Magic Christmas Tree

 One of my students gave me this Magic Tree for Christmas and I just couldn't wait to try it.

The first thing I had to do was put the tree together and decorate it.  I then had to pour the water mixture in the base.

After about an hour, I noticed the tips of the branches were white,

After a few hours there were crystals on the branches.

The next morning, this is what the tree looked like.  My own kids thought it was very cool.  It was very interesting to see the transformation.

Polar Express alphabet

We are getting close.  Only one week left before the holiday starts.  Are you in survival mode?  We have so many special events happening right now that I'm not sure how we are getting anything done.

We are managing to get in a few academic activities in-between the plays, singing and craft activities.

I still have a few students that are missing a few letters of the alphabet.  We keep practicing every day.

Putting letters in order is a little tougher.

 We are also working on beginning sounds.  Practice, practice, practice.

No Prep Polar Express Math

I love the Polar Express story.  Even before it was movie, I would read the book to my class.  For I few years we even put on the play for the parents.

For the past week we have been practicing some of our skills with a Polar Express theme.

We practiced counting and colouring.

Graphing was favorite.  For my students who colour in the boxes, we used bingo dabbers.  

I love these, because even if my students can't print well enough, I know if they can match and count.

This can be a little tricky but it's good practice to fill in the missing numbers. 

Patterns are part of the Kindergarten Ontario curriculum and the kids love this Polar Express pattern page.

 You can never have enough practice counting and matching numbers.

 I like to have the children practice putting numbers in order.

This one is a little tricky too.  There are several answers that go under each number.  I like to have the children practice cutting while they are working.  I love them working on more than one skill at a time.

5 Ways to use Christmas Erasers in your math centers

I found these cute little mini erasers at The Dollar Tree over the weekend I thought they would be perfect for my math centers.  Here are 5 simple things you can do with this one little manipulative.

Sorting

These are perfect for children working on fine motor skills.  The size is great for working on using the thumb and forefinger.

Have the children sort the erasers into like piles.

Graphing

Have the children use a small spoon to scoop out a spoonful of erasers.  Then have them graph the erasers to see which one they have more of.

Using real objects are important for children with disabilities who haven't made the connection to paper representations.

Patterning

Have the children use the objects to make a pattern.  For some children they may need you to start the pattern and then have them extend it.  For children with visual impairments, have them feel the difference between the shapes to make a pattern.

Counting to 100

Since the package contained 100 erasers I thought I would be a good exercise for the children to arrange the erasers in groups of 10 to count to 100.

The visual representation of laying them out was perfect for my students that needed the concrete objects.

Adding

For my older students we rolled a dice and practiced adding.  They rolled once and choose that many snowflakes.  They then rolled a second time and choose that many snowmen.  We then added up the total number of erasers.

This was perfect for students that still need concrete objects to aid in their counting.

I hope I've given you a few ideas today.  You don't need to spend a fortune to stock your math centers with fun, practical ideas that cover a variety of skills.

I've update some of my Christmas products over the last couple of days.  If you have purchased something off of me, don't forget to download the new version.

Tomorrow is also Cyber Monday and I'm putting my whole store on sale.

Don't forget to enter the promo code: SMILE when you check out for extra savings.

Fall Math

It's fall and we have been doing some fall math centers.

We have been practicing putting numbers in order.  My younger students did 1 to 10 and my older ones did 1 to 100.

We did some sorting.

We sorted by shapes.

And by colour.

We did lots of practice with counting to 20.

We did some more sorting with pictures.

We counted leaves.

And we counted squirrels with one-to-one correspondence. 

We filled in the missing number.  I used number cards for my students who can't print.

Making patterns was a favorite activity.  Some were a little tricky.

 Last but not least, we have to give the correct number of nuts to the squirrel.