Today was full of red, pink, and a Valentines Day haze loyal blog readers. There was not as much math as we would have liked, but that is how some days go in the wonderful world of KINDERGARTEN! I worked with only Ryan, Jenny, and Benny today. I did not have time to work with Laura and she was not pleased about that fact. However, when it comes to gluing and making valentines boxes math just is not that important…So I choose to work with Jenny and Ryan first and let Benny play with his glue and valentines. It was a big day because I introduced Jenny and Ryan to Digi-blocks. For those of you who are not familiar with this manipulative, they are very similar to the base ten blocks you may have worked with in elementary school. However, they are green and can physically be broken apart into little pieces. Digi-blocks have little boxes contained in one another, like those gifts you may receive where a huge box contains a smaller box and in that one there is a smaller unit, etc. Ryan and Jenny loved them, much like Miss Laura’s students. They were so excited to open the little boxes and see what was inside. Once they were introduced to the digi-blocks we began talking about what they meant.
I asked Jenny and Ryan to count all the little blocks inside the bigger container. They counted and found that there were ten. I then showed them another one of the boxes and asked how many were inside. They quickly realized that all the boxes of that size contained ten little blocks. I told them that the single blocks were “ones” and the others were “tens”. Then we counted to one hundred by tens using all the digi-blocks of that size. I decided that they were ready for the real test. I put one ten down along with a single block. I then asked Jenny to tell me what number that was. It took her a few minutes, but afterward she said eleven! I was so excited. I added another single block and asked Ryan what number it was. At first he said thirty because he was counting each of the single blocks as a unit of ten. I explained to him that those were only ones and the big boxes were ten. After a few more minutes he replied with the correct answer, twelve! I added three more single blocks and Jenny realized that the new number was fifteen! Ryan also caught on quickly afterwards and realized that two of the bigger boxes symbolized twenty.
I was so proud of Ryan and Jenny; they are beginning to understand the different place values and what tens and ones are! They are functioning at a first grade level. Next time we will have it where I show them the number with the digi-blocks and they write it on their wipe off board. That way they will be kinesthetically writing and visually processing the information. After Jenny and Ryan went back to participate in the merriment of Valentine’s Day, I worked with Benny. I used the computer software with him. We used “count sort” Count Sort” (software downloadable from this site) to work on his number recognition and counting higher than twenty. He remembers sixteen every time! The unfortunate part is after a few minutes of that game he becomes bored. Then we move on to pattern sets, using the software Dr. Hengst created. He really needs to work on his ten frames so this will be a good activity for him. I will introduce the ten frames to him on the computer and then we can play the game. The software is really enjoyable for the students and I can tell that they want to use it.
I am so glad to be in such a positive atmosphere three days a week. Mrs. Nell is inspirational and provides her students with the best education possible. I am extremely glad to be assisting her in the classroom and helping her students’ progress in math. Benny has made a great amount of progress. He can count to one hundred by tens, write and recognize almost all numbers. We are working towards patterns and ten frames. He should be about caught up with the rest of the class. It is so wonderful realize that what I (and the other Augustana teachers) have been doing has affected our students progress positively.
Posted on February 12th, 2010 by julie-jordan
Filed under: Julie Jordan