Number Sense & Phonics Fun!

Time is flying! Do you know we only have 67 days of school left this year?! That means I am ramping it up and trying to sneak every bit of learning I can into our days!

This week our dry erase boards came in super handy! I am lucky enough to have a class set and I'm so grateful because I don't know what I'd do without them! Of course we use dry erase markers to write our numbers and letters on the front, but check out what you can do with the back!

This group of 4 kiddos went to our Letter Center. The independent activities there are magnetic letters and baking sheets and our PlayMais letter mats. I also sometimes bring out another activity (like last week's penguin in the snow) depending on who is at the center. This group was perfect for my latest idea - two high-flyers and two of my strugglers. I knew having the high flyers there would help support and engage my strugglers so I grabbed our dry erase boards, a can of shaving cream and my
Penguin Alphabet Match-Up Cards.

Each board got one squirt of shaving cream on the back. I used the back so that the letter we wrote would show up better than on the white surface of the front of the board. I showed the group the picture card first so they could identify it and determine the beginning sound. Then they guessed which letter made the sound and wrote it on their board - then I produced the letter card and we saw if they had gotten it correct!

My high flyers were great at the game, but not so great that it made the other two feel inadequate. There were plenty of letters that my strugglers knew how to write, so they weren't discouraged.

Once they had written the letter we thought of other words that started with the letter, to reinforce the sound. We got through the whole alphabet (randomly of course!) in one session and having friends at the center, plus the fun of writing in shaving cream kept their attention for the whole time! Once we cleaned up and the kiddos got to pick a new center I had kids clamoring for their turn at Letter Center, so that engagement just kept going! (In the morning we do 2 center sessions, cleaning up in between. In the afternoon we have one session)

The fun with the boards and shaving cream didn't stop there! I've also been working with one sweetie on number sense and one-to-one correspondence. She's almost got it, so I try to give her targeted one-on-one practice several times a day - even if only for 5-10 minutes at a time.

One day when she chose to go to Math Center, I grabbed a board, the shaving cream and some polar bear erasers that we used for counters. I told her a number and she would have to pick that many bears out of the bucket and then write the number. She tends to count faster than her little fingers move, so I had her spread the bears apart to reinforce that each one only got one number and touch.

When I stopped by Playdough Center one day, I quickly commandeered her playdough to make some spheres (sounds so much better than balls, right?). Then she had to count them and stamp the number using our Lakeshore Dough Stampers. We played for a few minutes and then I moved on to someone else, having gotten in some quick quality practice that she loved.

Our goal is to count to 20 by the end of the year, and 95% of my class is already surpassing that. This little sweetie is getting there, but she tumbles some of her teen numbers together, so its hit or miss if she gets them in the right order (thus why mom says she can count to 20 at home - sure she might be able to do it once, but consistency is the goal!). That's why I brought out my Winter Ten Frames Pack!

I used numbers 11-20 with her since she has 1-10 down pat. We put the cards in order, and then she counted the fish on each ten frame card, giving her more 1-1 correspondence practice! Once she determined the number of fish she looked for the number card and if she couldn't identify it, she started at the top row, counting from 11, until she found the correct number. Again, a simple, low prep activity that took only about 10 minutes and yet was great targeted practice for her! Once we finished with the ten frames, she was free to choose an independent activity at Math Center and I was able to go give someone else some one-on-one attention!

Since our Penguin Alphabet Match-ups were such a hit, I created a Valentine's Day edition too! You can grab them for 20% off here! In fact, all of my Valentine's Day items are 20% off to help you prepare for this week! Just click the picture to go check them out in my TPT store!

Have a great week!