One of my colleagues, Super Suzanne, introduced me to a game. I'll always be grateful to her for the 22 minutes of complete classroom peace it provided!
My hundreds chart normally hangs in our calendar area. I took it down off the wall, took all the numbers out, and hung the chart on my easel. I told the students that we were going to play a special game using the numbers. A silent game. We quickly reviewed the word "silent." Yep, everyone knew just what it meant. No talking. No humming. No singing. Pretty unheard of in a K-1 classroom. But my students promised that they would be silent.
We quickly talked about a few ways to communicate without talking... making eye contact and pointing!
Then I passed out all those numbers from 1-100 to my students. I told them that it was their job to put the numbers back in the right order without talking. Yahoo! They loved the idea, so I let them give a little cheer and then we got to work. O.M.G. Omigod!
I set the timer on my phone to see how long it took. I prompted the students who had 1, 2 and 3, and then after that, there was little prompting necessary. It took a long time, though. Students had to watch the chart and keep track of the numbers they had so they would know when to go to the easel to put their number in the right pocket. I buddied some of my kindergartners up with first graders who could help them.
Oh, and I told the class that we were going to race with my friend Mrs. Watson's class!
22 minutes of silence. I'm tellin' ya... it was unreal.
Next time, they'll have had more practice with numbers and it will be faster. They can't wait to try again!
Wish you had some of those cute numbers with the rainbow bunting across the top?! Get them HERE. The numbers are printed a little bigger than the red/white numbers that come with the pocket. The cards fit AND you get numbers that are easier to read!
I also have some Bee-Themed Numbers and some Pete the Cat Numbers.
Have fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment