Puddles, Sharks, and Bats- OH MY!

It's been an entire week since I last posted, but I definitely have not been slacking! Last week was another crazy week for my family, as we had a 4 day weekend AND we were affected by Hurricane Michael. Thankfully, we did not have any major damage, but we did have an interesting encounter with a puddle (POND) in our front yard. Also, school was out, so that pretty much meant I had my hands full!

Here is a video of my son jumping into the "puddle". It's pretty epic, and BOY, were we surprised when those feet didn't hit the ground right away!


Again, thankfully that was about the worst thing that happened during the Hurricane and we are feeling very fortunate. That being said, that also left me with ANOTHER 4 days with my kiddo home and wanting his 7-months-preggo Mommy to run (waddle) after him at high speeds. To combat all that energy, we took some time to practice some of his math and reading skills!

The first thing we did was work on his number sense, specifically number relationships. This is a skill that his teacher said he was a little weak on, but that he had a basic understanding of. We did Shark Number Sequencing together for about 10 minutes. Then I let the little bugger try it on his own for the last 10 minutes. He did great! Nothing like sharks to help engage a 5 year old boy!

Yes, we are on the floor and that is OKAY! Kids can learn anywhere, as long as they aren't being distracted! :) It's hard to see it here, but this kid was smiling every time he picked out a new Shark card. I can say this activity is kid, mom, and teacher approved!!

You can find the FULL LESSON here:

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Shark-Number-Sequencing-Full-Lesson-4110479

A few days later, I felt like his confidence and understanding had increased and that he was ready for a little bit more of a challenge. I decided to give J another one of my math activities that I had created when I was teaching 1st grade. He did well with it, but it is definitely one that we will have to bring out more often to really get the concept down.

This one also happens to be Halloween themed- Bats! In this activity, the child picks up a bat body with a whole number written on it. Their job is to split the whole number into 2 parts. This is often referred to as "PART-PART-WHOLE" by teachers, and it's a great stepping stone to understanding addition.

For J, I also provided manipulatives to help him split up the whole number. He would divide his number into two groups, then find the correct bat wings to complete his bat. Finally, he recorded his answers on his giant laminated bat with a dry erase marker.

With J, we only practiced the numbers 1-10, but the complete packet goes up to 20. Each number is printed on both a left and a right wing, so that there isn't any fighting over wings!

This is such a fun activity, and J really loved getting to find the bat's wings and record them on his big bat. This can easily be differentiated too! You can decide what whole numbers to use, provide manipulatives or tools, or you can just have students MATCH all the numbers if they need more number recognition practice!
You can find Bats and Wings here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bats-and-Wings-Part-Part-WholeAdditionNumber-Rec-Math-CenterActivity-4119278

To round off all this math, we also did some sight word review with a fun Halloween coloring sheet. This is a color-by-sight-word Haunted House! J LOVED IT!

I have quite a few of these up in my TpT store, but this one is probably one of my favorites. As you can see, J does not believe in traditional ghosts and opted for orange. As always, there is both a color-by-sight word version AND a regular coloring sheet available. 

You can find them HERE:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Halloween-and-Thanksgiving-Color-by-Sight-Word-Coloring-Pages-4117668

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!