Hands on Math

Hey Y'all!

Counting to 100 by ones is probably the standard that makes me the MOST crazy!! Listening to children count to 100 is worse than watching paint dry, or having bamboo shoots shoved under your finger nails. Ok maybe not that bad but close, ok? So I've been trying to come up with ways to practice without having to count count.

This is one of the actives we do. I hand each little 5-6 cards. Then we build a numbers chart. I could really tell the children who understand numbers and the patterns that numbers make compared to those who can just rote count and hold no understanding.

Another activity that we do is called count around the circle. I choose a range of numbers (1-10, 1-20,  20-30, etc) and tell the students the starting and ending numbers. Then each child says one number.  When I teach this I always start and I prompt students if needed. I start the first week of school, and it's only counting 1-5. The student who has the end number of the set sits down after they say there number. I LOVE this activity because my squirmy worms can wiggle without bothering others... and I can tell in a heartbeat who knows the number set we are practicing. ;)

Hope this gets you excited and you can use these two ideas in your classroom!