Displaying the Multiplication Tables

"Mom, you know the periodic table poster I have on my bedroom wall?

 I wish I had a poster like that for times tables."

Is there a parent on the planet who wouldn't jump straight onto the Internet and try to fulfill that dream? It's not a toy or a video game!  In case I'm not the only parent with a child interested in math, I thought I'd share some of the option I found online this afternoon...

This post does include affiliate links.

Purchasing from them may result in a small income for family.

The one B will want...
Quantum Prints-Etsy
Variety of sizes starting at $10.93
Printed on white archival paper

A vintage-inspired option
My Bearded Pigeon-Etsy
36x24, $51.25-several colors available
Cotton Fabric

A traditional laminated version
13x19,
 $17.00

Another laminated option
36x24, $12.00

This would be a fun one to mark mastery levels
20x20 with a variety of medium options
starting at $17.19.

Dry-Erase Fatheads Decal
LOVE Fatheads, such great quality!
24x24, $54.99

Alternative to a poster:
 Bulletin Board Set
Monster Families for 1-12, $15.00

Which of these would your kids love to have on their wall?

Pin one to share with your friends!

Prices subject to change.

More Math Ideas

I somehow made it through my first unit teaching addition and we've moved on to working with "minus" and "take away".  Thankfully Beck seemed to understand it just as well as "plus"  right from the beginning, because I'm beginning to realize I might not have much more than a kindergarten aptitude for math myself!

Here are a few of the ways we're practicing our addition and subtraction... 

We used snap cubes to add two groups and then put them in different orders
(tallest v smallest, colors, smallest # v largest #, etc)

I drew a number line on a Ziploc bag with permanent marker and put addition flash cards inside.

Beck used a dry erase marker on the bag to figure out the problems by moving the "zipper"

(If I were making this one again, I'd draw the numbers on top of the number line, closer to the zipper.  

The white sheet of paper is just to make it easier to see the numbers on the bag.)

 We started using a math journal.

The template comes from Ketchen's Kindergarten

and has prompts for every month of the school year.  

My husband was super cute one night suggesting we use a game spinner.

Since it only goes up to six, I'm going to make a little template with larger numbers to tape on top.

 And this week I just needed a break,

 so I filled a bowl with mini marshmallows and sent Beck into the living room with his worksheet.

He was supposed to use the marshmallows as counters and then could eat the "take-aways". 

 He did the whole worksheet in his head, ate the "take-aways", and brought me the rest.  I can handle that!

What other ways do you have to make math interesting?

Be sure to check out our  "Card Game Math", 

 floor number line, 

and bean counters (for your littler ones)

Card Game Math

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that we had started working on addition and was worried about doing it right.  Since then, I've found a couple ways to make the "plus 1, plus 2," fun.  Today I'm sharing a variation on the classic "Go Fish."

First, we decided how many cards to play with.  My poor little guy could not quite fit 7 cards in his hand, so we settled on 5.  Even then, it was a bit of a struggle and we had a good lesson on spreading out the cards.

Instead of asking for matches, like in regular "Go Fish", the object of this game was to ask for the "+1".  Beck had to look at the cards in his hand and then ask me for a card that would equal his card plus one.  It took a lot of concentrating and turned into a good lesson on sequencing as he started at one side of his hand of cards and thought about the +1 for each card all the way across.

Similar pictures, I know, but this is pretty much how he looked the whole time we were playing

At first we were only laying down cards when we had a "+1".  For example, if he had a 2 and asked me for a 3, he would lay down that pair.  It was taking forever.  So we started looking for "+1's" in our hand before asking the other player.  It helped to be able to lay down "+1" pairs before we even asked the other person. And even though we were replenishing our hands to 5 after each turn, the game went much, much faster!

You might be able to tell from the look on his face that Beck didn't really like this game.  He started out confused why he couldn't ask for matches, got frustrated when he couldn't spread out and see all his cards, and then just got bored.  But, I think it's a great way to work on his math skills and we should be able to adapt it for "+2" and "+3" as well.  First, I'll definitely figure out a way to make holding the cards a little easier!

Math Ideas, Anybody?

We started working on addition today by marking out a number line on the floor.

Of course, the Grinch had to be involved.

 Math is my least favorite subject, and I'm worried about passing my dislike on to my boys. 

 What fun ideas do you have for teaching math to kids?

Learning Through Games

I discovered the PERC (Parents Education Resource Center) at my local library yesterday.  It's a small room in the basement of the library crammed FULL of toys, games, and educational materials.  I really mean crammed and I really mean full.  It was overwhelming.  I'm quite certain they've saved decades of educational materials and I'm extremely excited to dig around for flannel boards and file folder games to fit my lessons perfectly (and those just to get started...).

Today we played one of our newly borrowed games. It was educational for both Beck and me.  Here's how:

The Dice: My instinct was to shout out the number immediately after Beck rolled.  I started thinking about how I look at the dots and automatically recognize the number by their alignment, but he hasn't learned that yet.  I started making a conscious effort to stay quiet and let him count each dot individually to determine how many spaces he could go.  As we neared the end of our second round I noticed that there were numbers he was starting to recognize by shape without needing to count.

The Spaces: My husband and I have never been too strict about how Beck moves spaces when we're playing games, but today it felt right to let him know there are actual rules and ways to know how far he's supposed to go.  I guess it was really getting him to understand what "spaces" actually are.  He learned how to start counting at the very next space from where he landed last time and that each box represents one number or "space".  When we started he was scooting his piece random distances, but when we ended he was counting spaces just as well as he was counting dots.

The Creativity:  This is what Beck is continually teaching me.  At the end of our first game he wanted to play again and he wanted us both to have two playing pieces.  I assumed he meant we would each take two turns and move our pieces individually.  But just like when he taught me playing Candy Land, he had his own ideas again today.  Yes, he wanted us to both have two pieces, but he wanted them to travel together.  I got a little more excited to play another drawn-out round when I realized it was going to take us twice as long!

Also on my mind while we played was last night's episode of NBC's Parenthood.  (If you've never watched it, you definitely need to catch up on the back episodes and catch up.  It touches home every single week!)  In the episode one of the family's was confronted with the need to teach their 6-year-old how to lose graciously. I was glad today when I made it to the finish line first both times and Beck took it in stride.  The second time he kept playing and even enforced his own lose-a-turns.  He's pretty amazing.

Today's Teaching Your Children Joy activity:  

Look at photos of people in varying degrees of fitness

 and talk about what things help us to stay healthy and in good shape.

Playing Games (and a little math)

Today's Teaching Your Children Joy activity-

Play surprise oriented games

Today we got Peyton (my 18-month-old) into the action with a great game of peek-a-boo.  We were playing at the park when he started covering his face and waiting for us to notice.  Pretty soon we were all laughing while Beck and Peyton covered their faces together and Peyton got me to play by smothering my face with his hands and then not understanding the part about ever taking them off.  The game got even more fun when Peyton started walking around the corner of the restroom building and then peeking his blonde head out sideways with a devilish grin.  By the end we were all laughing uncontrollably.

Last night Beck and I were playing his version of a game a toss-and-catch game we own.  We chased each other around, racing to get to the ball and scoop it up with our hooks.  It was after we'd been running and laughing and were out of breath for quite awhile that the real thought came to me, "I'm playing with my son!" I usually only play begrudgingly and as minimally as possible, pushing that responsibility off on my husband.  I am astounded at how much my priorities and motivations are changing already after less than one week of focusing on teaching my children joy!

Today for school we worked on counting:

Counting chart using foam number and dried beans