutting Clock Fractions...Notice the 100 Silly Bands
Estimation Station...The closest guesser wins the jar.
Estimation Station
Equations with Dominoes
Addition/Subtraction Tic Tac Toe and Take Home Base Ten Block Baggies
The addition/subtraction tic-tac-toe boards and take home base ten blocks shown above are present at a parent table. We have an over abundance of base ten blocks at school. We have about 10 LARGE plastic containers of them that are not used in addition to the ones in teachers’ classrooms. Since we have so many, we decided to send some home with parents.
Legos with Number Bonds
100th Day Dress Up
Ten Frame Station For Parents
Multiplication Booth
Technology Station
Math Websites Station
100th Day Dress Up
On the Hundredth Day of School, we decided as a staff to all dress up with 100 objects on our clothing. I managed to get some photos of the most imaginative outfits. Sorry some of the pictures I took without realizing I didn’t have on my flash. We had a contest among the staff and then we had additional contests for the K-2 students and for the 3-5 students. I nominated a committee to judge the contests. We announced the winners of the dress up that evening at the Family Math Night.
Accessories with 100 coins
How Creative!
100 barrets on a necklace
My T-shirt with 100 google eyes
Banana tree hat
Banana tree with 100 bananas and a monkey on top
100 bracelets
Free Numeral Cards
At the beginning of the school year, there are many procedures, routines, rituals, and rules that need to be taught. If you are planning on teaching cooperative group procedures and norms, these numeral cards may be used with many different types of games and activities such as Close to 20, Close to 100, Close to 1000, Place Value Games and the like. I have searched for numeral cards on the internet before and had a difficult time finding some, so I had to make my own. You are welcome to download and use these. Just click the link.
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