#3760. PomPom Math

Mathematics, level: Kindergarten
Posted Thu Jul 13 06:44:30 PDT 2006 by Anita (parrothed@shreve.net).
Marshall
Materials Required: 1 package of PomPoms (assorted colors), 1 pair plastic tweezers, egg tray, paper for recording
Activity Time: :20-30 minutes
Concepts Taught: sorting, patterning, tallying, fine motor skills

I cut an egg carton so that I have ten egg cups, 5 on top,5 on bottom.
Empty a random assortment of Pom Poms into a container and supply the student with a plastic (safety) pair of tweezers. (You can buy these single-use tweezers on eBay in bulk if you would like to split the costs with another teacher or even grade level; you can buy as few as ten pairs or as many as 500 very cheaply). The student will use the tweezers to sort the pompoms by color into the egg tray. This promotes fine motor skill development as well as basic math skills in the first months of school. Next, the student will use a programmed sheet to count/record the number of pompoms in each cup. I just have a square and a line on my record sheet. The student colors the square and then writes the number beside it. In the beginning I make sure that there are no more than 5 of each color, and the pompoms I use have 9 different colors per package. Later I cut up a 2 1/2 dozen egg tray into longer strips of egg cups and the kids again use the tweezers to build patterns in the egg cups (1 pompom per cup), and then they record the pattern on a sentence strip.