Place Value Songs

I am feeling so fresh and relaxed from our 3-day weekend! Our district was off on Monday for Fair Day and the kiddos are off today for staff development. It was a much needed break and I am so thankful for some quality R&R!!

We're almost finished with our Place Value unit and the kids are really moving along quite well! The place value unit was a little scary to me at the beginning. Moving up from first grade with the new Common Core Curriculum made math seem very hard! I love, love, LOVE teaching with songs, so I tried out some new tunes to help my little ones grasp the new standards. So far, it's working!!!

This song I modified from the Teacher Tipster. This guy is amazing!! He reminds me of a really good friend of mine who passed away a few years ago. I love watching his videos and remembering my good friend Nick! He worked with kids at a summer camp I worked at and truly had a gift! Teacher Tipster's song only covered tens and ones and we are learning hundreds, tens and ones. The new song goes a little like this...

"I don't know but I've been told (kids repeat)
Hundreds are big and bold (kids repeat)
Tens are tall and ones are small (kids repeat)
Help us count them all (kids repeat)."

The kids use the same motions for tens and ones (from the video). Since hundreds were added, the kids stand up and open their arms, making a square with their arms. I call on a few kids to go to the front of the room (as hundreds, tens and ones) and the rest of the class counts them. The kids love this activity and it's a great time filler/brain break throughout the day.

Another song we sing helps us comparing/ordering numbers. We teach the students to look at the largest place first. For example, when comparing 753 and 943 the kiddos should look at the 7 and the 9 because the hundreds place is the largest place. To help the kiddos remember this concept we sing the following to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell"...

"We look at the largest place,
We look at the largest place,
When comparing numbers,
We look at the largest place."

I love teaching with songs because the kids seem to remember what to do word.for.word. When a student is comparing/ordering numbers, I ask them which place they look at first. They always answer, "We look at the largest place", which are the exact words from the song. They never vary their answer. Some kids even use the tune when telling me which place they look at. I love it!!!

I hope these songs can help your place value lessons. Do you have any math songs that work for your class?

Listen to Reading Resource

Hello Sweet Friends!

I promise I'm still alive! Things have been super busy around here and this little ol' blog is the one suffering! I'm trying my best to find time to post but the craziness of this school year is winning!

Here are a few quick resources for everyone using Daily 5. Since I'm lucky enough to have six student computer stations, I do my "Listen to Reading" online. Here are a few websites we use during our Daily 5 time.

Online Storytime by Barnes and Noble has become my Daily 5 best friend. The kids love going to this website and listening to celebrities/authors read their favorite story books. The great thing about this site is that it has thumbnails of book covers for the kids to see. Once they find a book they want to listen to, they click and enjoy!

Another site we use is Read to Me. This site works similar to "Online Storytime". You can search for books by looking at thumbnails of the book cover. There are some great books on this website! My kiddos love to listen to "Fancy Nancy", "Chrysanthemum" and "Excuse Me" to name a few.

I am proud to say that we are currently doing 4 of the Daily 5. Any advice on how to successfully start "Word Work"?