New Math Work Places

In the last few weeks, the children have been introduced to several new work places during math. One of the work places, Beat You to Zero!, is very similar to Beat You to 20 Cents except that the players are subtracting the designated amount from their boards instead of adding.

The children have also began working on addition facts by completing an activity called Shake Those Beans. In this activity, the children are given 5 beans (or another amount if they are working on facts that equal 6, 7, 8, or 9) and they have to shake their beans and drop them onto the table. Then, they read how many red beans they have and how many white beans they have. For example, a child might get 3 red beans and 2 white beans. They are then to record their data onto their sheet by coloring in the amount of beans that are red and leaving the other beans as is. After, they write a number sentence to match the beans colored and not colored. Soon, if not already, the children will play a different version where they shake the beans and have to record the data in the appropriate column by writing the number sentence instead of coloring in beans.

The week before vacation, the children learned how to complete the Bucket of Sea Creatures work place. This activity has the children estimating using the sea creatures in a more structured way. First, a child takes a handful of sea creatures (only using 1 hand!). He/She has to then estimate how many they think are in their handful and color in the ten frames on their worksheet showing their best guess. After, they count their sea creatures and color in the ten frames on the worksheet showing how many they actually got. The next step is having a friend take a handful of sea creatures and having to guess how many are in their friend's handful and recording first their best guess and then the actual amount of sea creatures onto their worksheet.