Monday 1 February 2016

I Teach First Linky: Counting By 5's Ideas & Freebies

We do most of our skip counting practice as a whole group during our calendar time. I like to show my students *why* we learn to skip count (it's faster!) and *when* we can use it (when counting groups of five). One of the ways we practice is by counting rows on ten frames. We fill in ten frames with stickers to count how many days we've been in school, so each time we fill in a row on a ten frame, we count by 5s!


We also keep track of the school days in the month with tally marks. This is another different way to count groups of five. Each time we mark a group of five, we count them! We also practice skip counting and then counting on when we don't have a full group!


A great real-life example of skip counting is by counting money! I use this a small group warm up sometimes. I hand each student a handful of nickels and ask them to count how many cents by skip counting!


Another fun one is counting fingers! I'll get a few kids to stand up at the front and we'll count the fingers by skip counting.


We also have a fun game we like to play--the skip counting race! I have four sets of skip counting by 5s cards (these are cute valentine ones that are free in my TpT store) and divide the class into four groups. Each group gets a set of cards and they have to work together to put the cards in order! You can also use one set of cards and give each student a card (double up if you have more/less students than cards) and have them line themselves up in order! Make it more difficult by saying they can't talk! So much fun (and quiet... hehe!).


Here are a few freebie counting by 5s activities you can find in my TpT store. Just click the pictures to check them out:

     


My kids love watching math videos. These are some of our favourites for counting by fives. Click the links below to check them out on YouTube:



This last one is a class favourite. Unfortunately it is not available on YouTube anymore, but it is available for purchase from Mr. Harry Kindergarten on TpT.


Well I hope you found some fun ideas for practicing skip counting! Don't forget to stop by the other blogs in the linky to get even MORE first grade ideas. There is also a link to a contest to win a $25 gift card! Check it out!