Monday Math: All About Numbers

Okay so yesterday was supposed to be my math day on here. But I thought I'd take the day off and head to a family cookout/gender reveal. The day off: It's a girl! (No, not mine! We're not at that point yet.)

Anyways!!! So I finally got my "All About Numbers" Chart made! I forgot to take a picture of it though. *sad face* One of my students saw it and got really excited! "That looks awesome!" he said. He's one of my rough kids... but he's definitely a visual learner so I am excited I could entice him to learn some math simply by making something visually pleasing!

You know that's the thing about teaching. You never know what the trigger will be. What will cause a student to WANT to learn? Each year I have parents write me a letter at the beginning of the year telling me about their child. This year I had parents tell me that their children enjoyed learning through games, through songs, by doing engaging activities... not one of them told me that if I made something look nice then I would entice their child to learn! But I love it! If you know me, I get irritated when things looks messy. Which makes it perfect sense that I redid that chart 3 times to get it to look "just right."

So here is where things get tricky for me in math. I have been doing this journal that I found for free on the internet.... at first I thought it was GREAT! I loved it! Even now, I think it's GREAT for OLDER kids. But it is just too hard for mine. They look at it and don't know what to do. Their faces say "huh?" even when they are not talking!

So I created a Number Journal for my kids that allows them to represent numbers in a variety of ways. And I love it! Like REALLY love it! Like I'm about to throw away close to 10 dollars worth of paper, ink, and binding rods in order to create new journals that will work much better for my class.

I guess thats what it is all about. Trial and Error. Finding what works best for your class! And with this Common Core thing, thats what we all are having to do.

If you think this would be a useful tool for you and your students you can purchase this here for just $3.00.

How are you teaching counting and cardinality in your kindergarten classroom?