My first year of teaching was quite a blur. Who in the world remembers their first year of teaching!?! I do, however, remember that I was given a lot of advice. I mean, A. LOT! The amount of advice that was given to me made me want to crawl under my desk and pray that the kids would just magically learn everything they needed to before summer. Don’t get me wrong! The advice was so helpful. It just got a little overwhelming.
After my first few years, I realized that I had to make some major changes to save my sanity. The best piece of advice that was given to me had nothing to do with classroom management. It had everything to do with how I managed my time. Who knew a simple number activity would be the turning point in helping me make the most of my time with my students!
How many days did you leave your classroom and ask yourself “what did I get done today?”. Oh, I can’t even count the number of times I left my room asking myself that. It’s frustrating. My kids deserve my best each day. I had to find a way to teach smarter- not harder! Boy, you can bet I took that piece of advice to heart.
More Time and Less Stress
I realized that there is a book for just about anything that needs to be taught. I love books. The amount of books in my classroom library puts any school library to shame! Ok, I may be exaggerating a little, but it’s close!
Why did I spend my first few years of teaching reading multiple books each day to my students? I had a book for every lesson for just about every day. I could slowly see my students’ eyes glaze over by the 4th book of the day. So, I realized I needed more time and less stress with my teaching life. Maybe I didn’t need 4 books a day to teach. Instead, I found ways that I could integrate books with multiple lessons, and that’s when the fun began!
A Little Planning Always Helps
Now, obviously you can’t just take any book and tie it in with multiple lessons or activities. There is definitely some planning that’s involved. But it gets much easier the more you do it!
One of my favorite books, Let’s Count Goats, helped model good writing using colorful words and rhyming. I also tied it in with my small group instruction during my math block. This book inspired me to create fun, interactive counting practice and number activity for my students that touched on number recognition at the same time.
What’s great about this number activity is the multiple ways it can be used. I personally like to use it in small groups at my teacher table. Although, you can also use it during whole group instruction or as a one-on-one assessment. There’s no wrong way to do it!
Try it for yourself and share how you like to use this number activity resource in your classroom! Grab this FREE counting activity by clicking on the link below!
Need more number activities? Try these!
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