Teen Numbers part 2

Our week of teen number stations went well. Students were able to practice and talk about teen numbers in all 4 stations. About half are still struggling with writing teen numbers correctly, but they can all read and recognize teen numbers with accuracy. We will have an assessment next week to check in on their overall understanding of teen numbers.

I used 4 different stations. Three involved partner work, one was individual.

This is the rekenrek station. If you are not familiar with rekenreks, it is worth it to do some googling. They are cool tools. I have a set I made out of foam board, pipe cleaners, pony beads, and masking tape. Students drew a teen number card and used a rekenrek to show the number. They compared their board with their partner's board, then verbally decomposed the number into tens and ones. Some pairs were very independent with this, some needed more support. But they loved using the rekenrek. It's not a tool we've used often, so the novelty was engaging to students.

This is the missing numbers station, the only individual station in the rotation. These twenty frames were downloaded from www.k-5mathteachingresources.com, one of my favorite sites. I also made one answer key that I placed on the table for all students at the station to share. This increased students' independence at this station. Even so, this was the most difficult station for students.

This picture shows the Build It station. Students are very familiar with this activity, we have done several different versions this year to practice different math skills. In this version, students draw a teen number card and then build that number on the ten frames using manipulatives. Students love any chance to get the counting bears out. I say bears, but I have dinosaurs, hippos, and aliens too. Students feel like they get to play with toys when they pull these out, even though I've tricked them into practicing math skills! After they built the number on the ten frames, they verbally decomposed the number into tens and ones.

The final station is another that I downloaded from www.k-5mathteachingresources.com. I copied these teen number puzzles onto different colors of construction paper. The colors are for a pure management purpose. Cards and pieces get lost on the floor ALL THE TIME! If each set is a different color, when I find one of those lost pieces, I know exactly which set it belongs to and can return it easily. Without the color coding, I have to search and check each set to figure out which one is missing a piece. Who has time for that? But as you can tell from the picture, pieces still get lost!

These puzzles have three parts: the number, the number decomposed into tens and ones, and the number on ten frames. I really like the redundancy of this practice.And don't worry, the decomposed number still shows the numerals, so students who do not have the reading skills to read the number words can still figure it out.

My team and I designed a short formative assessment we will use next week to assess student progress on K.NBT.1. The mandatory district assessment for the first half of the year will be administered in January. I hope these practice activities help students understand this concept and prepare for these assessments.