Math Bags

What is a Math Bag?

A math bag is a tool used for children to be engaged in the learning process at home in addition to the classroom. One student is selected each week to bring home a tote bag filled with activities that relate to the given math topic.

The child then returns the tote bag, and its contents are replaced with new activities and given to a new student for the following week. This is a useful tool particularly for students who are either struggling with a lesson or advancing quickly and need more work to keep them interested.

Math bags can be sent home at any time, but Tuesdays may work best, because students can then keep them until Monday morning, giving them and their families the opportunity to have activities over the weekend. The teacher is then free to restock the bag at some point over the next 24 hours!

Below you will find examples for what could be included in a math bag devoted to counting.

What Can Be Included in a Counting Math Bag?

Necessary Materials for this Math Bag Include the Following...

1. Introduction Letter to Parents and Family - Introduce the theory behind the math bag and briefly describe what goals children should acquire. For counting, with a Kindergarten group, you may state that children should be able to recognize and create the numbers zero through twenty.

2. Dominoes - Include directions for counting the dots. For a game with two players, each player could be given ten dominoes. They each flip one, and the one with the most (or least!) dots wins both dominoes. First to acquire all dominoes is the winner. This is just like Top-It but with dominoes rather than cards.

3. Deck of Cards - Children can play the traditional Everyday Math game Top-It and Memory.

4. Variety of Dot-to-Dot Worksheets - You may also want to include a pack of crayons.

5. Books - Some possibilities for counting may include Ten Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Eight Silly Monkeys by Steven Haskamp and Count by Denise Fleming.

6. An Interactive Art Project - For example, if children are provided the book Ten Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth, as mentioned above, for an activity, children may have to create ladybugs from pre-cut pieces of construction paper (a large red circle for the center, one small black circle for head, two half black circles for wings) and then draw a given number of dots on the ladybug's back.

7. Parent Folder - Be sure to remind children and parents that any completed materials should be returned in this folder. For example, children would return the completed ladybug project.

Parents will appreciate being included in their children's learning process and are often more than open and welcoming to new activities and ideas.

Have fun designing a math bag just right for your classroom needs!

* Created April 19th, 2011 KG