I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I am a math tutor for our after school program. I work with kids in K-5 who have been identified through test scores and teacher recommendations as needing additional support in math. The other day I was working with a Kindergarten cutie when I had the idea to put one of my student sized number lines in a plastic sleeve. Maybe I'm the last one to think of this, maybe not,
but I was able to do a lot of things with it. (Bonus: the student got to use a dry erase marker, which made it extra cool.) :)
I started off with just having her find and circle a few different numbers. Since I only see each group twice a week and the cutie I was working with is frequently absent, I wanted to get a current baseline on her number ID skills.
Then I started drawing lines or circles for her to count. She had to practice using one to one correspondence and then circle the correct number on the number line.
You could also have students write each number as they count for extra practice and reinforcement.
Once kids have the basics down, you could take it up a notch by asking them to find 1 more/less than a number. A number line is a great visual for this.
While I was working with this Kindergarten student, I also had the idea to use this with my first graders who were struggling with missing addends. I thought the visual would help as they learn to count up and solve those trickier problems.
Need number lines for your classroom? You can grab these free number lines
here, or (if you wanna spice things up a bit), grab my seasonally themed 120 Charts and Number Lines
here. They add a festive little flair to your math block, and students love when a new theme is revealed! :)
Happy Teaching!
