Tuesday Tips!

Today is my first posting of TUESDAY TIPS!  One of my goals with my blog is to bring you practical ideas for your classroom that are free or very little in cost.  I will bring you things from my own classroom or things I found on other blogs.  Make sure you stop by each Tuesday for new ideas :)

The first idea came from a professional development I attended last year.  The coordinator was one of those rare fabulous people who came with TONS of practical ideas for us to take right into our classroom.....don't ya just love those pd's?

Anyways, this is a simple, inexpensive yet effective way to allow for hands-on practice of beginning addition for Kinder's.  Just take a piece of white or light-colored pipe cleaner and tie off one end.  Add 10 beads (same color) to the pipe cleaner.  Use a sharpie to make a black line down the middle and voila, students can practice any addition problem to 10!  You can also add more beads to accommodate addition problems up to any number that will fit.  SUPER simple!  I have each student make their own (great fine motor activity and great for hands-on learning!)

The next Tuesday Tip is also for adding but you can adapt it to a number of other activities.  All you need to make this activity are bottle caps (send a note home to parents and before you know it you'll have hundreds!)  I purchased plain, colored sticker labels from the dollar store.  Write the numbers 0 through 5 (or higher) and place them on the inside part of the cap.  Students place them face down, choose two caps and add the numbers together......instant Math Center!  The students can even use the pipe cleaners above to figure out the problem!

You can also use these caps for number recognition, playing Hi/Lo, building two-digit numbers, or even number ordering.  Skies the limit! It's such an inexpensive activity that you could make multiple games and store them separately.

The last tip is for learning coin  identification and their value.  I bought wood cubes at my local craft store ($3 for a 12 pack.)  My grade partner has coin image stamps but I also found coin stickers at my teacher store.  The sectioned-dish I found for $1 at the dollar store.  The whole activity cost me less than $5.00 to make.  Place plastic coins in the center of the dish.  Students roll the cube and identify the coin and the coin's value. Then they have to find that coin in the center dish and sort it in the correct section.  It's really a simple activity but my kids love to play it and it really helps with coin recognition!

Click HERE for recording sheets.

Well I hope you found something you can use in your classroom!  A lot of these activities can be adapted for 1st or even 2nd grade.  Use your creativity and things you have laying around in your room.  Good luck!!!

Lori