This morning, our math lesson was a dice game where sprouts worked in pairs. Each child got a pair of dice, rolled them, and then had to total their dice. Whoever had the higher number got a chip. There were ten chips in each cup, when all the chips were gone, they were tallied and a winner identified. The tricky part was we’re working on 'counting on' as opposed to just counting all the dots on the dice. 'Counting on' can be tricky for kindergarteners…
We worked all morning during our math time and even played again in the afternoon… many got it, but many struggled too.
I also popped into my dear friend Mrs. F.’s room. Mrs. F. teaches third grade and her students are also our reading buddies. When I opened the classroom door, the room was totally silent. The boys and girls were all sitting and working in their math journals. I looked at the board and saw a problem much like this:
In third grade. Coming from my classroom, this looked downright like college algebra to me. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent guy and I had to look at the problem for a few moments before I realized how to solve it… not only were her students solving it correctly, I was told by more than a few that this was ‘easy peasy, lemon squeezy’ and felt even dumber than before… are all the hugs and hand holding turning my brain to mush?
I turned to go and was eager to return to kindergarten. Hats off to Mrs. F. and her third graders. They are doing some amazing stuff up in that second floor classroom. I’ll stick with 'counting on' and counting to one hundred… hey, we all have our roles to play.
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8 comments:
Have you thought about using one die that has numerals? We did that with a few of our second graders that still struggled to count on. That way they might roll a 5 (the number) and a 2 (in dots). They touch the 5 and THEN can count on the next two dots.
Works well for ours!
I did this same lesson yesterday! I was surprised at how quickly they caught on because I distinctly remember last year's class having a tough time with it.
Also, one of my closest friends at school is a 5th grade teacher. I popped in there for a visit today. He and had a discussion about 5th grade math. I just do not have a math brain and always joke that there is a reason why I teach KINDERGARTEN math!
Ha! If it were a K-5 school you'd have to peel yourself off the floor when you see the things that 5thg raders learn these days (much of which I did not learn until 8th grade). Kindergarten is the new 2nd grade, indeed.
And as grown ups when do we use math like those 3rd graders were doing? I guess its just a different way of thinking. I like your chip game. My kids are REALLY into dice and we just started adding. I bet they would like this. We play war a lot so I bet they would catch on pretty quickly too!
"Counting on" is a pretty tricky concept. Even in 1st grade our students struggle with it. Typically addition is much later in the year but this year, with our new curriculum, our students were learning these skills very early on. I do feel like my students have a better grasp at adding this year than last year even though early in the year we were pulling out hair out with the new curriculum. My concern is that many still don't memorize the "facts" and the curriculum does not push this.
Haha, yes!! You are laying important foundations for later on :)
Algebra still makes me shiver! When my oldest daughter reached 5th grade I had to go with her after school to sit in while her teacher tutored! Otherwise, there was no way I would have been able to help her with her homework! Yes, we all have our own special place in the world and the Algebra class is no place for me:)
April Fools?
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