Ten Ways to Play and Learn With Counting Bears

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I'm sure that every preschool and kindergarten classroom has and uses counting bears (or other counters) in some way!  Many homes have them as well, and they can be a fun and simple way to spend some learning time.  We use these Baby Bear Counters from Learning Resources, but if bears are not your thing you can also find pets, people, jungle animals, vehicles, dinosaurs,or even fruit ! My favorite thing about them is how versatile they are.  I easily sat and taught my 2.5 year old and my 4.5 year old at the same time, giving them each different tasks and moving back and forth between them.

There are lots of cute printables available that you can use to play with your counters.  They're stylish and colorful, and if you have the time and desire to use them then that's fantastic.  But by golly, sometimes you just need to grab a bucket of bears and entertain your kids for a while without having to think about it ahead of time.  Of course you can count them, but there are lots of other ways to use them.  Keep these simple ideas in your back pocket for the next time you need a super quick lesson.

1. Count Them

Work on basic one-to-one correspondence.  Set out a row of bears and let your little one practice counting.

2. Skip Count With Them

 Set them out in rows of 2, 5, or 10 and practice skip counting.  Lena was working on counting by 10s in this picture.

3. Sort Them By Color

Set out one bear of each color and have your little one put the rest in the correct piles.

4. Work on Greater Than/ Less Than

 Set out a small pile and a large pile.  Ask which is greater, more, less, fewer, equal.  Practice using those words.

5. Use Them to Measure

 Get out some books or toys (or a ukulele) and practice non-standard measurement.  How many bears long is the object?  This ukulele was about 12 bears long.

6. Use Them for Basic Math Facts
Set out simple math problems.  2 bears + 2 bears = 4 bears.

7. Make Patterns with Them

 Younger children can make basic A/B patterns while older children can work on more complicated patterns.

8. Make Shapes or Words With Them

Arrange them into shapes or letters.  Use them to spell simple words.

9. Wash Them

Hand your kiddos a bowl of water, some bears, a squirt of soap, and a rag.  Bath time!

10. Use Them for Imaginative Play
I know my girls love to plunk them around, make them talk, put them to bed, wrap them up, and so on.  Encourage your children to do the same!

- Original source---See more at: http://www.cuttingtinybites.com/2015/01/10-ways-to-play-and-learn-with-counting.html#sthash.xv9GGUaC.dpuf

Tangram App for 1st graders

Tangram Puzzles for Kids at ABCya!

This would be fun to use for centers or have students play when they finish classwork early.

1.G Grandfather Tang's Story

Alignments to Content Standards: 1.G.A.2

Student View

Task

Materials

• A copy of Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert
• One set of tangrams for each student (see note in commentary)
• A set of tangrams for the teacher (magnetic for the whiteboard or colored to use on a document projector)
• Character worksheet
• Crayons

Actions

• The teacher reads Grandfather Tang's Story to the class. As the teacher comes to each character in the story, note the picture of the animal that is an outline of a shape that can be made with tangrams. Students may need to spend some time looking to see how these outlines represent the animals since they are somewhat abstract. Ask the students if they see familiar shapes as components of the animal outlines--for example, the tail of the fox is a trapezoid and the wings of the hawk are triangles.
• After the class has read the story, the students choose animals from the story to make with the tangrams. The worksheet shows the tangram animals, and when they have made an animal, they color the corresponding shape on the worksheet.
• The teacher can demonstrate for students how to turn and place the tangram shapes as needed to support the students.
• After the students have worked on making 2 or more animals from the book, they can make their own animals.

IM Commentary

The purpose of this task is for students to compose two-dimensional shapes to create a composite shape using the 7 tangram pieces. It is essential that the language the teacher uses during the task is precise to support students' academic vocabulary development. For example, "turn the square so one side is lined up with the shorter side of the rhombus to create the tail of the squirrel."

Trying to make the animals without the internal lines is very challenging, so the worksheet shows how the pieces are composed for each animal. This helps students see the shapes both as a single figure (consisting of the outline and a single region filled inside it) and as a composite shape that can be decomposed into smaller shapes. If the teacher wants to challenge the students, then they can try to make the animals just looking at the outline shown in the book.

As an extra challenge, see if the students can combine their tangrams into the original shape of a large square.

Note: The tangrams can be plastic machine-made sets or students can make them in a preceding lesson. There is a template for creating tangrams attached to this task. If the students create their own tangrams, they will see that the 7 pieces originate from a large square. Making the tangrams for themselves also helps students develop the ability to compose and decompose figures.

Not all of the characters are included on the character worksheet. The students can build these as time permits.

Attached Resources

Character worksheet

Tangram Template

Solution

• If the student completes the fox fairy, hawk, and squirrel, then they will color those three figures:

• There is no single solution for each of the students' own pictures

Click here for original source

How to Teach Subitizing for Numbers 1-4

How to Teach Subitizing: 1 – 4

The comparison of numeracy to literacy is curious.

Learning math is the opposite of learning to read. When you read, usually simultaneous to learning a language, you sound out words and then put meaning to them. When you learn to count and do math, you know the meaning inherently and then put a language to it.

At some point we learn to recognize words without sounding them out. And at some point we learn to recognize quantities without counting them out. This is called subitizing.

The Your Baby Can Read program uses the concept of subitizing to teach reading – you show your baby the word alongside the object. So the shape of the word car is as recognizable as a car itself.

The children using Your Baby Can Read don’t learn to sound out words. They don’t understand the concept of letters any more than babies not using the program. But they instantly recognize the shapes of the words – giving them an (assumed) advantage.

Aside: We didn’t use the “Your Baby Can Read” program, not because it was gimmicky (I love anything that looks gimmicky), but because there is a huge DVD element to it. We decided not to put Daughter in front of the TV for her first 2 years. A decision we stuck with, but sometimes was a struggle! This article contains a “your baby can count” type program. (And it’s a free download!)

How did we learn subitizing?

I don’t recall having been taught it directly. Although I could be wrong. The research on it has been happening since the early 1900s, so it might have been taught without being labeled “subitzing.”In a previous article about why learning to subitize is important, Christine Guest commented that she learned it out of frustration for counting with chanting.I wonder how many of us do that. Are grownups so adept at subitizing that they forget that’s how we assess quantity? Maybe we’re taught to chant-count because that’s the way we think counting is.

How do you teach subitizing?

Images are accompanied by the written numeral as well as the number spoken aloud. The images would be printed on cards, done via video or “live” with 3D objects. I’m still working on the numbers 5-10 and up, but for the numbers 1-4, the following 8 styles of image sets would be done twice. Once using the same objects for each image set, and once using different objects for each image set.

1. Organized in a row vertically.
2. Organized in a row horizontally.
3. Organized in a row diagonally.
4. Organized in a row other way diagonally.
5. Organized in a regular shape (triangle, square).
6. Organized in a differently oriented regular shape.
7. Organized in an irregular shape.
8. Organized in a different irregular shape. (There will be more of these for 4 than 3, etc.)

The objects could be blocks, cars, little dolls, just about anything. I created the set below from blocks I found left in Daughter’s block set. Each zip file contains a few .jpg files with 4″ x 6″ pictures. You can print them at home or ship them to Walmart,Target, CVS, etc. for printing. I left off the MathFour.com logo so the kiddos wouldn’t get distracted. Please share them along with links back here.

• Subitizing with One
• Subitizing with Two
• Subitizing with Three
• Subitizing with Four

Click here for original source!

Subitizing Digital Flash Cards

Click the image above to view the subitizing flash cards.  Use these with kindergarten and first grade students to help them with number sense.

Tiki Subtraction Game

By Sue BradfordEdwards

Place values and what they mean are tricky for kids to master. It's much easier when you can visually reinforce this mathematical concept. Help your child grasp that one ten equals ten ones with this simple math game. For two players, all you need are two sheets of paper, two decks of cards, and some rubber bands for the games to begin.

What You Need:

• One deck of cards for each player
• Two dice
• Rubber bands
• One sheet of paper per player
• Pen

What You Do:

1. To make a place holder mat for each player, divide the sheet of paper in half and write “tens” at the top of one column and “ones” at the top of the other. You can also print out a “Giveaway” header.
2. Have each player organize her cards. She will create five stacks of ten. Rubber band these stacks together and place them on the tens side of the mat. Put the two loose cards (the ones), on the ones side of the mat.
3. The first player rolls the dice and subtracts whatever number she rolls from the cards on her mat. She can only take cards from the ones side of the mat. This means that if she doesn’t have enough cards to subtract the number on the die, she will have to “borrow” from the tens, removing the rubber band from a stack of ten and placing them on the ones side.
4. Subtracted cards are given to the player to the right. Remember, she can only keep 9 cards in the ones section of the mat. If she has more than nine, bundle up a stack of ten and place them in the ten’s side of the mat. Once her cards have been rubber-banded and sorted as needed, it is this player’s turn to roll the dice and subtract cards. Her cards go to the player on her right who then gets to roll the dice, etc.
5. If a player makes a mistake, the player who catches the error gets to subtract the cards shown on the dice from her own ones pile and give them to the player who made the error.
6. Whoever runs out of cards first is the winner.

Subtraction Stacks

By Ellen Dean

Your child will be a whiz at subtraction with this simple kinesthetic learning device. The subtraction sack game will help her to memorize basic concepts of subtraction. She'll also be able to self-test and gain a better understanding of how subtraction works by adding and subtracting counters that she puts in and takes out of a paper sack. It's also a fun game to play!

What You Need:

• Counters (plastic beads, chips or marbles)
• 6 lunch bags (decorated, if you like)
• Index cards
• Markers

What You Do:

1. Ask your child to write one number (0-5) on each bag.
2. Have your child write numbers on the index cards. On six cards, write "-0", on five cards, write "-1", on four cards, write "-2", on three cards, write "-3", on two cards, write "-4" and on one card, write "-5."
3. Place the amount of counters corresponding to the number on the bag, inside the sack. If a sack has "3" on the front, place three counters in the sack.
4. Create a corresponding stack of cards for each bag, based on the number on the front of the bag.  For example, if it's bag number 1, place cards, "0" and "-1" into the sack. If it's bag number 4, place cards, "-0, -1, -2, -3, -4" into the sack.
5. Encourage your child to draw one card and look at the number.
6. Have them remove the amount of counters corresponding from the same bag that corresponds to their card and guess how many counters will still be in the sack.
7. Ask her to check her number by looking at how many counters remain in the bag.
8. If she got it right, ask her to say a sentence explaining what she did.
9. Try practicing this game with your child every evening until she understands subtraction. Make the game more challenging by adding numbers 6-10.

Make Your Own Abacus

By Amy Brayfield

Looking for another way to practice basic math skills? If so, have your kid make an abacus. Countries all around the world have been using the abacus for thousands of years to make math problems easier to visualize and calculate. Even children who claim to hate math will be fascinated by this old-fashioned and incredibly simple tool. This abacus is surprisingly easy to construct and is a great way for visual and tactile learners to practice their arithmetic.

What You Need:

• Pencil
• 9 craft sticks
• 56 large pony beads
• 8, 4-inch bamboo skewers (if yours are longer, you can cut them to the right length)
• Wood glue

What You Do:

1. Lay three craft sticks down so they are parallel. Use the pencil to draw eight matching lines on each stick, evenly spaced and centered across the length of the craft sticks.
2. Take the bamboo skewers and align them with the pencil marks. There should be one craft stick at each end of the skewers. The third craft stick should be in the middle, about 1 inch away from one of craft sticks on the end.
3. Put a thin line of glue on each of the pencil lines you've drawn.
4. Carefully thread seven beads on each of the eight skewers. Place the skewers on the glue lines, arranging the beads so that two beads fall into the 1-inch space between the two closely-placed sticks and the other five fall into the larger space between the middle and end sticks. Let the sticks dry.
5. Glue three craft sticks on top of the bamboo skewers so they line up with the sticks below, taking care to keep the beads divided. Let the sticks dry.
6. Glue the last three craft sticks on top of the sticks you've just glued down. Let dry.
7. Flip the abacus over so that the stacked sticks are on the bottom. Depending on the size of the beads, you may have to add more craft sticks to the bottom. The stacked sticks let the beads slide smoothly on the skewers and prevent them from scraping along the surface you're working on.

Now your child has a homemade abacus to practice important math skills! The abacus is a great tool to visually teach your child about addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and even place value.

Egg Carton Addition Game

By Victoria Hoffman

Math facts are a fundamental part of first grade math, and it’s almost impossible to get too much practice with them. You can always buy expensive flashcard sets, but there's no need when you've got household stuff and a little imagination. Here’s a way for two kids—or a kid with a grownup helper—to have a blast with nothing more than an egg carton and some small beans or pennies lying around the house!

What You Need:

• Empty egg carton
• 2 “game tokens” (pennies, chips, or beans work well)
• Marker
• 2 pieces of white paper
• Pencils

What You Do:

1. Use your marker to put a number in the bottom of each egg cup in the carton. (If you have a math beginner, start by cutting your carton in half, so you only have six cups; if you’ve got a kid who’s surging ahead, go ahead and use all twelve!)
2. Put a bowl of game tokens (pennies, marbles or beans) in the center of your table or play area and place two pieces into the egg carton.
3. Each player takes turns shaking the carton and then writing an addition problem on their paper using the two number sections the pieces landed in. Let’s say, for example, that the two pieces landed in 4 and 6. The addition problem would then be 4+6.
4. The person with the highest sum after each player has had a turn would then take a token from the bowl in the center of the table. If a wrong answer is given, a token is returned to the bowl. In case of a tie, each child takes a token.
5. Continue playing until each player has collected five tokens. Do this a few times, and be prepared to see steady gains in your young mathematician’s adding confidence!

Victoria Hoffman, M.A. Teaching and Leadership, is an elementary school teacher, writer and mother from Leonardtown, Maryland. She has taught grades K-5 in both regular and special education classrooms.

Play Popsicle Addition

By Mary Anne Edwards

Now that it’s first grade, “Math Facts” are here. This year, you can expect addition and some subtraction; then, when your child hits second grade, get ready for timed tests and even early explorations in multiplication and division. Worried? Don’t be. This is a time to be excited with your child about this new knowledge, and to explore lots of fun ways to develop it. Here’s a hands-on activity that classroom teachers use to help kids get a feel for equations and start building lifelong skills.

What You Need:

• 23 popsicle sticks
• kitchen timer
• crayons or markers
• construction paper
• child safety scissors
• 2 Ziploc bags

What You Do:

Label Sticks. Have your child hold each stick vertically and label it with one number, going from 1-20. Use the remaining three sticks to write a plus, minus, and equals sign (+, -, =) using crayons or markers.

Build an equation. Start with addition. Help your child make problems by using the popsicle sticks and having her hold up the answers. ( Ex. 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 1+3=4, etc.) Later, using the same popsicle sticks she already labeled, you can have your child practice making subtraction facts and holding up the answers.

If you like, add a challenge. Set a kitchen timer, for example, and see if your child can answer each problem correctly in three seconds or less. Or have your child write a list of problems and keep a “scorecard” of correct equations which you can mark with a happy face or star.

Moving forward, you can also extend the activity by having your child make flashcards using construction paper, child safety scissors, and crayons or markers. She should write one number per card, and make separate cards for plus, minus, and equals signs. Then, she can make addition and subtraction problems using the cards and holding up the answers the same way she did with the popsicle sticks. When you’re done, you can save both the popsicle sticks and the flashcards in ziploc bags—they’re a great game to pull out over snacks, in the car, or even when you’re sitting in the dentist office.

Math is all around us; and with your help, it will be safely inside your kid’s head for the long haul, too.

Turkey Math

By ChristianMiller

This turkey hand activity is a great way to help your child practice patterns and number recognition, important concepts that she'll encounter again and again throughout her academic career. What's more, her little turkey counting hand is sure to inspire some good-natured giggling during the counting and pattern-creating process!

What You Need:

• Plain glove or mitten
• Sticky-backed Velcro dots
• Construction paper
• Markers
• Scissors

What You Do:

1. Using a marker, help your child trace out between 10 and 20 feather shapes onto the construction paper.
2. Encourage her to get creative and use multiple colors, but be sure she ends up with an even number of feathers.
3. Then, using the scissors, help her carefully cut each of the feather shapes out.
4. Next, using a marker, help her number each feather. She'll want to write two of every number.
5. For example, if she cut out 20 feather shapes, then two feathers will have a 1 written on them, two will have a 2 written on them, and so forth.
6. Have her count out how many velcro circles she'll need based on the number of feathers she cut out.
7. Then, help your child stick the “hook” half of the Velcro dots onto the back of each feather (one per feather).
8. To play, have your child place the turkey on her hand.
9. Then, call out a pattern to her with one blank space (for example, 2,4,2, __ ).
10. Your child must then find the correct feathers to stick to the glove, in the correct pattern.

Feeling ambitious? Try out some addition and subtraction if your kid is up to the challenge.

Sorting Autumn Leaves!

By Tina Cho

Here's an easy and fun fall activity to do with your preschooler. Enjoy the outdoors and the fall season by taking a nature walk with your child, collecting pretty leaves, and sorting them. Not only will this simple project help your child learn valuable math and science concepts of sequencing and size, but she'll also get a chance to appreciate the beauty of nature and its changing seasons as she creates a pretty leaf collage.

What You Need:

• 4-5 different-sized leaves
• 12" x 18" construction paper or two 8.5" x 11" papers taped together
• Glue

What You Do:

1. Take a nature walk. Gather four or five of your child's favorite colored leaves from a park or your backyard. If you live in a four-season climate, take advantage of the brilliant crimson, gold, and brown leaves. If you live in an all-year sunny climate, just collect interesting leaves of various types and sizes.
2. When you get home, spread the leaves around your work table. Point out the different sizes of leaves to your child, small, medium, and large. Ask her to put the leaves in piles of small, medium, and large. For very young kids, you can sort into just small and large leaves.
3. Put your large piece of construction paper on the table. Tell your child she can line the leaves up from smallest to largest. Have her put the smallest leaf to the left and the biggest leaf on the right side of the paper. Continue asking her questions such as “Which leaf comes next? Which leaf is the next biggest?”
4. Once she has them lined up correctly, show her how to make small dots of glue on the backs of the leaves. She can then glue the leaves on the paper from smallest to largest. (Make sure she glues them back on in the right place.)
5. Have her write her name on the paper and lay it aside to dry.

When it's finished, you now have a wonderful, autumn leaf collection to hang on your wall as a decoration. Refer back to this helpful visual whenever you ask your child questions about relative size. You can also use it to discuss with her the four seasons and how the trees change with each season.

Tina Cho has been an elementary teacher for 11 years, mainly in the kindergarten classroom. She is currently a freelance writer.

Classifying Objects FUN!

Give your child's quantitative and verbal skills a boost by encouraging her to play with and describe all kinds of items! Simple actions such as grouping and counting items based on their similarities and differences will enable her to master more complicated math concepts down the line such as odd and even numbers, integers, as well as multiplication and division.

By classifying articles based on color, shape, size and texture and then discussing each object's characteristics with your child, you'll also greatly expand her vocabulary as well as her sorting abilities.

What You Need:

• Lots of items for sorting and categorizing

What You Do:

1. Go to the store and buy a bunch of stuff that you need around the house. Encourage your child to help you put the items you purchase away. Ask her to describe each item she's putting it away in terms of basic attributes such as shape and texture.
2. Let your child help put away the dishes. Ask her to explain why she's putting each object in a specific place. Then, have her count the number of objects in each pile.
3. Go on a hunt around the house for fun things to categorize. We used coins, buttons and books, but you don't have to limit yourself to these objects.
4. Tell your child to sort the items you found based on color and size and how they're used. Finally, ask her to count the objects in each group.
5. Have your child separate her toys into piles. Ask her to identify talk about differences in shapes and sizes that she sees.

When classifying objects with your child in more regimented activities, and even in day-to-day life, try to use words to compare and contrast objects that are based on their similarities and differences. Size, texture, shape, and overall appearance are all important qualities that should be considered. Always count groups of items you see around the house. Eventually, you'll be ready to count by multiples and explain odd and even numbers.

Click here for original activity source!

Egg Carton Sorter

By Korey Marquez

Identifying colors is a necessary skill that people use every day—for choosing which clothes to wear, reading signs, following traffic signals and describing the surrounding world. Introduce your child to this bright new world of colors using ordinary household objects such as buttons, beads, and marbles. She can group these objects into different sections and learn to recognize their written names using a homemade egg carton sorter. This activity provides an interactive, colorful way for your preschooler to practice color recognition!

What You Need:

• Paper egg carton (half-dozen or full dozen)
• Paint or markers in 6-12 different colors
• Writing pen
• Small, brightly-colored trinkets such as buttons, beads, or glass stones

What You Do:

1. Help your child paint the lid of the egg carton with white paint or cover it with plain paper.
2. Have your child make a small spot of each color on the egg carton lid. Write the name of the color above it with a pen.
3. On the inside of the carton, use paint or markers to designate a color for each as well.
4. Ask your child to sort the trinkets according to color, placing each one in the appropriate well. Start a conversation about the different colors with your child as you sort, asking her to name the color or point to it as she sorts each trinket. Show her the word on the lid that corresponds with each color.

To store the activity for later use, simply close the carton lid with the trinkets inside. The contents will be kept sound and ready for the next color sorting exercise!

Candy Sorter

By Rhonda Cratty

Does your kid have a stash of sweets left over from Halloween that's so massive it seems to rival the candy section at your local corner store? Why not turn that pile of sugary junk food into a learning opportunity? Sorting, counting and categorizing candy has instant appeal to kids. All of those shiny, brightly-colored wrappers and trick-or-treating memories Halloween candy evokes will aid in the learning process. This activity is perfect for children who need practice with everything from counting and classification to description, tallying, and reasoning. Once your kid is all done, he can eat a few pieces as a reward for a job well done!

What You Need:

• Bag of candy
• Paper
• Pencil

What You Do:

1. Help your child clear off a working space and grab some paper and a pencil.
2. Dump an ample amount of candy in the middle of the space.
3. First, have you child count the candy. Have him start by counting by ones, then fives, and then tens. He might want to use tally marks to keep track of how much candy he's counted.
4. After he's finished the counting practice, give your child a little time to decide on three different ways he wants to categorize his candy.
5. Encourage him to describe to you how he's decided to categorize.
6. Help your child write the categories on the piece of paper.
7. Let him sort and categorize his candy.
8. Have your child explain his reasoning behind categorizing the candy the way he did.
9. Finally, have him count, tally and write down how many pieces are in what category.
10. If time permits, let your child discover new ways to categorize and count his candy.

Chalk It Up! Outdoor Classification Activity

By Alicia Danyali

Classification is the way we group items and categorize what we see and experience. Classifying and sorting into groups is also a large part of the first grade math curriculum. The outdoors offers an abundance of learning tools for children, and classifying in the natural world gives your child an added lesson in scientific observation. So, next time you spend some time outdoors with your child, take a view at your surroundings and observe how many ways you could group the objects that you see. You’ll be amazed how many commonalities can be found once you start to classify!

What You Need:

• Sidewalk chalk

What You Do:

1. Bring your chalk along with you as you visit a neighborhood park or your own front yard. Ask your child to name what they see in the park. Then encourage her to group what she sees into categories. Ask your child what title she would give each category (for instance, “Things that are green”, “Things that are bumpy,” etc).
2. Using the chalk, write the category on the ground in a wide open space, whether it’s your driveway or the sidewalk at the park.
3. Now do the same with two or three more categories your child comes up with. If your child is not a reader yet, feel free to make an illustration of the category on the ground alongside the word.
4. Now it's time to sort and find objects that fit the categories listed. You can either place the actual object under the category title (for example, a leaf under the category of “Things that are green) or write the object’s name or draw its picture (for example, a stop sign under the category of “things made of metal”).
5. Once the categories are substantially filled in, look at what objects you found for each group. Which category had the most “things”? Which had the least? Which “things” fit into more than one group?
6. Rewrite the list of objects that appeared on multiple lists and make a Venn diagram (explained in the next step) to take this classification activity to another level.
7. To make a Venn diagram, draw two large circles on the ground that overlaps in the middle. In one circle, avoiding the overlapping part, write the first list of objects, and on the second side of the circle, write the other. Objects that can fit in both categories are written in the overlapping part shared by the two circles.
8. On the walk home, talk about the discoveries that your child made. What outdoor “things” overlapped in two categories? Where these “things” found in nature or man-made? Or both? Encouraging your child to share her observations is a great way to reinforce the exercise and ensure that your child will be a master classifier in no time!

Alicia Danyali, BS Elementary Education, taught primary-level students for four years at the International School of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The last four years of her teaching career, she taught at the Washington International School in Washington, D.C. She recently completed writing a series of children's picture books and is a mother of one young son.