Shake Those Disks!

 

As we enter into our second full week of 1st grade, we are continuing to create a positive and collaborative learning environment for all! Diving right into our first math unit of sums and differences to 10, what better way to enhance our math and social skills than by practicing with a game! 

To play the game, students are paired up with a partner and given a cup, 8 counters with two sides, and a template with number bonds showing different ways to make 8. Students take turns shaking and rolling the counters out. When rolled out, students will count how many red counters and how many yellow counters, then add them together. For example, if the counters' sides come out as 5 red counters and 3 yellow counters, the student gets to color a box above the number bond that shows 5 + 3 with their crayon color. Then, the other partner repeats and rolls the counters to count. As an extra challenge, students wrote the addition sentence that goes along with the number bond.

Before we started, I modeled with a student at the front of the classroom with the document camera. As the student rolled the counters, I could see how excited he was to see what colors of the counters came out. Something so simple brought so much joy and excitement to our math!

After modeling through a couple rolls, partners got their own counters and off they went!