Math Activities with Mini Erasers

I love the mini erasers from Target.  I often walk by the dollar spot, admire them, and walk away because I don't need anymore mini erasers and by the end of my trip to Target I have come back to the dollar spot because I have thought of a reason why I do need more mini erasers.  I recently discovered someone selling mini eraser packs on Ebay for $5.95 which I thought was crazy.  Then I had a crazier thought of buying them because they had the one set I couldn't find.  I thankfully had the self control to stop myself.  So if you are like me and have tons of mini erasers here are some math activities you can do with them.

1. Count
This is the simplest thing.  Have the kids practice counting.  At the beginning of the year after we have gone over numbers 1-10 I have the kids count out erasers for 1-10.  I give them a Ziploc bag marked 1 and the have to put one eraser in the bag.  Then they get a back that is labeled 2 and they have to collect two erasers, etc.  It's an easy way to assess that they understand that the last number counted tell the total number in the group and allows me to see if they can up up to 10 objects in a fun way.

2. Ten Frames
I find 10 frames can be so boring for my kids, but they stop being boring when they get to fill them with mini erasers.  They love that new ten frames and mini erasers are put out every month.  I use these as a center in my room.  You can find some ten frames here in my TPT store.

3. Sort

Another easy idea that doesn't involve prep is to have the kids sort them.  Give them 2, 3 or 4 sets of different erasers mixed together and let them sort them.

4. Patterns

Grab some sets of erasers and let them make AB, ABBA, ABC patterns etc.

5. Roll to 20, 50 or 100 Game

This is my classes favorite this year.  It is their go to game when we do math centers.  This game is a partner game though it can be played individually.  Each partner gets a board and a die.  They then take turns rolling the die and filling their board with the correct number of mini erasers.  First one to fill their board wins.  If you are short on time the player with the most erasers wins.  You can find Roll to 20, 50 & 100 Games here.

6. Adding

7. Add to 10

These fun math activity task cards are not only common core aligned but involve mini erasers and an expo markers, the two things that always make for a top choice activity in my room.

This activity is kid tested and teacher approved and is a great way for kids to practice finding how many more to ten by using mini erasers and then writing the equation or the answer.  You can find this snowman one and 11 other themes here at my TPT store.

8. Measure
Use mini erasers as a non standard form of measurement.

9. Graphing

Place some mini erasers in a bag and let the students graph and discover which eraser they had the most of.  You can find this free graph sheet here.

Book Recommendation

This week's theme in my classroom was snow.  We read fiction books in the morning like The Snow Globe Family and The Perfect Snowman and in the afternoon we read non-fiction books about snow and winter. 

My absolute favorite was The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter's Wonder by Jon Nelson.  It is this amazing book full of pictures of real snowflakes and facts about how snowflakes form.  You can find it here on Amazon.

My kids were in awe of this book.  The pictures are amazing and it is full of fascinating facts.  I highly recommend adding it to your library.  I can see Kindergartners through 3rd graders loving it.

An Easy Sight Word Center

One of my go to centers is this Roll a Word Center.  It is one of my kids favorite centers and they never get tired of it.  Every couple weeks I change the dice to add our newest sight words and put it back in our center bin.  The kids know what to do so I don't have to spend time explaining how to play.  I also love it because it also has a graphing component to it as well. 

The directions are simple.  The students roll the dice and color in a box above the word they rolled.  They keep rolling and graphing until one word gets all the way to the top. Whichever word reaches the top first is the winner and the center is over.  You may need to watch this center out of the corner of your eye.  (There is always one kid that rolls 3 or 4 times and then just colors their favorite word all the way to the top.)  The roll a word sheet was made in Microsoft Word.  I simply created a table and wrote in the sight words I wanted.   Once you have the template it is super easy to change out the words and reprint them with little prep.

I purchased write these dice with my scholastic book club points.  You can also find the dice at Dollar Tree (though they will barely last the year) or here on Amazon.  I recommend writing on them with permanent marker as the expo markers come off with all the rolling.  You can easily remove the permanent marker by drawing over it with an expo marker and then rubbing it off with a paper towel.  It will make the dice a little smudgy but it is worth it.

What sight word activities do you do in you classroom?

Adding to 10 with Dr. Seuss

My first unit of the new year is Addition and Subtraction.  I once saw a teacher that combined literacy and math with the reading aloud of a book to introduce a concept or to tie in with a lesson and I love it.  I now try to incorporate as many math picture books as I can during the year.  So for this day I used the story One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss.

We then practiced adding to ten by coloring fish in a bowl.  We start off by coloring some red and the rest are colored blue.  We then created an addition sentence to go with it.  I love this activity because it includes reading, coloring, cutting, gluing and addition.  It also makes for some great art work in the classroom.

This craftivity is great for an addition unit or to go with Read Across America Week.  This example is for adding to ten but there is also an option to add how many fish you want into the bowl.

Be sure to check it out here in my TPT store.