Kindergarten Number Corner: Days in School

Tomorrow will be our 10th day of Number Corner! The kids love it and teachers are doing such an amazing job working though all the kinks. In Kindergarten, the days in school workout will continue in to October and can be pretty tricky. Let's dig into Dots, Links & Numbers and make sure everything is correctly in place for all the changes that will happen on Day 11.

Dots

Preparation

The first thing you need is ten copies of the Days in School Activities 1 - 2 Teacher Master. You can find this in your Number Corner Binder, September, behind the Teacher Masters tab.

There are a lot of different ten frames you could use from the kit, but use these because they are smaller. You are going to collect dots all the way up to 100, so big ones will take up a ton of room in your display. You also don't want to use the student ten frame mats because they are going to need those for some of the games coming up.

Next, cut them out according to the guide lines, so they look like this:

You should currently be using 1 of these and have 9 dots (5 red on top and 4 blue on bottom). If you do not have dot stickers, please let Amanda or your AP know and we will get you soon. They are so much easier and neater than drawing the dots or taping each day!

Tomorrow, on Day 10, you will put your final blue dot. 

On Wednesday, Day 11 you will move this over to another part of your board and start fresh on a new ten frame. 

Routine

Make sure to read the routine for each day in your Number Corner binder. Each day, you have a student point at the dots while the class counts. Ask the students how many there will be after today's dot is added. Add the new dot and count again to confirm the total. 

Links

Preparation

All you need is a push pen to hang the links on. Today, you should have 5 red links and 4 blue links. Tomorrow you will add your last blue link. The picture below, shows the colors reversed, but same idea.

Routine

Each day you follow the same procedure for the links as the dots. Once you have a chain of ten, you will put a second push pin right next to the first and start a  new chain - using the same colors as the first. 

Classroom Number Line

Preparation

Using 2 different color sentence strips, prepare 18 number line (9 in each color). Measure and mark the strips, as shown below.

Tomorrow you will label the last dot on the first strip as 10 and mark it with a special, color, sticker, or shape. On Wednesday, you will add the second strip in the other color and begin working your way to 20. Here is what it will look like after day 20, you are just repeating the same process!

Routine

Each day point and read the numbers on your number line, and then work with input from the class to record the next number.

Please make any updates to your Number Corner board so you will be on track for Day 10 and beyond. Here is a visual from the Teacher's Edition that clearly shows what your board will look like after Wednesday!

Norman the Number Rack!

1st and 2nd grade have been doing a ton of work with the number rack during Unit 1 and Kindergartners will get to join the fun in Unit 2. The number rack has been incredible in helping students visualize and decompose numbers, subitize, develop strategies for adding and subtracting, compare numbers, and so much more!

Some teachers have made the number rack even more fun and exciting in the classroom...meet Norman!

This is a great anchor chart from Ms. A at KALE to remind students where to start and what the different sides of the number rack mean. She also has an awesome system and organization for distributing their number racks during carpet time. 

Such fun ideas to make math even more exciting!

Organizing Work Places

It has been so amazing to see how excited students are to play new work places! Battling Bugs has been quite the 2nd grade hit this week. Work places are really fun and engaging for students, but require a lot of organization on the teacher side.

It is recommended that you keep your work places in the tray sorter that was provided.

You can choose to store the work places in tubs, but that requires a lot more counter space and some of the game boards store better if they can stay flat. As we are moving away from manipulative exploration, towards the math games - most should fit nicely in the tray sorter. 

Putting the work place recording sheets in page protectors will save a ton of copies and make them more fun for students to play and record! Store all the materials they need in the tray, so students can just grab and play!

Choosing Work Places

It is so exciting to see students learning and playing so many new workplaces. They are really enjoying them, and getting so much hands on practice with challenging skills!

There has been a lot of talk among teams about students choosing their own work place. Bridges suggests letting students choose and using a workplace folder to track where they have been. This can be challenging for a few reasons, including: having another folder to manage, students keep track of where they have been so it could be hard for the teacher to quickly see if they are continuously choosing the same work place, and they would need to be reprinted and updated for each unit. 

KACD's 2nd grade teachers came up with a great system that will hopefully spur more ideas!

Students check the box when they choose which work place to visit. The workplace icons are attached at the top using velcr so it is easy to switch them when work places change. The teachers have already printed all the work place for the year and cut, laminated, and attached velcro so they will be really easy to change in and out. The chart is laminated, so when you change a workplace you erase all the x's so students know they have not yet visited that workplace. 

If assigning work places, you could also use a similar chart and just write days of the week in the boxes. So many possibilities!

If you come up with a great system, please snap a picture and share!

Number Racks!

Today was an exciting day in 1st grade because not only did students get introduced to the number rack, but they also got to make their own! 2nd grade also got to do this earlier in the week.

Students were so interested in the number rack and could not wait to show their combinations on the large teacher model. It is incredible how much the number rack helps students how numbers can be broken down in many ways.

Tip: Don't worry about your students getting the number rack that they made each time you work with them in class. They are just a class tool that everyone contributed to building, so it doesn't matter if they are using their own or not! Many teachers chose to not even have student's write their names on them - this will really help with efficiently distributing them for lessons (especially since they are frequently used for quick warm ups!)

You have a large display Number Rack that came in your kit, but the Math Learning Center also has an app you can download. 

Here is a great video about how to use Number Racks with students. 

Finally, here is a link to more great activities you can try!

1st Grade Popsicles

All week 1st graders have been doing different activities through the context of Popsicles. The goal of this very first module is to expose students to different mathematical concepts, allow the teacher to informally assess what background information students are coming in with, and practice many different routines and procedures they will use throughout the year. The primary math in this unit is counting by 2's and working with students to develop more fluency with skip counting.

It is completely fine that students need more practice counting, using white boards, and reading graphs. The beauty of Bridges is that everything will spiral back in later units. Here are some awesome popsicle charts, graphs, and student problem solving work.

Preparing to Teach Lessons

This week, teachers have been doing the most amazing job of internalizing and preparing to teach Bridges lessons. It has been so incredible to watch everyone take their own spin and let their teacher personality shine through. A common trend in this feeling (and showing) of preparedness is well annotated lesson plans that you can review right before you teach and even glance at during the lesson.

Here is an example from a 1st grade teacher at KALE, Mr. H and a 1st grade teacher at KACD, Ms. A.

Great preparation work!!