First Grade, Math, Set Five

Games, activities, books, and web sites that enhanced our learning:

• Reviewing Odd/Even Numbers
• I found the idea for making a maze and having your child follow either the odd or even numbers to find the path through the maze. This took a bit of time, but it was worth the effort. It provided great review and practice reading numbers aloud.
• I also found some on-line games for practice. One is at Crickweb and the other at Teachrkids.

• Reviewing Greater/Less Than
• We played the game with the Uno cards again
• Here are some games on-line that I liked. Here is one at Kinderwebgames and one at Abcya.
• How Full is Full?: Comparing Bodies of Water by Parker -- this book starts with a glass of water and ends with an ocean. There is an activity at the end, putting 1 cup of water in different size and shape containers. The question is: does it look like each container has the same amount of water?

• I introduced the concept of perimeter. We used her measuring tape we made in Set Four and measured each side of a book. I had her use a calculator to add it up. Then she used the measuring tape and wrapped it all the way around the book and got the same measurement. We measured a total of 5 things.
• We did a lot of games on the computer this week:
• Spatial Relationships: Johnny's Math Page
• Sorting Shapes: Jayzeebear, Coppschool, Sheppard Software, Mathematics (K. didn't want to play this one ), NLVM
• Pattern Games: ABCya, Kaboose, Primary Games
• To introduce the concept of the "decimal point", we counted money and then wrote the amount. I have a bag of coins I keep just for school. I dumped them on the table and then slid a "handful" over to K. She counted them and I showed her how (and why) to write the amount. Then she slid a bunch over to me and I counted and wrote the amount. We each had three turns.
• We have been practicing the Subtraction Facts. To liven it up:
• I added a hippo shaped water squirter. One day I squirted K. every time she gave me the correct answer.
• Another day, I counted out fifteen fact family triangles and set the timer for three minutes. If she got through all fifteen cards before the timer buzzed, she got to squirt me until the timer went off. It took four or five sets to get through all the cards. When we were finished, I got to squirt her until the hippo was empty.
• Another day, I took a small bag of M&M's and divided each color into a different bowl. Then I divided the triangles into 4 stacks (there are about 14 in each stack). If K. could get through a stack before the timer went off (3 minutes), she earned a bowl of M&M's.
• Another day, I told her that if she got through a stack before the timer went off, we would stop and play a game.
• We played Star Count (Games for Math pg 113) on her chalk board.