Number Pieces App

Yesterday I was introduced to a new math app put out by The Math Learning Center. The app is called Number Pieces. The number pieces are base ten pieces which we use all the time in second grade to help reinforce place value concepts and computational skills. If you use the Bridges to Mathematics curriculum you are probably familiar with the game Race you to One Hundred and Back. Today my students played this game using the Number Pieces app. They loved it and thought it was much better than using actual base ten pieces. They liked using this app for the game because they felt it was easier to keep track of their pieces when they traded a ten strip for ones. There are two versions of the app and both are free at this time. The only difference I have found so far is that one version includes a ruler. You can change the colors of the pieces and write in the page as well.

Counting Money

This week we are doing some review of money and counting coins before we head into our next math unit; Games, Graphs and Toys.  I made a strategy poster of the three ways to count coins and a worksheet for a math station where students practice counting baggies of coins.  There are 12 bags of coins for students to count while at the station.  In our upcoming math unit students will explore the idea of making purchases and receiving change so a little review should be helpful!

Counting Coins


Counting Coins Worksheet

Even and Odd Street

I love surfing the net for new and innovative ideas. Finding Amy Lemons blog, Step into Second Grade, has inspired lots of ideas! We had been exploring even and odd numbers during our calendar piece of math when I came across her idea for Even and Odd Street. Several of my students appeared to be grasping the concept of even and odd numbers, but not all of them. Once we posted the houses on the bulletin board and discussed the patterns we were seeing I could tell the concept clicked for all of them. Thanks for sharing your great idea Amy!