Practical math

December is here.  I am excited to be back in Kindergarten this year and to celebrate Christmas with my class.  It is a bit overwhelming to think about all I'd love to accomplish and the few weeks I have to get it all accomplished!

My class sits at tables in the classroom.  The year began with free seating as I got to know each student and their learning styles and strengths.  Now they are assigned seats.  My motto of "smarter not harder" works well with this plan.  Each boy has an assigned number.  I love that they clearly know each others numbers.  We love to do a roll call.  I call out a number and they answer "here."  They can even gather in numeric order if I ask them.

There is so much buzz about the common core.  Having taught 2nd grade for 5 years, I value the confidence and mastery of the tens frames.  With that in mind, I am determined to have them master this before they leave in June.  Seeing the tens frames in the classroom with purpose and value can only help serve this goal.  So, for this month, I used holiday notepad snowmen.  I wrote a number in digit form, followed by the word, and then added the tens frame.  They have been taped to the chair back and are clearly visible for the students to see and hopefully absorb.  Here are some pictures.

I hope my class likes it. I know they will notice it right away.