One
of the most important things to do that first week of school is to preassess
student skills. In a few weeks, I’ll
meet 20+ kiddos who come with very different skill sets. I’m always on the lookout for ways that I can
quickly see what they already know and where instruction should start.
In
math, that’s number sense. It’s hard to
move forward with adding, subtracting, or much else mathematical without
it! So, those first few weeks of school
I work on number sense.
Last
year, I had the students make “Number Pizzas.”
I’ve seen this done in several different ways, but I basically just gave
them a paper circle template cut into 5 “slices.” Each child was assigned a different number,
and then had to represent that number on each slice a different way of their
choice. Some possibilities include:
- Number form
- Word form
- A way to make that number with addition
- A way to make that number with subtraction
- An example of that number seen in everyday life (i.e. 12 in a dozen eggs, 24 box of crayons)
- The number with 10s and 1s
Each
person gets a baggie to put their finished pizza pieces in. If students put their initials on the back of
their piecs, these can then be mixed up and assembled as puzzles too! Students can work alone or with a partner to
see which pizza pieces go together.
This
is an activity that is so easy to differentiate, fun for the kids, and a very
quick way for me to see their number sense!
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