Count & Dump...some math fun with trucks!

   Well, I think I might actually make it to the end of this week!! 

   I say this because I could NOT have said this yesterday! This week my Head Start program is undergoing its Federal Review and 

WOW--- things have been stressful. And little muchkins are smart, they can pick up on these kinds of things quick! Yesterday, I think every single child completely lost it... I came home ready to curl up in bed and sleep for 2 days. It was completely insane.

This is EXACTLY how I felt yesterday!!!

   Thankfully I have a very supportive director who helped get us (my 2 aides & I) through the day. And since my classroom was next on the list for an observation (today), she came up with alternative plans and ideas to get us through it all  in case our kids flipped out again. Which, thankfully did not happen! We had like 3 backup plans just in case and only one was used, with only one child.

   So my classroom made it through the observations without any crazy meltdowns, tantrums or fighting.  I think after yesterday and the 2 days before, they were too tired to do it all again!

   Anyhow, last week we continued our mini construction unit with some math fun.

   We did some truck addition in whole group. I made up 2 different addition stories to help them with a  visual concept of addition.

   And I later caught these two kids counting and playing with the picture cards and trying to retell the random addition story problems!!

   I made some Truck counting mats.Some kids practiced counting, while others did simple addition by rolling the die two different times.

   And then I asked myself something I ask myself alot, 

"How can I make this more fun?"

   So I thought for a bit and since I have a class of 14 boys I knew if I brought out some more play trucks I might be asking for trouble.

   But we had so many other fun center activities going on at the same time, it ended up not being a problem.

   I created a game called "Count & Dump"

   Each child playing (maximum was 3) chose a color and then counted out blocks of the color he/she chose. And then after counting, they drove the dump truck to the "landfill" and dumped it all out!

They LOVED this game and played it over and over all week long!

   I tried to vary it up and gave them a certain amount of one color and them another amount of another color and had them practice adding.

    All of this Truck and Construction fun led right into our Transportation Unit, which has been the theme this past week. You would think such a fun theme involving cars, buses and planes would be fun and exciting...not chaotic and stressful, but with 14 boys, 4 who have an IEP and 2 more that NEED one... (Sorry, venting again!)
   Anyway, tomorrow is Friday and then next week is a 3 day week and then Spring break will finally be here!!
   Tomorrow I will be posting details about my Blog Birthday Giveaway!! Come back tomorrow and check it out!!