More Math Work Station Freebies

I'm lovin' all the fabulous ideas and activities that so many teachers are sharing as a result of reading Debbie Diller's Math Work Stations book. I'm all caught up on my reading, but my list of things to do/make is out of control. So... here are a few place value mats that I will use with my students this year. I'm going to enlarge the one with hundreds on it on the copier, so my students have more space to work. You can click on the image to download them.

I was fortunate enough to participate in a graduate level math class this year with several of my colleagues.  During our class, we had the opportunity to observe some of our peers teaching math lessons in their classrooms.  One of our kindergarten teachers taught an inquiry based math lesson and I learned so many things in just one hour in her classroom.  One of the things that I will take away from her lesson is the power of giving kids their own number lines to use.  I confess... the number lines I gave my kids in the past were mostly store bought, laminated and "not to be taken home".   The students in her kindergarten classroom had access to paper copies of number lines (as many as they needed) to do their problem solving work.  Many of them wrote on their own copy of a number line to explain their thinking and even brought it to the front of the room to show the class under the document camera during the discussion. The students were able to take their number line home to explain their thinking to their family too. When the students had access to their "own" copies of the number line to write on or draw on they were more likely to use it (and practice it) as a strategy.

I made these number lines for my students to use this year.  I will not laminate them... I will not laminate them... I will not laminate them...  but I will use them to motivate my students and to help them develop their mathematical thinking skills.  Feel free to click on the image below and download them to use with your students however you wish.

I am working on a few math games to share, but with all this sunny weather the pool is calling me (and my kids).  So, it's slowing my progress a bit.  Enjoy your day!