Baggie Games For Fun

Haroula teaches a combined Grade 1/2.  Her and her teaching partner switch off so they are able to teach a straight grade in math.  This leaves her with just the Grade 1 students.  As we know, Grade 1 students are active little beings who need to move around and need to be able to have some one-on-one time with the teacher to not only express their answers orally, but also to help them gain a better understanding of the concepts that they are being taught.

Haroula made up several different "Baggie Games" for her students to use as part of their math centres, and also for when they were "done" their work.  She finds that letting them use the games as part of her math program has helped her to get some of that much needed one-on-one time, while still reinforcing the concepts she is teaching (or has taught) in the large group.

One of the games that she has created is using Dot Cards.  She used the pictures of the Dot Cards from the Guide To Effective Instruction in Mathematics:  Number Sense and Numeration (GTEI)and then cut the pictures out.  She then taped them onto blank playing cards.  She has the students play a matching game where they have to match the same numbers together.  This helps them work on subatizing and also one-to-one correspondence.

You can see the two different ways to make a dot arrangement to show the number 6.

Here are some of the pictures of the other cards.

A second game that she made was originally in the GTEI but in the Grade 2 section.  She modified it to meet the needs of her Grade 1 students.  She also included a number line as a tool to help them not only get more comfortable with counting backwards, but also just in using the tool.

Here are the instructions she included.  (She has played the game several times in the large group and in small groups)

Here is everything that is in the baggie.

The cards are in a different colour of card stock to help make them stand out.

These games (and others like them) would be a great addition to any math program.  You could also use them as part of a family math night, and also as part of a "Math Bag" program where you would send home games for students to play at home.