Howdy! Don’t you love when you cobble up a lesson that really helps your students “get it” and then you have an Oprah moment…you know, an AHA moment! Think… “YOU GET SUBTRACTION!” “YOU GET SUBTRACTION!” “EVERYBODY GETS SUBTRACTION!”
So, we started working on subtraction this week. This is one of those skills that my class has always struggled with. Our introduction yesterday went smoothly but we were definitely still struggling with the concept of “taking away!” So I was hopeful that today’s lesson would knock it out of the park and it really did (Why couldn’t I have been observed today?!)
First of all…I give all the credit for this lesson to Mrs. Ricca at Mrs. Ricca’s kindergarten. I found this activity on her blog last year. I love the music/literature/math tie in, the fun and the hands on practice the lesson provides. And I love that we can use our Velcro Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree for another lesson!
So, what is this Oprah-worthy lesson?! It’s Subtracting Monkeys!
