Friday, September 26, 2014

Beginning Addition

Hi everyone!  Happy Fall!  I'm glad some cooler weather is finally here for us in Ohio.  It was SO HOT during back to school time!  Now it finally feels like fall {even if we go from 55 degree days to 85 degree days overnight}.  I've been getting out my fall decor and am happy with how everything is looking!  Below is a picture of my table!
Today's post is all about beginning addition.  If you read my post about number sense a couple weeks ago, you'll see how much I value making sure my kids are secure with their numbers.  Although they learned numbers to 100 in kindergarten, lots of my students do not practice during the summer months and I typically have to spend a good 3-4 weeks reviewing number ID, before/after, etc...at the start of the year.  Regardless of where you work, it's always great to review!

Once we finished our 4 week review, we began with addition!  Addition/Subtraction are such a huge part of Common Core.  It is important to get right to it early on!  This past summer, during one of many trips to Lakeshore Learning, I picked up these GIANT MAGNETIC TEN FRAMES.  I love all of their GIANT magnet sets, so of course I had to have this one!  These came in very handy when we were practicing combining sets.  It's always tricky modeling when you don't have a Smartboard!  I do have a doc camera, but when I use it, I have to stand away from my kids and I can't really observe how they are doing.  The kids had their cups of chips and I had my magnetic ones and we practiced combining sets by telling simple number stories aloud.




We did this type of practice along with some practice pages in our Math workbook for 2 days.  Then it was time to move onto learning about the good 'ole plus and equals sign!

I began by showing a Brain Pop Jr. video and then introducing the vocabulary.with kids on an anchor chart.  They came up with a lot of them, which shows me they retained this from kindergarten!  It also showed that they were really listening to the vocabulary I'd been using the past two days.


We practiced writing the plus and equals sign with our chips to form number sentences.


The following day, I introduced the part-part-total model to the kids and we practiced putting our chips in them.  Having a hands on experience with addition is very important, especially in the beginning stages of learning to add.  Concrete is key!



Having manipulatives out is always tricky as far as listening/behavior goes.  I like letting kids come up and "help" on the white board.  This always helps control behavior during these types of lessons. To snag some part-part-total mats for your students, click below.  Just print and place in clear plastic sleeves or print on card stock and laminate!  *Missing addend mats included*  So we spent two more days on combining sets and writing the number sentence to match.


The next 5 days, we reviewed ways to make 5,6,7,8,and 9 {addition to 10 is a kinder CCSS}.  We used my "Beginning Addition" set and our chips to come up with ways to make the sums.  After, the kids completed the worksheet.  I'll be giving an addition quick check this week to see who still needs help in this area.  We will also be playing the game included in this set.




We also spent some time on strategies.  I love Valerie's Addition Strategy Pack!  Lots of good practice pages and some nice posters to use in your classroom.  I like to set up stations with a different strategy choice at each table group and then we rotate around.  I really stress that the kids can use whatever method fits them best.







As a wrap-up to our learning, we made some cute little addition scarecrows.  The students got to choose how many patches the scarecrow had on his shirt and how many he had on his pants.  Then they had to fill in the numbers for a number story and number model.  This was a lot of fun!





Have a great weekend, friends!
xo
Megan

1 comments:

Dixon Family said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

I enjoyed reading your post. We just finished up this unit, but some of the teachers I work with feel we should spend longer on this. My students are really understanding this. My question is, how long do you spend on this? We will be doing the ways to make 10 this week and one teacher wants to do it for 2 weeks! I would love to hear your feedback.

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