Math Time with Kath—Counting, Numerals, “Between”, Story Problems, and Graphing!

So, I already told you that I want to get a smart board, and here is another reason…There are so many cute song videos that you can play! Kath has found lots of counting songs. Last week when she was introducing one of the songs, one of her sweeties made up this cute little dance. You see, he didn’t realize it was a dance, he was just being his active little self. Instead of telling him to stop, Kath noticed he was crossing the midline every time he did it. So she had him teach it to the rest of the class. So now they do the “Tyler” dance every time they play the video. See why I love her?
Then, it was my turn. I took one of the animals and we thought of all the numerals we could use to describe the animal and I wrote a list on the smart board. (Reason 3 I want a smart board---No more wasting paper!) Then, we gave each child a dry erase board. I ask questions like:
If you add tusks and feet together, how many body parts? (6)
Think of another way you could combine the body parts to make six.
How many legs would you have if you had 3 elephants?
The answer is 8. What is the problem?

Then it was Kath’s turn again. She was reviewing what they had been working on. “Tell me the numerals between 7 and 10.” She used the lions and the numberline on the smart board. Did I say smart board? Yes, reason 4 I want a smart board…There are so many tools that you can use during your mini lessons right at your fingertips!

Then, we divided into two groups. I took a group and Kath took a group. Her group did this survey graph, “Would you want to fly, swim or walk?” and analyzed the data. My group did this story problem activity. The kids read the story problem and then showed me one way they would create their story problem. Then, they wrote the number sentence, to match the animals they had put on their recording page, on the dry erase board. We did that several times before they glued down their final story problem. ***This activity is working at the create level of Bloom’s which is a  higher level of thinking than giving them the numbers in the story problem—Application Level. By saying “some that fly and some that walk” the children had to “create” the story problem and then solve it! 

Then we swapped groups. Both of these activities are from the Science Blasters: Animals Wild and Tame Unit on tpt.