My 1st grader came home from school the first week and was distraught that he'd had trouble skip counting by 2s. "Can we practice, Mom?" Um ... yeah! Since his teacher is also sending home short lists of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) spelling words, I thought I'd combine the two skills.
I made connect-the-dot pages that when finished form the letters of the alphabet (capital letters only at this point). Download the 13-page PDF for free from Google Drive here.
I grabbed the spelling list and printed the pages with the letters I needed, cut them apart, labeled them 1-3 so he'd know the order of the letters, snipped the corner of each page (so he wouldn't know which letter he was working on), and told him to start with the star and count by 2s.
He was amused and truly enjoyed the discovery aspect of this activity. First, it was fun to see what letter he made. Then it was fun to see what word the three letters formed (e.g. web, hen, pet, pen, etc.).
When big brother took his piggy bank coins in to the bank this summer, little brother was mighty jealous. Since he's only had his bank since Christmas, there was only $7.58 in it (which paled in comparison to the $56.36 our oldest had). He was confused about which coins added to a dollar. To reinforce coin equivalents (e.g. two dimes and a nickel equal the same as a quarter), I made a fun little board game.
I was surprised to see how much my 7-year old enjoyed it. He and I were having so much fun that our 11-year old asked to play next time! What You Need PDF of the game board, equivalent cards, and $1 fake money (download it free from Google Drive here) Heavy weight card stock (white) Green paper Scissors or paper cutting tool Lamination Dry-erase markers Die Small objects to use as game pieces (a different one for each player) Paper towel to erase the marker Prep Print the game board on white card stock.Trim the white border off the one edge on each page so the spaces meet up perfectly. Tape together.
Print the $1 page on green paper. Plan for $3 per player. You may need to print extra copies of this page depending on how many individuals are playing. Print the equivalent cards on paper (office or card stock) and laminate. You'll want 2-3 for each player. Cut all the money and equivalent cards apart. Play Each player puts their game piece on the word START. They roll the die and move their game piece the number of spaces rolled. Whatever coin they land on, they will cross off with the dry-erase marker on one of their equivalent cards. When a player has crossed through all five pennies on that equivalent card, they can erase the marks with a paper towel and cross through one of the nickels on either the two nickels = a dime equivalent card or two dimes and a nickel = a quarter card. Players continually cross through coins until the cards are filled and then they're erased and a coin of the equivalent value is marked through.
If they roll and land on a dime, but their dimes have already been crossed through on the two dimes and a nickel equivalent card, they can start a second two dimes and a nickel card. When players have four quarters all crossed through, they are given a $1. Each player collects a quarter when they roll a number and pass the last space on the board. The object is not to be the first to finish, but to finish with the most money. Count the dollars and coins at the end of the game to determine the winner! I earned $2.56 and my son won with $2.94.
