Friday, January 17, 2014

Big Number Math Center FREEBIE



I made my own and made it available for FREE on TPT. While I found a wonderful printable at the Montessori Print Shop for big numbers, it didn't have any header labels, more than one unit was the same color, and it only went to 9,000, which these children will quickly exceed. 

Mine has the header cards, goes to 90,000, which I can continue to add to mine as I need, and is color coded the way I like. 

Big Number Math Center
We did the first few times through together in the morning. After just a few times, they got it down fine and began independent center work while I observed.


I always like to leave them wanting more on any new activity, so I try to just give them a taste. It also allows me to tweak any issues I see prior to jumping into a new activity or concept with both feet. Making any changes once we are into full learning mode is usually confusing and upsetting to the learning process. 

For instance, I didn't have the header cards ready the first go-round, and I'm very glad that I got them up for the afternoon session, because the children already were wanting to place the black number in the top row and it took them a minute to re-group once the header cards were up. For the afternoon session, I observed through two rounds and then let them at it.

Miss A is ready to be first with a black number next go round.

The children would choose 4 black number cards to create the number. This was a group effort, and it got to be a race [not by my instigation] to see who could get a number in first and how fast they could complete all 4 digits. 

Then it was team work to find the correct number cards and get them in the right order. They did VERY well. When completed, they read the number cards in descending order, pointing to each one, then across the black number, pointing to each digit.

The numbers can also be used for ordering, games, skip or unit counting, number recognition for the toddlers, etc.
Tags: math, number, number recognition, hundred, thousand, big numbers, counting, mathematics, preschool, kindergarten, first grade, 1st grade, math center, color, color coded, pocket folder