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Monday 5 February 2018

Math Talk Monday: Measuring "One Very Big Bear"

I love books! I have a VERY BIG collection of children's books, which I have collected throughout my career. I have also been fortunate to have received many books as gifts- from colleagues, students, friends, and family. 




"One Very Big Bear" by Alice Brière-Haquet was gifted to me by one of my dedicated classroom volunteers, Lucas Serper. It is a story about counting and size, and a fun way to introduce students to measuring height!


Special thanks to my husband for drawing the very big bears for me! 



I posted the above provocation to Instagram, which I created after reading the story to our class, and I was excited to see educators in the following weeks try it out in their own classrooms. As much as they commented that I inspired them; it was truly inspiring to see all the ways they took the idea and made it their own. Thanks @kinderkulture @journey_of_learning @learninginroom122 and @ms.desousa for sharing! 


Love that they also used bottle caps as a non-standard measuring tool!
(pictured in their Instagram video) 

Love the small, medium, and big bears to measure and compare!

Love the connection to the story of The Three Bears! 
Love the addition of wooden numbers to represent the amount of gems used!

"The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other."     
                                                                          


Monday 8 January 2018

Math Talk Monday: Tenzi!

Happy New Year! 

As much as I love posting to Kindie Korner, I never seem to have enough 'time' to keep up with all the ideas that I would love to share with you. With that being said, I do post more regularly to Instagram and Twitter and hope that you can follow along there! 





I recently posted an Instagram Story about a math game that I am currently playing during our small group lessons, called Tenzi! I took a poll and asked my followers if they have ever played it before- 61% of followers answered no. 


This gave me the idea to challenge myself to share how to play math games like Tenzi and other math related ideas and resources on a more regular basis. And since it's Monday- Math Talk Monday is it! 

I learned how to play Tenzi with the YRDSB Early Years Math Consultant, Heather Jelley, a few years back at my Kindergarten Additional Qualification Course, and later introduced the game to my kindergarteners, who absolutely love it to this day! 
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Materials: 10 dice of the same colour for each player 
(i.e., 10 red dice for player one, 10 blue dice for player two, etc.) 
*I sometimes add ten-frames to help students track how many dice they have rolled and how many more they need to make 10.

How To Play: Each player rolls all ten dice at the same time. Students can choose a number they want to collect (i.e., 5) or they can use the number they roll the most on their first roll (i.e., player one rolls four 3's, so 3 becomes the number they collect). As you roll the dice, you collect your number in the ten-frame (or in a line). Once you have collected all ten dice of the same number, you call out "Tenzi!" to show you have finished. 




Curriculum Connections: taken from The Kindergarten Program
  1. 15.3  make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects 
    15.5  subitize quantities to 5 without having to count, using a variety of materials (e.g., dominoes, dot plates, dice, number of fingers) and strategies (e.g., composing or decomposing numbers)
    15.6  use information to estimate the number in a small set (e.g., apply knowledge of quantity; use a common reference such as a five frame; subitize) 
    20.1  demonstrate an understanding of number relationships for numbers from 0 to 10, through investigation (e.g., show small quantities using fingers or manipulatives)
Early Number Concepts and Strategies: taken from YRDSB

Conservation, Subitizing, One-to-One Correspondence  




If you are one of the 61% who have not played Tenzi, I encourage you to try it out - you and your students won't be disappointed! 

Here's to many more Math Talk Monday's!