3 TIPS for Kinder Math Success

Hi EVERYONE!  It’s Kimberly from Loving Kinders!  I am very grateful to be posting as a guest author today at Who’s Who and New.   I LOVE THIS blog.  It gives us so many amazing tips and tricks.  So, today I wanted to share with you my tips when teaching math!

#1 Engage THE Learner

I find Interactive Notebooks are a great way to ENGAGE my students.  Actually, they are a HUGE hit in my class. 

This is why:

I put the students in charge. -They LOVE THIS! I use a document camera and allow one student to be the “teacher model” and they assemble the page for the class. We note ALL of the steps on the board and the students take off on their page.

Now… Be AWARE!

I will tell you that Interactive Notebooks in kindergarten are NOT easy so don’t get involved if you don’t want to take TIME to TEACH each child how to assemble the pages and to show them your OWN expectations. For instance, we cut triangles on each page for bookmarks, we ONLY use glue sticks, and we NEVER rush with our work.

My students are experts now!

Now, every TUESDAY we have our interactive notebook time and my kinders are

ENGAGED and PROUD!

#2 EVERYONE needs to respond

I am sure that you agree, when teaching any subject area if you only call on one person for an answer then only ONE person is engaged. That is why I always use

TURN AND TALK

OR

-my new FAV-

LEAN AND TELL

with everything MATH lesson.  The key is now how to use it.  TURN and TALK is ONLY for longer answers where there needs to be discussion.  LEAN and TELL is a one-word only answer.  My kids love using both during our lessons.  Today I taught time and we made clocks.  The kinders walked around the room turning and talking with neighbors for about 12 minutes.  I stood back and watched the magic happen.

#True teacher moment

#3 Memorization

With so many teaching styles and the ever-changing student population, sometimes we fail to remember that memorization is a skill that needs to be developed, especially with math facts.  I have a daughter with dyslexia and when she was learning her math facts it was very important for her to have her math facts memorized.

This only assisted her math development.  I use math fact rings.  I make them for the students and they take them home for on-going practice.  I often have “bag checks” and review facts with my kinders. This helps with fact fluency.

I hope you were able to take some ideas with you and I thank you for reading and teaching!

Until Next time... 

Here are the products I used.