Years ago our school was using Everyday Math. One of our routines was Name Collection Boxes. If you aren’t familiar, this is an opportunity for students to represent and read numbers in different ways. I had a group of second graders who struggled with number sense, so I used this game to help during our intervention block.
After creating the game, I copied enough sets so eventually each student in the group would have their own set. Each set was on its own color so the cards would not get mixed up.
The cards were cut ahead of time for the students and placed into baggies for easy access. The first time we met, we did a basic sort together, using ONE set of cards. I put all the of the written words at the top, in order. Then we looked at each card and discussed where the numbers would go.
For our second meeting, the students completed this same sort with their own sets of cards. During our third meeting, we played a new game with only one set of cards. Each student was given one number to be in charge of. I was the dealer with the remaining cards. I would show one card to the group. The students had 3-5 seconds to claim the card if it belonged in their pile. If a student did not claim the card in the time frame, I announced who should have claimed it and put it back in the pile. If a student falsely claimed the number, they had to return one of the cards in their pile to the dealer. This kept students more focused on accuracy, rather than just guessing.
As students got better, we used the number names sort or game as a warm-up. Then I would give the students a white board and a number. They had to put the number in the corner of their board and write down at least 5 different ways to represent the number:
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