Ten Frames and Subitzing Galore!

Confession: I am NOT a fan of 1st grade math. I don't know why. I just haven't found my groove with it yet, I guess. I LOVE, totally LOVE, 2nd and 3rd grade math though. And I love Math in general, so I know it's not Math that I don't like. But I feel it... I feel that THIS year is THE year to figure out HOW to make math work. Last year, I really figured out reading and small groups. So this year will be math. 

BUT, with that said, I don't hate ALL things 1st grade math.  I DO love ten frames.... and subitizing cards. haha! Subitizing is FUN for some reason. I don't know why. haha.

Here's what we've been doing with these to help with recognizing patterns, numbers, and adding.

Our calendar board....

We use the 100s chart (I got that free with the Highlights response sheets a few years ago) and practice counting by tens up and down the hundreds chart for whatever number day we are on.  We also do the place value with the magnetic place value chart (pan) - talk about the tens rods and ones cubes.  I also have a tally mark section under the green word cards.

Then we get to the How Many Days board. I love this part.  Especially now that we have different pictures on there. I change the pictures monthly. So sometimes the pictures change on the same ten frame. This is great for discussions!!

(you can see more about this How Many Days board on {THIS} post)

Another thing we've been doing is practicing different ways to make ten. We've been playing a Ten Frame Game called Shake and Spill. You can grab that freebie {HERE}.

In small groups, we've been using some activities from my {Math with a Deck of Cards} pack (for 1st Grade). Pulling over one card to give us one part and then trying to figure out what we need to make 10.  I also have a Math with a Deck of Cards for grades 2 and up {HERE}.

Some of our math journals have been working with ten frames too. This activity comes form Deanna Jump's {Guiding Firsties Math Workshop}. She has tons of stuff in her units for this! I have it all ready...just keep moving it from this day to the next day...haha

And I recently found out an app that's called Subitize Tree. It's not free. But it's only $0.99, so it's not too bad. It's pretty good and you can differentiate levels, speeds, etc.   My girls tried it out and they had fun with it.

So that's what's been working. We've also been doing some flashcard speed rounds of "dot"cards and subitizing cards. But since I'm the one giving the lesson, I haven't been able to take pictures of that - ha! But I've been using {this} pack to help with those activities.

Click on the pictures to check out the packs that were mentioned in this post!