Number Bonds!

I've made it a goal of mine this year to teach number bonds to fluency for ALL my kids.  I know that might not be a reality for EVERYONE but I'm going to try!  I'm sure many of you have already heard all the "reasons" and "hype" behind teaching number bonds instead of just straight forward fact families.  Its a big push with the common core and the foundation of Singapore Math.  Bonds helps students understand how numbers work!

After giving myself this goal a few weeks ago I'm now realizing this will be a HUGE challenge for me and my students.  I can't even recall how many time I've heard my students just flat out say to me "Mrs. Coster, I just DON'T get it!"  But I keep plugging along and teaching it in a new way, with new manipulative and new examples each day, because I truly believe in its value and that I will be giving my students the strongest foundation in "numbers" possible!  (And this is on top of all the OTHER math lessons I need to be covering!!)

To help practice my kids have been working with BOND BOARDS, which are basically Whole-Part-Part mats.  They practice with a partner on a number that is a challenge for them.  Every student in my class started with the number 5 and are working their way up to a higher number after passing a Bond Fluency Challenge!  Before we take the challenge they practice with their BOND BOARDS and it has been so helpful!  One of my "I just don't get it students" finally got it after about 10 different lessons and ways of explaining it and I was soo happy and excited for them!  So if you are up for the challenge or just want to expose your kids to number bonds these work boards might help you!

Just laminate the boards so they can be written on with dry erase markers and reused!  Give out counters to match the number on the board and have the kids play with a partners.  One partner hides one part while the other partner figures out the visible and missing parts and records them on the board.  Then partners switch roles!

I hope this helps!

Leave a comment and become a follower of my blog and I will send you a set of the boards!!  Leave your email address in your comment!

FUNdations Support Pack!!

FUNdations is often not much fun at all, so I wanted to "spice" things up a bit by creating activities and worksheets that would be engaging, fun and supports the FUNDations curriculum.  So here it is!!

I'm finally done with my FUNdations Support Pack!!!  Yeaaaa!!  I've been working really hard to get this finished and have been trying it out with my first graders!  Its been such a big hit and my students are learning so much! 

I've been using the support pages for classwork right after a FUNdations lesson, during centers and for homework!  

The pack is broken down by units and then weeks.  Each unit has support for all weeks prescribed in the FUNdations curriculum along with an ADDITIONAL week of support work in case your kiddos need more practice or extra help.

The activities are NO PREP and just need to be printed and copied!  Save that prep time and color ink!!

Below are pictures of the pack in action in my classroom...

A Support Pack for Units 6, 7. 8 and 9 will be out soon!

The first TWO people who leave a comment on my new pack and become a member/follower of my blog will be sent the Support Pack for free!!

love Love LOVE it!!

So what do you think?!?!  I just love my new blog design from Designs by Kassie!  She did such an awesome job and worked hard so to make the blog a perfect fit for me and my classroom!  Check her out by clicking her button below!