First Day Math Explorations

Today was our first day of school.  We did lots of getting to know you activities, rules and procedures, smartboard activities - just to get the hang of using it - read alouds and discussions... but toward the end of the day I planned 4 math station rotations to explore some math manipulatives.  Even though it was fun for the kids, I can gather a lot of information from the way the kids use these manipulatives.  We had a pattern block station, dominoes, unifix cubes and large foam dice station.  As my students "played" I noticed some of the patterns they were creating.  We did not use any templates so I was impressed to see some of the awesome patterns.  Take a look:

At our dice station, I gave students a piece of blank paper and a pencil and they could roll the dice and write numbers or write numbers after adding the dice together.  I really left it open just to see what my kiddos would do.  Here are the dice I used:

Here are a couple samples. I was so impressed to get this:

I also saw students just writing numbers after they rolled:



I really enjoy walking around and observing my first graders so I can see where students are so I can meet them at their level and build upon their prior knowledge.  All in all, our first day went well.  I can't wait to see what our second day has in store!  Smiles ~