Counting: Counting On (Pre K-2)

Cover Up

This is just a game in beginning counting on. Everyone starts with the same amount of blocks. Tell them to use their hand to cover up any amount you wish. Then have them begin with the number of the amount that is covered up, and count on from there.

For example, in this case, starting with four, cover two and have them count on from there -3-4.

Bite Your Tongue

Using whatever number you are working on, have your students bend to one side for a portion of it, counting silently and then switch to bending on the other side for the rest of the number, counting aloud. This can be used for counting, addition, and subtraction problems.

source: Mathematics Their Way, Mary Baratta-Lorton

Counting: Invariance or Conservation of Number (Pre K-2)

The Piggy Bank Game

You can use a piggy bank if you have one you cannot see through and has a way to easily open up the bottom and reseal it again. If you don't have one, just take a 1/2 gallon milk carton and cut it in half. Wash out the bottom half and throw the top part away. You can cover the milk carton half with contact paper or the like if you wish. Turn it over so that the bottom part is now the top and cut a slit wide enough so that whatever you are using as counters can fit. I like using pennies. Put the box on the table, with the open end on the table and the end with the slit in it up. Drop whatever number of counters you want into the box through the slit as the child counts aloud. Ask him how many does he think will be on the table when you lift the box. Lift the carton and count together.

Spill The Beans

This is best played in a group, so I usually like playing this game just as everyone is sitting down to dinner. It only takes a minute. All you need for this game is a bag of beans and a baggie. Counting aloud, place as many beans in the bag as appropriate. Pass the bag around a group until you stay stop, stopping it at the child(ren) that you want to have this practice. Ask the child who has the bag to predict how many will be in the bag, and then have him spill the beans onto the table and we again count aloud.

Changing Chairs

Another game that is fun to play just before dinner. Standing up behind the chair at the table, everyone counts off in turn and then sits down as he says his number. When the last child sits down, the whole group says this number. You can do this however many times you feel is helpful. Ask the child who is working on this skill what he thinks will be the last number between each time.

Counting: Introduction (Pre K-2)

  Count and Turn

10/9/08

This game is like a military drill. They march and count to a specific number and then turn in unison to face another direction, and start the count over again. This game helps young people like Quentin practice counting without it being boring, and is a nice drill in paying attention and working together for the older boys. They had a lot of fun at this and played it even after school was over.

We also practice counting by playing the following games, using the number of the day, so you end up practicing from 1-30/31 each month.

The Counting Game

The teacher or one of the older children counts to the day's number while the students count along and add a block onto a square of construction paper as each number is recited.

The Pendulum Game

A weight is tied to a length of string. The children watch the pendulum swinging freely and count along with it. The teacher stops and restarts the motion at the end of the counting sequence for the  number of the day.

Active Counting Games

Have two children sit with their arms linked together. Count to the number of the day and then have them stand. Do this several times until they can do it on their own.

Have the child hop forward while counting, changing direction at the end of the sequence for the number of the day.

Have the child stand on the teacher or older child's feet and walk around counting each step until you reach the number of the day.

Ring a xylophone, bounce a ball or jump a rope, counting up to the number of the day.

Toy Counting Game

Have the students line up a row of stuffed animals, plastic figures, toy cars or other toys. Have them count until the reach the number of the day and then, move the last toy forward. Begin again where he left off. Keep doing this until there are no more toys that haven't been pulled forward. This can also be done with a group of children standing in a circle. The child can sit down instead of moving forward.

Coin Values

Today we reviewed coin values. I printed out some reminder sheets from Counting Coconuts, that have both the names of the coins and their values. We talked about how many of each coin makes up a dollar. I tried to print out some printables for this from The Activity Mom, but they didn't print out with the circles on them, so we just talked about it. He passed all of this with flying colors.

We then went on to counting a random selection of coins. He would close his eyes and pick out some and then count them.

He did better if he had a piece of paper to write down the various totals of the types of coins. For instance, if he had 1 dime, 3 nickles and 3 pennies, he would write down an equation: 10 + 15 + 3 and get the correct answer.

 Another coin value game is a Bingo-type game. Make a 5 x 5 square grid and fill in each square with coin values (1, 5, 10, 25 and 50). Meanwhile write various combinations values of the coins (such as 34, 2, 16) on slips of paper or index cards.

 To play, pick a card and put counters (or real coins would be even better) on the grid to equal the amount shown on the index card. The object of the game is to fill in as many of  the squares as he can. Each time he plays, he tries to better is score. You could play it with two or more people, each with their own boards. 

Math Games Fit For A King

The Counting House Game at Fairy Dust Teaching

When I saw these lovely math games at Fairy Dust Teaching, I knew that my youngest son would love them. They excite the imagination as well as make an interesting way of practicing math skills. 

To make the boards, we used one 12 x 12 sheet of scrapbook paper per board, a number grid and anything you would like to decorate your board. I used a piece of foam to make the crown. To play the games you will also need a die (we used a 10-sided die for the 100 grid, but Sally at Fairy Dust Teaching, used a 6-sided die for her 20 and 30 grids) and glass counting gems or pennies. Sally also uses peg people.

The Counting House
To play: The child roll a die and counts out this amount of gems and places them on the counting grid. He must count the numbers on the grid as each additional amount of gems are added, until he gets to his final number on the grid. But first, before he plays, tell him a story. Sally has created a lovely story about Mr. Thirty to go with her 30-board. I wanted to use a 100's board, so I created a different story.

Once upon a time there was a King who needed to collect the yearly taxes from his subjects as harvest season had just now ended . So he sent out his men to search the kingdom high and low to find all of the people in the kingdom. They found cottages amid the wood, and houses along the streams. They found dwellings in a little town and those all alone. At each place they collected the taxes and took them to the king's counting house. The people were expecting this because this happened every year this time and the king expected to get 100 coins for that is what he brought in each year. Please check for the King - roll the King's royal dice to see how many coins are collected at each house and fill the Hundred Counting House.

Another variation for older students is for them to keep track of their die rolls and make a very large addition equation.

War of The Kingdoms
You need as many game boards as players, with a minimum of two boards/players. Each game board is a kingdom. The player is the King or Queen of that Kingdom.

To Play: This is a game is just like the The Counting House except  that each player rolls the dice on his turn and then puts that number of markers down on his board. The first player to fill their number board, is the Kingdom that wins!

Joining Kingdoms
This game takes a different board. This board can be a castle or a crown shape, with two circles or squares on it, one large, and one small and a place in which numbers can be put above the boxes. It also requires gems, a 10-sided die (or six, if you wish) and number cards or tiles.

To play:
Roll a die twice to get two different numbers that you will count out markers into the circles on the game board using the "jewels." The number that is less goes into King Less' smaller circle and the number that is more goes into the King More's bigger circle. How many are there when they share and join their jewels together? Next, the child must find that number in the number cards and put it on the joined square. But first before you play, here is my version of the background story (Sally has another version.)

Once upon a time there lived a king who was small in stature (but large in wisdom)  King named King Less and a king who was very tall and broad (but not so bright) named King More. King More kept taking over more and more land and yet he had trouble keeping track of it because he wasn't very bright. King Less kept losing provinces to King More and he kingdom had shrunk to a very small one indeed. His kingdom was a happy one, however, because he was kind and managed his kingdom well.  One day, as King More was taking over more villages to his kingdom, he saw that the people in King Less' kingdom were much happier than in his own so he decided to go to the King Less to find out how he could be have more happy kingdom. King Less told him, "I will teach you the secret to having a happy kingdom if you can help me defend my kingdom from invaders on all sides - then we both will have more!"  That day King Less and King More joined their kingdoms and became co-rulers. King Less, although he was small and brought less land to their union, used his wisdom to run the kingdom within, while King More used his strength and the wealth of all his land to defend the boarders of their kingdom. Together they had a very happy and strong kingdom.

Laminate boards for durability.  These games should be played with adult supervision and are intended for children 5 years old or older as they use small pieces on the game boards.  Please adjust for safety if you are making these for younger children.

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Math Games: War Subtraction

You will need dice and counters for this simple counting game. Have each player start with an equal amount of counters and rolled to see how many they could take away from their chosen opponent. Winner is the one who is left last.

Guesstimation and Place Value

Present to your students the task of estimating how many objects are in any empty container you have. You can use any math manipulative for this activity, but I like to use snacks, such as these gummy frogs because it interests children. In my family, Quentin guessed "21"; Sam guessed "26" and James guessed "25."

Then ask one student to take the counters out of the container and put one on each small circle of a place value board. A place value board has 10 small circles in one section for the ones, ten larger circles for the tens. If you make the circles the same size as the bottom of a bathroom paper cup, you can use those to hold ten of any item you are counting. In the next section have circles large enough for a bowl or coffee can. This container needs to be large enough to hold ten of the bathroom cups, or 100 items per circle.

Once all the circles on the ones section are filled then have your student take them off the ones circles and put them in a bathroom cup and put the cup on the tens side.

For this example, Quentin filled the ones section twice and had three frogs left over. It was easy for them to see that there were 23 in the jar. This is a pleasureable way to learn estimating skills if you do this regularly with different counters and different containers of all sorts of shapes and sizes.

After you have done this several times, you can increase the amount of counters you are usings as well. Initially their estimates will not be so accurate this time, as the numbers you work with are higher. Give your students chances to change their estimates as they go along because the object is for them to get better at estimating, not winning against each other. Once you have completed your estimating exercise and are ready to hand out the counters for a snack, first have them figure out the quickest and easiest way to divide the crackers equally.

For the benefit of Sam and James, I followed along with on the white board, writing down everything they did. In the end Quentin said, "That sure is a lot of numbers!"

Math Games: Bite Your Tonuge!

Using whatever number you are working on, have your students bend to one side for a portion of it, counting silently and then switch to bending on the other side for the rest of the number, counting aloud. This can be used for counting, addition, and subtraction problems.

Number Stations: Using Anything for Math Manipulatives to Explore Patterns

In this game students use two colors (to begin with, but you can increase this amount later) of any kind of math manipulative. In this case we are using Unifix cubes to make different patterns with the number of the day. They make their own discoveries with patterns, in-variance of number, counting and thinking logically.

On another day, they wanted to explore the number "5," and they wanted to use goldfish, but we only had one color of them, so instead of arranging patterns, their task was to arrange 5 goldfish in various different ways. In this way they can get an idea of what 5 looks like in various arrangements.

It is interesting to see how this game can continue to keep interest as they make new discoveries with different amounts of materials. We vary the types of materials as well.

Sam and James showed the concept that 7 is an odd number by showing two sets of 3, with the odd man out in the middle.

James showed the concept that we naturally can only mentally conceive of 5 and then after that branch off to adding more to 5. He had a row of 5 with 2 branching off, or 5 +2=7

Quentin is most comfortable with the number 4. Even though often he can successfully count to 10, he still becomes unsure after 4, so he split his 7 in 4+3=7

Math Games: Count & Turn

This game is like a military drill. They march and count to a specific number and then turn in unison to face another direction, and start the count over again. This game helps young people like Quentin practice counting without it being boring, and is a nice drill in paying attention and working together for the older boys. They had a lot of fun at this and played it even after school was over.

source:

• Mathematics Their Way, Mary Baratta-Lorton

Math Games: Handfuls

In this game, it is best to have four players. Two players take handfuls of something in which there are a lot of similar items like blocks or stones. The third player will choose more or less. The fourth player decides which of the two handfuls matches the request of the third player. For example, if the third player chooses more, then the fourth player has to decide which of the handfuls has more. I was very surprised at how accurately Quentin could guess. He determined that one handful, in which we later counted had 19 in it had less than the other handful which contained 22!

source: 

• Mathematics Their Way, Mary Baratta-Lorton

Math Games: Counting Forward & Backwards with Snap & Clap

Students clap together in rhythm, counting forward from 1 to whatever number you are working on and then snap their fingers, counting backwards. You can change the number and the speed to make it more challenging and fun.

source: Mathematics Their Way, Mary Baratta-Lorton