I ❤️ Numicon. The tactile and visual element it adds to number is fantastic. At the moment in Reception we are really just at the exploration stage, so I’ve but putting the numicon out with t…

I am a Reggio Emilia inspired Full Day Kindergarten teacher and mother to three young children. This blog is meant as a communication tool for the families of our children and as a learning tool for the many educators who follow us. Please feel free to comment on posts and participate in our collective understanding of emergent curriculum.

Teaching Double Numbers - using our free printable mats to help teach young children double numbers, one of the Natural Maths Secret Code, plus two other teaching ideas for the Early Years classroom | you clever monkey

Teaching fractions with hands-on manipulatives and activities helps students develop a conceptual understanding that will endure.

Classroom Display Inspiration Share your amazing classroom displays on social media and have them magically appear below!Regularly add your photos to this

Tweet Clip art by Whimsy Clips My students are so engaged by the changing of the seasons and learning with a theme that I try to incorporate the seasons into what we do each day. Because some members of our school community are not really into celebrating holidays in the classroom, I try to stick with lots of activities around the different seasons rather than specific holidays. Fall is a great time to bring pumpkin, apples and leaves into the classroom. When I saw this great set of 10 frame clip art by Graphics From the Pond I knew I wanted to make a new set of 10 frame cards. When I made a set of cards and spend time and money putting them on cardstock or laminating them, I want them to serve more than one purpose. Ten frames (and twenty and five frames) have so many uses in the classroom, so I put together 10 ways to use these cards with kids. These activities work great in Kindergarten and first grade classes and can be used for whole group, math centers or interventions. With the mix of ten frame cards and numeral cards, it is easy to differentiate the activities to meet a diverse group of needs. 10 Frame Flash This makes an excellent whole group, small group or partner activity. Simply flash the 10 frame at your students for 1-3 seconds and then ask them how many pumpkin seeds they saw and how they know they are right. Read more about this here! Matching Numerals and 10 Frames As a whole group game this can be a lot of fun and a great way to work on numbers to 10! Pass out 10 frames and numerals and ask kids to find their match. You can then display them on a pocket chart and talk about what they see. Kids can also do this on their own or with a partner. Spread out all the numeral cards and make a pile of the 10 frame cards. Have the student(s) pick a card from the 10 frame pile and find it’s match in the numeral pile. You can also switch this around and spread out the 10 frame cards and have them pick a numeral card. 10 Frame Memory An easy twist on a classic game! This game is great for kids to play with a partner or in a small group. Simply mix all of the cards together, do a bit of shuffling and then arrange in a rectangular array. If your students are not ready for all the 10 frames you can pick and choose. Just make sure you have the corresponding numerals and 10 frames! Note: Your students should be familiar with matching 10 frames before trying this activity! Sequential and Non Sequential Ordering These activities can be done as a large group by giving each kid a number (until you run out!) and having them get in order from least to greatest. It also works great as an individual task or a partner activity. Once kids have the cards in order, it is a great time for kids to practice counting forward and backwards. Make sure your students get a chance to put numbers in order that are not sequential as well. This activity can be done with just the numeral cards or with both the numeral and 10 frame cards together. Roll and Build This is a simple and effective game! All you need is some blank 10 frames, 10 sided dice and pumpkin seeds. If you don’t have pumpkin seeds bingo chips or other small markers will work just as well. Students can play alone or with a partner. Roll the die, and build that number on the ten frame. This goes much faster if kids do not remove the bingo chips each time but just add more or take some off as they roll. The pumpkin seeds I used got rinsed off and left out for a few hours on a towel to dry. The kids had a lot of fun with them! Odd and Even Sort These cards are a great way to practice odd and even numbers. Using the 10 frame cards is easier than just the numerals but when your students are ready go ahead and use them all! Check out more ways to work on odd and even. Flip and Write Combinations of Ten You can never have to many games for combinations of 10 and this is a great one requiring little teacher prep. Give the student a stack of 10 frame cards or numeral cards if they are ready. Have them flip over a card and write an equation showing how many seeds they see and how many more they need to make 10. I usually have kids create their own record sheet for this activity on a piece of scrap paper. It saves prep time and money! You also might want to check out computer games for combinations of 10. Make 10 Go Fish This is one of my students’ favorite games for practicing combinations of 10. Mix two sets of the ten frame cards together. Shuffle and distribute 4-5 cards to each player. Have each kid look for matches that make ten. For example the 3 and the 7 are a match and the 6 and the 4 are another one. When all matches have been found in individual player’s hands, have them play go fish. If I have the 2 card in my hand, I would ask another player, “do you have the 8 to go with my 2 to make 10?” That player would respond “yes I do or no I don’t have the 8 to go with your 2 to make 10. This language can be challenging to students when you first start but they will catch on quick! Read more about how I use this game in the classroom and see some pictures of the game in action. Pyramid 10 This is played like the classic solitaire game pyramid. Mix two sets of ten frame cards together or use one set of ten frame cards and one set of numeral cards if your students are ready. Students make a pyramid and find matches that make ten. Read more about how my students play pyramid and see more pictures! Mystery Card (Addition and Subtraction) This is a fun game and a nice challenge when students are ready. This game must be played in groups of 3. Two players choose a 10 frame card and place them on their foreheads. The third player finds the sum of the two numbers on their foreheads and tells what it is. Then each of the players with cards on their heads looks at the other person’s card and tries to determine what card they have. This lets one student practice adding 2 numbers under 10 while the other two students practice solving missing addend or subtraction problems. The 10 frame visual really supports this learning. I like to change out the 10 frame playing cards with the seasons to keep things fresh for my students! You can grab the pumpkin playing cards here or the spring seeds card set here. Looking to extend these activities for older students or those who are ready for a challenge? Check out my Double 10 Frames Activity Set! If you are looking for more ways to get 10 frames into your classroom, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Using Ten Frames to Build Number Sense. It is full of great ideas that are easy to implement in the classroom.

Dramatic Role Play is a fun way for students to fill an afternoon. After all the heavy teaching of the first two sessions is over, I would let my students race into our home corner and 'play' for the afternoon. Only problem is, play needs to be 'learning through play'.. ssssh don't tell the students that though! I thought I'd share how I set up my home corner so that students can keep working through their curriculum required knowledge and understandings, whilst letting off steam and playing which is, let's face it, the best way to learn! SET UP There as so many pins on Pinterest with some absolutely beautiful dramatic role play set ups that you can really go to town with this (I always compare working in Early Years to wedding preparations...there really is no limit to how much you can spend!). However, if you're not fortunate enough to have a husband who happens to be a builder, who can whip up a supermarket set up with working sink etc.. then you'll need to improvise with tables, chairs and shelves. If students are truly to own this learning area they need to be part of the set up process. I usually set up the key components such as tables, chairs and bookshelves etc.. and sometimes I'll place some toys in or around the area to demonstrate how those areas can be used (e.g. food on shelves, play money in the tray) and then let the students do the decorating. Sure - it won't look as nice but the students will have OWNERSHIP which I feel is more important. Here are some labels I use (available in my store) which you can print, laminate and then let students place around the learning area. Next, I get clever about working smarter not harder (Prep teacher's motto!). I assign tasks within the learning area based on areas the students need to work on. Remember this is the perfect opportunity to differentiate that learning and do one-on-one observations with students, to see if they are demonstrating that skill. Once they are 'playing' I sit at the back of the room and watch particular students and do my tick and flick checklist of curriculum learning objectives to be met. You can also record this method in your student data differentiation discussions with your line manager, as it is directly meeting the students learning needs. Examples below come directly from ACARA Foundation Year. NUMERACY Role Play: Cashier Learning Objective: Understanding that each object must be counted only once, that the arrangement of objects does not affect how many there are, and that the last number counted answers the 'how many' question. Example: The cashier will be required to count one-to-one correlation with items on the table (or conveyor belt depending on how fancy your learning area is). Learning Objective: Identifying the number words in sequence, backwards and forwards, and reasoning with the number sequences, establishing the language on which subsequent counting experiences can be built. Example: The cashier will need to add the amount required and express that to the customer. They will also be required to establish how much change to give them. However, subtraction is difficult for students at this age so what you're looking for is that use of numbers used in a sentence. Do they understand how to sequence the numbers (forwards) when adding the total etc? Role Play: Customers Learning Objective: Developing fluency with forwards and backwards counting in meaningful contexts, including stories and rhymes. Example: The meaningful context here is real-world scenarios of shopping and using money. Do they have enough money? How much do they need to buy things? Learning Objective: Understanding and using terms such as 'first' and 'second' to indicate ordinal position in a sequence. Example: Encourage students to make a shopping list using first, second and third terms. Then observe students collecting items from the shop in the correct order. Do they understand what these terms mean? You can also set up your shop with the terms as signage such as 'First: take a basket. Second: select your groceries. Third: take your groceries to the cash register and so on'. LITERACY Role Play: Cashier Learning Objective: Learning that language varies according to the relationship between people (such as shopkeepers and customers). Example: How do students talk to each other when role playing? Do they take on the correct tone of customer and shop keeper? Have they seen this in action and if so do they understand why we take a polite and formal tone with customers? Role Play: Customers Learning Objective: Learning to ask relevant questions and to express requests and opinions in ways that suits different contexts. Example: Do they know how to ask for something that is not in the shop? Can they demonstrate how to form a sentence correctly in order to get the correct response? Can they use 'how' and 'why' appropriately to get what they want from the shop keeper? Learning Objective: Understanding that texts can take many forms, can be very short or quite long. Example: Making shopping lists is a great activity that students can do to make strong connections to real-world learning experiences. I find it useful to create vocabulary cards, laminate and bind them with a ring tab so that students can copy the spelling down (having pictures with the words helps as well). In addition, I let students create brochures for their supermarket. This addresses both numeracy and literacy skills through the creation, writing and pricing of goods in the brochure. Templates for brochures can be found in my store here or you can you make some up with plain paper and let students get really creative! Humanities and Social Studies (HASS) HASS elements can be easily interwoven into your ACARA checklist of observations once you have let your students explore their supermarket set up, such as: what are the features of places (supermarkets have trolleys, cash registers etc..)? why do places have those features? where are features placed (e.g. why is the checkout at the front of the store and not the back)? You can even get students to practice their map makings skills by mapping the learning corner and listing/labelling the features held inside! The opportunities for integrated learning with dramatic play are endless. You can find all the resources needed to set up your own classroom supermarket here including play money, shelf labels, shopping lists, brochure templates and shop signs. Hunt around in charity shops for baskets and toy food and you'll be amazed at what you'll find! Don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list to receive a free downloadable teaching product each month!

Hi :) I just thought I'd pop up a quick post to share a little Shape activity that I've used as an intro to teaching 2D shape.. its a good way to get an idea about the shapes that kids can identify. The kids love it too... anything that gets them up and moving! We also take our shape hunt around the school and see what shapes we can find in the different areas of the school. We get a new intake of kids from Kindy every term, so its a great way for the newies to feel more confident about being at school and learning where everything is - all while learning Maths! :) If you'd like to download a copy of the Shape Hunt Recording sheet from Google Docs, just click here Hope you're having a lovely week!

Teaching Australian Money - ideas for the classroom and Australian coin printables | you clever monkey

Free numeracy resources for classrooms, teachers and parents. Included will be printable games and activities.

Numicon Biscuits recipe. A fun and delicious baking activity to do with kids. They'll love the colours and of course the eating of them!

We have moved. To read this blog and others, please visit our new website: https://passionatelycuriouseducators.com/challenging-young-children-through-games-in-mathematics/ Developing and playing games with young children allows educators to naturally embed concepts, methods, build developing skills, and new vocabulary of mathematics into the play. Playing, creating, and adapting games that involve mathematics has grown to be a valuable part of our practice, especially since we know that all learners need different things from us in terms of support and instruction. Some children are learning to recognize and represent numbers...while other children are decomposing or adding! Educators are able to create, adapt, and extend simple games to meet the needs of all children. Playing alongside children or in the context of a small group also invites educators to learn about the children's growth, knowledge and understanding. We play a crucial role in the games and it is often our observation, prompting, and guidance that deepens the play. Games provide an opportunity for children to verbalize their thinking. Educators can listen in to the language being used in dialogue and can further prompt children to verbalize their thinking behind decision making while playing. Through continued exposure and exploration, young children grow in their ability to clearly and concisely explain their thinking. In doing so, children solidify their knowledge and make their thought process understood by others. When connecting with other educators, they often share their passion for games in mathematics as well. We find that often games are played during learning centre time and without the observation or involvement of adults. Though this type of play is valuable, there is certainly something to be said about how vital the role of an educator is! Educators play an important role in connecting children's informal understanding of mathematics with more formal, school-based mathematics. Teachers are continuously learning and researching in order to gain a deeper understanding of the foundations of early mathematics. Building our foundation as educators, allows us to understand the learning continuum and support children based on their needs. “The teacher’s knowledge of mathematics and the skills that the teacher applies in the classroom have the greatest impact on students’ learning.” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006b, p. 6) CREATING A RESOURCE: We are currently working on a resource that will be a collection of adaptable, simple games that involve mathematics! If you have a game that you have created, played, adapted, or LOVE please share it below in the comments! Once our resource is complete, we will do a draw for a colour copy based on all those who share an idea in the comments. We know that connecting educators supports us in combining our knowledge for the greatest impact! Be sure to share: materials, rules, and any other pertinent information below. Early Learning Games that Our Students Love:

Explore jane-says' 1838 photos on Flickr!

Tweet Happy weekend everyone! Hope back to school time is going well for all of you. I wanted to take the time to share with you a fun idea that is great for this time of year in Kindergarten and first grade. I have written several times about the importance of 10 frames but this is a fun way to get kids lots of practice with the structure of 10 frames in a fun and engaging way. All you need is some table space and a roll of painting tape. The roll I used is Scotch 2 inch tape. Thinner tape would work just as well if not better! I have had this roll for various projects at home and school for at least 5 years. The reason for using painting tape is that it will not peal the finish of your surface or leave a sticky mess behind. I like to get this set up and let the kids play with it before addressing it as a whole group. I put the cars or animals or other themed thing nearby and let them try it out. It is a great way to tie in a classroom theme if you have one. Once they have had some experience with playing with the 10 frame, I like to bring them together and talk about how we can use 10 frames for numbers and math. There are many things you can do with 10 frames to improve early numeracy, you can check a bunch of them out here! You might also be interested in checking out how I made this magnetic 10 frame!

15+ OF THE BEST BOOKS FOR TEACHING FRACTIONS - a handy list of picture books perfect for teaching fractions in Kindergarten and First Grade

Teaching ideas for using Coles Mini Little Shop Collectables. Maths rotations, English language arts, HASS, Geography and History in early primary.

Understanding how to use prepositional language is a fundamental skill children require for a number of curriculum subjects such as Maths and English, but the place where this skill is required the most is in the subject of Geography. Last fortnight I discussed how to teach the concepts of special places and today I want to build on that blog post to discuss the importance of prepositional language in map making. In the Australian HASS curriculum, Foundation students are required to discuss and map the features of special places using prepositional language and in Year 1 students need to label and map places using directional language. So a solid understanding of prepositional words and their use is essential before you can begin map making. A good test of your students' understanding of prepositional language is the Drawing Game. This is always a good warm-up as well, before starting your Geography lessons. Students take a blank piece of paper and follow each instruction you give them (give them slowly so they have processing time). Draw a sun in the top left-hand corner Draw a hill in the middle of the paper Draw a house on top of the hill Draw a road below the hill Draw a flower in front of the house Draw a cat next to the flower Draw a bee in between the flower and the cat And keep going to cover any new prepositional words you might want to use that day. When done, review student work and see who is the good listener and who doesn't know their prepositional words (listening is also a skill required for following prepositional directions). You can make all sorts of fun games with prepositions such as using the Prepositional Flash Cards (found in my store) to play a very funny classroom game. Give a student a soft toy (or any object but soft toys look funnier) and then pull out a prepositional flash card and the student must demonstrate the preposition with the toy. So you may pull out 'in between' and the student has to place the soft toy in between themselves and another student, 'on top' they might place it on their head! Once your students are familiar with prepositional words, then move on to some Prepositional Activities such as the sentence pull through (also available in my store). Get students to practice creating and working with sentences with prepositional words in them. Now the ground work for prepositions has been done, you can move on to map making. Begin with front view (birds-eye view is harder to explain at this point but you can move on to more advanced map making later, but the purpose just now is to understand the reason you make maps; to state where objects are). As with all subjects, move from what the student knows and understands to the unknown. So begin with mapping the classroom, the most familiar place to your students. Start by brainstorming the features of the classroom and move to mapping out those features on your whiteboard. After the classroom, you can move to your discussion of special places (grab my freebie in my last blog post) and move to the school playground. You can take map making further by discussing what makes this place special and build upon this with a daily writing task. Lastly, get students to demonstrate what they have learnt by getting them to map a place very familiar to just them... their bedroom! This is a great homework task and will really let you see what they can do with their map making. If parents do decide to help students at home, this is a double bonus as they can reinforce the skills they have learnt and see what their child is capable of doing on their own. You may find these products useful for map making and all are available in my store bundle.

I have previously used the app Doodle Buddy for children to sort data into a Carroll diagram - I have blogged using the app for data handli...

Simple to set up Maths Centre activity for home or the classroom to teach doubling ideal for use with Foundation Stage or Kindergarten.