We are an English Learner (EL) magnet elementary school. My classroom is made up of young five year olds– the kindergartners who have birthdays in the later half of the year. Students are in my classroom so they have extra time for social-emotional growth and cognitive skill building through playful, hands-on activities before going for a second year of kindergarten.
Children learn best through active learning and hands-on experiences, so playing with number blocks offers especially engaging math learning.
My students will learn many mathematical concepts as they build, share, discuss, compare and play with these unique blocks.
My Project
I have been teaching young children a long time, but these are the best blocks I have come across to help kids learn about numbers and basic arithmetic. These wooden blocks, shaped like numbers 1-10, are made proportionally so that combinations of the block numbers stack up to the same height as other stacks which have the same sum– ten 1-blocks equal one 10-block, one 5-block equals a 2-block and a 3-block, a 5-block and 3-block equal two 4-blocks, etc. Kids are composing and decomposing numbers automatically as they play.
Building blocks have always been an important tool for helping kids learn cognitive, social and language skills through play, but SumBlox will help my young students extend mathematical thinking to include number identification, number order, addition, and even the foundation for multiplication and fractions.
My students are in the Young Fives program to experience concrete, hands-on learning of foundational skills and SumBlox not only fit with our goal, but extend the learning in new ways. We will use the number blocks in small group math centers as well as during free choice times of play. The kiddos are going to love these and I'm going to love their learning!
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