'Math Madness' for Valentine's Day and More!

My kinders have been working hard with ten frames, numbers to 20, using a 100s chart and counting on from a given number- all concepts that can be hard and confusing!

Being it was Valentine's Day week, we broke out the conversation hearts, egg carton ten frames, and more to make these concepts more 'sweet' and 'lovely!'

In math centers my kinders worked with their egg cartons as ten frames (a great idea I got from Differentiation Station), but this week, they got 2 of them!  Each kinder also got a cup with 20 conversation hearts.

I pulled a number card (you can find them for free here!) and had them ID the number.  They then had to show me the number using their conversation hearts and ten frames!

Once we practiced with a few number cards, they then completed their 'color by ten frame' activity!

My students have been using them for a few weeks now!  They love them and they are now at the point where they can complete them all on their own!

Here is a sample from my 'color by ten frame' winter set!

(click to download)

My kinders have been having so much fun with them I now have sets for Winter, Winter Sports, Valentine's Day, President's Day and 100th Day and am hoping to have a spring, St Patty's and general set up soon!

But that wasn't the end of our 'SWEET' math and number fun!

We used those hearts again to find numbers in a 100 chart to reveal a mystery picture!

As I called out numbers, my kinders placed a heart on top of the number.  I also had a large 100 chart displayed on my Eno Board and I colored them in as well to help students that were having trouble finding the numbers.

After we wrote what we found, I had them pick up the hearts, one by one, and color to mark the spot. 

 Once all the heart spaces/numbers were recorded, our picture was officially revealed! 

And those heart markers....became a tasty treat to reward amazing math work!

We'll be doing something similar on the 100th Day...but instead of a heart, we'll be finding the number 100!

So how did we get to the 100 chart...it wasn't easy!  We have been working on it for awhile!

Before the lesson above, we had some marshmallow fun!

Here in NY it has been a LONG, COLD and SNOWY winter!  In my house we have been surviving with lots and lots of hot cocoa....and marshmallows!  One day while sitting and sipping with my boys, the idea of a marshmallow 'revealing' a number came to me!

I have a mug with a 100s chart on it and then marshmallows with a box cut out that just so happens to match the square on the 100s chart perfectly (it only took about 5 tries!)

I had my kinders work in pairs.  I called out a number- they found it and 'highlighted it' with the marshmallow!  We practiced that for a bit and then I started to ask them to slide the marshmallow to show what number came before/after!

 Somehow those hearts made their way into this too (they were eyeing the counted out cups on my table in preparation for the week!)!  One partner covered a number with the marshmallow, heart, or marshmallow heart and the other then opened their eyes and had to figure out the covered number!

It worked better with just the heart- so they knew what they needed more than I did!  The marshmallow covered the number before and after a bit too much, but the heart worked out just fine!

We later moved onto an individual activity...

I selectively plucked 20 numbers from our 100 chart and handed each child a number (this helped me with differentiation too- those children struggling with numbers got the smaller numbers- and those ready for a challenge got the higher numbers).  They had to write the number on one of the marshmallows and then write the number that came before and after it on the other marshmallows!

They glued the marshmallow with the number I gave them in the middle of the cup... 

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..and the other numbers went before and after to show the numbers in order!

To help students that were having difficulty I gave them a number line and indicated the given number (with a crayon wrapper scrap!  Oh how we find ways to make things work, right?!)

if the number was larger than the number line I had, I had them use our number finding monster (he is also a word and letter finding monster for ELA activities!) and the large 100 chart to help ID the numbers before and after!

So when it was all done, each child has a marvelous mug of ordered marshmallows!

and my math bulletin board is now complete!

Find all the marshmallow goodies and more in here:

And to wrap up our week of SWEET number fun we had our Valentine's exchange...and as I had blogged about on February 5th we completed them by having students number their valentines from 1 to 20!

It was A HUGE SUCCESS and I can't believe it took me 13 years to 'perfect' our exchange!

It was smooth, flawless, calm and fun!  Only 2 students needed help- all the others were able to find and place their valentines in their respective bags all on their own!

Here they are waiting to be filled....

 I had them across the front of the room in number order.  The girls were numbers 1-7 and the boys 8-20- that was an afterthought!  I had a parent write me that her child had bought separate girl and boy Valentines! Ahhh!  So I sent a quick note out with our changes and everything else fell right in place!

After everyone was done exchanging, I stapled the tops of our VERY STUFFED bears!

They sat out in the hall- back in number order- and as they children left, they grabbed their bag and headed off the to the buses for a week off- as it is Mid-Winter Recess break for us in NY!

I am linking up with Teaching Momster for a 'Math Madness Wednesday' Linky!

This week's theme is '10 Frames'!

If you are looking for more information about teaching and using 10 Frames, be sure to click this link and follow the other links!

Until next post,