At some point last summer as I was perusing Pinterest, I saw a pin that showed some sight word matching activity a teacher did using plastic spoons. I thought it was a creative way to practice a routine skill but then forgot about it until recently. Last weekend, I was stuck at a long and dull party and was trying to entertain several pre-school and Kindergarten aged children. They had plastic spoons and this picture I saw on Pinterest came screaming back to me.
I created a little subitizing activity for these kids where they were matching dots with a corresponding numeral. They had a great time, practiced an important skill and were entertained.
As I jumped back into the work week on Monday, I discovered I had a box of white spoons in my classroom and a huge box of clear spoons at home. I used this spoon skill idea in Kindergarten, Second grade and Sixth grade this week.
Subitzing and Reading Numbers
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| The dot spoons. I went with predictable dot dice patterns on these because the kids were quite young and did not have a lot of school experience |
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| The number spoons. To challenge kids who are ready, present them out of order and have them order them first or as part of the game. |
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| The clear dot spoons get laid on top of the white number spoons |
Addition Fact Doubles with First and Second graders
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| Doubles facts on the clear spoons and the answers on the white ones. One more way to practice or check in with how well kids are doing with this skill. |
Writing Decimals as Percents
With the sixth graders, I created several sets to check in on their understanding of writing decimals as percents. I purposely picked numbers that were very similar or easily confused. I want to make sure kids have this skill straight because our unit assessment is coming up.
Storing the Spoons
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| When I am done with the spoons, I stack them on top of each other and rubber band them together. Then I put them in a cup on my bookshelf. Notice my white spoons are not the same size as the clear ones. I would certainly make sure the spoons were the same size if I was purchasing spoons specifically for this purpose. |
This was great fun for the week and kids liked having something that seemed new and exciting to use. I am sure the newness would not last forever and it isn't something I am going to be doing all the time, but it was a creative way to add a twist to our routine. It is one more thing in my toolbox that I can try to motivate kids or make learning seem new and exciting.
What is the strangest thing you have used in your classroom to practice routine skills?
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