Tens & Time - Hands-On Math Games

We've been working on making tens, tens and ones, and time (to the hour and half hour) this week.  I showed the kids a few fun games to practice making tens.  We used a deck of cards to play "go fish" making sets of tens.  Each time students made a ten they had to say the equation (4+6=10) and then count all their card sets by 10s (10, 20, 30...) to keep a running total of which partner had the most "points."  The kids loved this game!  I think I may need to get some dice and playing cards from the dollar store and put them in the prize box...  We are really increasing our addition and subtraction fluency by playing math strategy games during the week. 

We also played "Make Ten" with double nine dominoes.  The students played a domino to make a ten and then said their equation to their partner.  I have two sets of double nine dominoes with pips and another set with numbers.  I wonder where I could get a few more sets really cheap?

I am so excited about my Thanksgiving games on TpT that I put a few out today for a test run.  We played "Tens and Ones Turkey Dinner" and used tens and ones manipulatives to build each number before we located it on the game board.  The first player to get four in a row was the winner.  My kids kept playing to see how many numbers they could cover.  Even though my kids don't have game markers, chips, spinners, or tens and ones manipulatives at home, they enjoy taking the math games home to practice with family members.  They use a paperclip and a pencil as a spinner and coins as game markers.  I let the kids check out dice whenever they need them.  I really need to put dice in the prize box.  I really really need to find FOAM dice for in the classroom and then give all the noisy dice away!

 
A very simple game you can create for tens and ones is called "Place Value Pick-Up Sticks."  My friend Jimbo showed me this clever counting game.  Put two different color dots on popsicle sticks or tongue depressors.  I suppose you could draw tens and ones, but we use the pick-up sticks for fives or twos depending on what counting skill we are working on.  Students toss the sticks in the air to begin.  When the sticks fall, they remove all the zeros (sticks that are facing down).  Then they sort the two colors (tens and ones) and count them beginning with tens and then counting on with the remaining ones.  I have students build the number out of tens and ones manipulatives (or money, etc) after they have counted their  pick-up sticks. The kids love this game it is SO EASY to create!  :)

Tomorrow we are making our own paper plate clocks.  I saw a pin on pinterest where you put two plates together and make peekaboos for each number to show the increments of five for the minute hand.  I LOVE this idea and can't wait to try it out.  Paper plate clocks are great when talking about the parts of the clock and building an understanding of time, but I really think the kids need to experience a Judy clock or some other type of student clock to practice manipulating the hour and minute hands correctly.  My students inevitably tear the hands off of their paper clocks every year.   I wonder if there is another way to make the clock hands instead of using paper or cardstock.

Visit yesterday's post, Thanksgiving Math Games, and download my Thanksgiving game FREEBIE, Turkey Tens, to play with your class!  Have fun!