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Showing posts with label count by 5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label count by 5. Show all posts

Five Ways to Practice Counting By Fives

I've got some kids that totally need practice counting by 5s!  

This is a pretty important math concept, as it is needed to count money as well as tell time.  As they get older, it will help with multiplication.  
Five Ways to Practice Counting by Fives: Here are several ideas to help students practice skip counting!


 
Plus, it's in the Common Core State Standards for second grade:  CCSS.Math.Content 2 NBT.A.2: Count within 1000; skip count by 5s, 10s, and 100s.

Yes, that does say within 1,000!  That means they should be able to start at 825 and keep going by 5s through 1,000!
That's why I brainstormed this list of 

Five Ways to Practice Counting by Fives!


1.  Here is a YouTube Video that's great!  It combines music, rhythm, visuals, and fun!  That's a brain-based recipe for learning!


Counting by Fives Song  by Have Fun Learning


I'll bet if you googled "counting by 5s" on YouTube, you'd find plenty more!

2.  Learning Games!  I posted about this game just the other day. It's great for learning any sequence that needs to be memorized. To download the directions, explore the image for the link, or go here: How to Play Countdown.

Five Ways to Practice Counting by Fives: Here are several ideas to help students practice skip counting!

3.  Let them see the pattern!  I like to have loads of laminated copies of number grids around the room for the kids to look at, talk about, and mark up with their wipe-off markers.  They can call out the numbers by 5s as they circle them.  It really helps those visual kids to see the patterns. (Brain research tells us ALL students benefit from visuals! You can download a color-coded number grid here: Color Coded Number Grid.(or see  the image.) Plus you can download your color-coded grid to 1,000 grid here: Numbers 0 - 1,000.

Five Ways to Practice Counting by Fives: Here are several ideas to help students practice skip counting!



Five Ways to Practice Counting by Fives: Here are several ideas to help students practice skip counting!


4.  Get physical - and funny!  Kids need to move, and we know that movement and exercise help bring oxygen to the brain, therefore helping the memory!  We do loads of movement while counting, such as follow the leader, brain gym exercises, jumping jacks, push-ups, and just about anything we can think of to get the counting to be automatic.  Since laughter also brings oxygen to the brain, it's fun to do the counting with a funny voice. For some reason, I often break into a southern accent while counting by 5s, and the kids giggle like crazy and join right in!  (Waving y'all to all my southern friends... feel free to break into my Boston accent with your kids!)

5.  Don't stop at 100, and leave out the "and"!  I know, this isn't actually a 5th idea, but it's a pet peeve of mine.  My second graders are learning that counting by 5s keeps going after 100!  Those first 2 rows after 100 on the hundred grid are the toughest for the kids to learn, so it's important to go at least past 120!  Did you realize the proper way to say 105 is "one hundred five" without the word and. Technically, the word "and" stands for the decimal point, so "one hundred and five" really means 100.5.  (OK, you'd really say "one hundred and five-tenths", but let's get the kids in the right habit now so the kids won't get confused when they learn decimals!) 

 How do you practice counting by 5s with your students?

Five Ways to Practice Counting by Fives: Here are several ideas to help students practice skip counting!

Practice Makes Permanent and Games Make it Fun!

I started playing a game during Math the other day that I hadn't played in years!


Sometimes kids just need to drill something until they've got it. This blog post describes a fun game that makes practice more fun!

We were practicing skip counting in my second grade class, and I realized a lot of these kids really need to practice skip counting a whole lot!
 
After all, research on brains and learning tells us that practice makes permanent. (This is good if they're practicing the skill correctly, not so good if they're practicing the skill incorrectly! I suspect we all know the pain of unlearning a bad habit!)


So in order to practice the skill of skip counting, I remembered this game:  Countdown!


The children stand in a circle. The teacher decides which numbers will be repeated for the game. To start, we counted by 5s from 5 to 35. A child was chosen to start the game by calling out "five". The children went around the circle calling out the next number in the sequence. Whoever said 35 would sit down. They repeat the sequence, eliminating the "35" person each time, until there is only one left standing, the winner!

Luckily, they enjoy the game, so they're glad to repeat it, with variations on the counting pattern! Plus, brain research tells us that adding an emotional element (fun) improves the memory!


This game works for ANY sequence that needs to be learned. Here are some examples:
  • the seven continents
  • the states of matter
  • the seasons
  • the times tables
  • prime numbers

I'll bet you can think of more! 

What are your ideas?

In case you're interested, I've written these directions out so you can download and put them in your files!  Just click the image or click here: How to Play Countdown!

Practice Makes Permanent and Games Make it Fun! Sometimes kids just need to drill something until they've got it. This blog post describes a fun game that makes practice more fun!


Give it a try: your students will love it!


Practice Makes Permanent and Games Make it Fun! Sometimes kids just need to drill something until they've got it. This blog post describes a fun game that makes practice more fun! (Plus a freebie!)
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