Add within 10 Math Baggies

I recently finished my AVMR 2 math training.  We were trained last year in AVMR 1.  If you ever get a chance to attend the training, I highly recommend it!  The training gave me a
better understanding of how children learn math, the types of activities that can be used to progress students’ math skills, and assessments that pinpoint math constructs.

Our district’s first grade math screener gives me a pretty accurate picture of where my students are and what is needed to progress them to the next level; however, if I need to dig a little deeper, the AVMR screeners are perfect for pinpointing gaps in skills.

Once the math screener has been given, we begin our math workshop.

Up until then, We’ve had whole group math.  In math workshop, students rotate through four choices.  It’s similar to Daily 5.  They use the math workboard, select their choices and we have 15-20 minute sessions.  One of the sessions is a small guided math group with me.

Their choices can vary from day to day, but generally they may choose:

• Sumdog on Chromebooks
• iPad Math Apps
• Add within 10 Math Baggies
• Math Bins
• Read about Math
• Math Boards
• SMARTboard Math

Here’s a screenshot of our math work-board.  Students drag their selected activities (icons) to each session.  The timer helps keep me on track when I’m running my guided math sessions.

If you’d like, you can download our math work-board here: 

In response to my students’ needs, based on their math screener results, I created AVMR math activity baggies for each student.  These baggies are filled with materials that support fluency development when adding within ten.  Currently the baggies have six activities.  I plan to add to them as the year progresses.

Above, you can see the storage system we use.  I purchased two, black 10-drawer carts. They assembled in a jiffy, and are satisfactorily durable.  The drawers have a catch on them so they don’t push all the way in, like similarly styled carts.  They do pull all the way out, but I don’t have my kids do that.  Instead they open and grab the math baggie.  We’ll add additional activities to these drawers as the year progresses.  The yellow cards were added after the first week we used the baggies.  Students were forgetting what “their number” was, and so I created the cards to serve as a reminder that they can work on whichever numbers are in their baggie.

Based on their math assessments, students work on one number at a time.  If they are working on 5, that means they are working with partners of 5.  The yellow cards help them to remember “their number” (goal number).  I assess once a week to see if they are able to move on to the next number.  I assess all numbers up to “their number” – for example, if a student’s number is 6, I assess their knowledge of 4, 5, and 6. Students work in partners for these activities.  Since implementation, I have found that my students are engaged and have become more fluent when solving addition facts within ten.

Assessment prompts for 5:

• “What goes with 2 to make 5?”
• “What goes with 1 to make 5?”
• “What goes with 3 to make 5?”
• “What goes with 4 to make 5?”

They must answer fluently for all prompts/questions in order to progress to the next number.  Fluently answering within three seconds is their goal.

Here’s a screenshot of the activities.

You can download them here: