One major thing we do in Kindergarten is ordering numbers (as I am sure every other classroom teacher does as well). With my kids though, it is completely individualized so that each child is working on different sets of numbers. This allows me to see where each child is and what they are able to do and what my goal will be for them each week.
A huge piece of this is organization. It always takes me a bit longer to exactly figure out how I want to organize things to make them run flawlessly and I perfected it last year.
First, I got the clear inserts that are baseball card holders and I used those to organize my numbers.
Each kid at first gets 1-5 and then in the coming weeks, if they are high flyers they get more numbers (higher numbers) I usually give my kids at the MOST ten cards at a time, and usually more like 5 or 6.
After they get their numbers they write their initials on the back. This helps a LOT when they "forget" to pick up their numbers, not all of their numbers make it to their baggies or they lose numbers on the carpet.
Sometimes I make it apart of my Math small group time and other times I make it a whole group class activity when they sort and order their numbers. There is a system in order to what we do with our number baggies and how we do it. 1. Get all numbers out of the bag 2. Put numbers in order from smallest to biggest 3. Count the numbers from smallest to biggest 4. Count the numbers from biggest to smallest. 5. Flip each of the number cards over and say, "Goodnight [insert number]" until all the number cards are laying face down 6. Mix all the numbers up while they are face down 7. Flip each of the cards over face up and say, "Wake up [insert number" until all numbers are face up again. 8. Arrange the numbers in order again from smallest to biggest. 9 Say goodbye to each number card and put it back in the baggie. This process continues until the time is up (usually about 5-10 minutes).
I thought I snapped a picture of how I keep track of how each kid is ordering what numbers but I guess not. I will add that at a later time.
Here is a link to a video of part of my class singing their numbers during calendar time. We practice counting our numbers to 100 every day. This can get quite boring I am sure you can imagine. That is why this teacher does ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to keep their attention! Here are some different voices we use to says our numbers: mouse, ghost, opera, monster, bear, sad, angry, high-pitched, low-pitched, robot, etc...
Enjoy :) It sure helps to keep their attention!
