How to do a simple multisensory subtraction drill

 None of us want our child to struggle with math facts. We hope that skills like subtraction will come easily to them, or plan to drill at home to help give them an advantage in the classroom.

 

If your child doesn’t learn through traditional means, it can be disappointing, and a little scary.  You might scan the app store hoping to find a clever solution, or order some flash cards to drill with. What is really going to help them?

How to set up a patriotic math craft for elementary kids

My dad would always take is out to the flag pole on all the national holidays like Memorial Day or Independence Day. He let us help raise the star spangled banner then we recited the pledge of allegiance. As we prepared for July 4 this year, we spent some time talking about the flag and what it means. I came up with this patriotic craft for my daughter who just completed kindergarten, and we talked about what the stars I the field of blue represent. It just so happens that it was perfect math practice as well.

Fun Spring Equation Writing Practice

We're enjoying spring break with a little camp out in the yard tonight. Next week it's back to school though, so I have a spring themed math equation practice for your kindergartner. If your kindergartners are like mine, they are in need of some number writing practice, but more interested in doing "real" equations. If so, I have the perfect math activity for your kindergartner.

Christmas Ornament Subtraction Craft

These DIY ornaments turn out so pretty that children might like to do them at home for fun or as gifts. However, you could easily use them for subtraction practice. They even satisfy the algebraic component called for in Common Core. Who says you can't have Christmas fun and do math at the same time?

Bead Snowflake Addition and Subtraction Practice

The dishes were piled high, creating a mess that matched the rest of the house, and I needed to eat the lunch I had missed with the rest of the family, but some how I found myself offering to pull out the math craft I'd been promising my daughter.

I explained that we needed to make four snowflakes, and her eyes lit up. "You make two and I'll make two." So we did.

Adding Doubles Christmas Tree Math Puzzle for Kindergarten

As my first fall in the classroom drew to a close, it dawned on me that I wasn't going to make it through my curriculum.  With mandated exit tests looming (as in, fail the test, and you don't graduate), I knew I needed to at least get the planned content in front of my students.  I also knew that they expected to have a party the last day before Christmas break. In a move of desperation, I wrote an entire unit's worth of material into a Christmas theme and taught the whole thing the last day before break.  They moaned and groaned, but most of them decided to play along, and when we reviewed months later they remembered our reindeer games!

Fantastic Kindergarten Science Experiment with Pumpkin

10 Ways to be an Awesome Public School Mom

Are your kids starting school soon?  Mine already started this week!  If you are like me, the start of the school year is a bit of a let down.  After enjoying a fun summer of learning together, my kids suddenly take all the supplies we have so carefully gathered and disappear inside that place called "school".  Don't be fooled though!  Your kids need you to be involved during the school year, at least as much as they did during the summer.  As a teacher, always I knew that parents played an irreplaceable role in their students' academic development.  Ten years later, I am even more convinced that in most cases, parents make the difference in whether or not students are successful. Here are ten ways you can be an awesome public school parent (mom or dad!).  Why not try a few of these this year?

Stuffed Animal Bumper Cars

One of my goals for the rest of this school year is to do more fun projects with my kids.  Participating in the Virtual Book Club for Kids is a great way to motivate myself. This month the club featured books by Laura Numeroff. We read, "If you Give a Pig a Party."

What to do with a box: Nature Museum

  We were living on an island up in Washington a couple years ago, when my sister gave my son a copy of  Animal Habitats by Judy Press.  This book information and some crafts to go with each of the common North American habitats.  I consider myself craft challenged, so this was a great gift, especially since she sent quite a few of the materials with it.    We worked with water habitats right away, and as we moved around the country have made a collages featuring our local habitats in each new home.

Egg Carton Skip Counting with Printables

This activity addresses several different skills.   For kindergarten purposes, it most directly addresses the Common Core objective CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4 ,  Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities;connect counting to cardinality.   However, it is also preparation for multiplication, and a fine motor exercise.

How to teach skip counting

Skip counting serves as a basis for multiplication. Make math concrete with this fun activity.

Within the next two months, we are planning to move (again! but just a couple of miles this time) and welcome a new family member. Obviously, I am on the look out for ways to make learning fun and easy for all of us as we jump back into kindergarten home school today.

Decomposing numbers into pairs, Duplo activity

This week, we're working on decomposing numbers into their pairs.  For example, three and seven make ten. 

Our materials are pretty simple.  We are using the same box of magnetic numbers that I showed you in my post, Addition at the Fridge, a metal board that allowed us to have our lesson on the front porch rather than in the kitchen, and several Duplos.

Low stress math fact review for kids who hate to write

"Mom, I hate this!" Writing is a chore for my child, and I've always been worried that his hate of writing might bleed over into his feelings about math. Review math facts is one of those dry areas. He needs automaticity. He needs to identify the correct written numeral, but I was afraid the frustration of writing it would cause a hatred of math at this impressionable stage.

  

This has been my son's favorite kindergarten activity so far.   I think this particular method works well for us because it uses manipulatives, and requires little writing.  It's an easy set up, that he can do independently.