Saturday, June 2, 2012

our number line

When we went to register Christian for kindergarten, we were given this little calendar (which works out great since this is where we used to keep his pre-k calendar that told us what they would be doing each day).
This one has a small task for the students to complete each day for June and July.  Mostly these are review-ish type things...or they should be anyway.
The first task was to review your numbers 1-20.  We have been rote counting with Christian since he was big enough to talk.  He got to ten with no problem at all.  When we started to increase that to 15, it was like no matter how we tried the boy would not say the number 15.  Each and every time he would say 14, 16.
Sometime during this school year, he made it past that hurdle.  Wouldn't you know it that now he can get to 15 no problem, but is currently of the mindset that 16 isn't really necessary in a number line.  He just skips right over it on his way to 20.
Knowing him as I do, and being a visual learner myself, I decided to make a giant number line in the driveway to help us practice (and be successful) on the very first summer-before-big-school task.






The first few times through, I walked on one side of the numbers with Christian on the other.  Miss Sassy Pants here wanted in on the action.  And so together we counted from 1 to 20 about one bo-jillion times.

There may or may not have been M&Ms involved.

We came away happy.

I like that.

2 comments:

  1. OH! I love this! Josie is at the stage where she refuses to say 15. I wonder if that's a common thing? Do 5 year olds just hate the number 15? We've been trying to practice by using manipulatives to count. I'm going to try this tomorrow. I bet she will love it!

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  2. This really worked well for him! When he would step up to the 16 and say 17 instead, I would ask if he saw a 7 in that number. When he looked next to his feet and saw that 6 (in the 16) then he would correct it.
    Also, yesterday while we were chalking it up again Christian started his own number line. With a little help he was able to complete 1-20. As soon as he finished the numbers, he put down his chalk and started walking down his number line and saying those numbers. He was so proud of himself! :)

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