You're Simply The Best



Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! I know how incredibly hard teachers work throughout the year. Please take some time off and do something special for yourself. Take a moment to recognize all the accomplishments and growth your students have made this year. I am very excited to be a part of this blog hop as we honor  our fellow teachers and thank them for all they do.  Here is a special activity that has been a huge success in our classroom and I am delighted to be sharing it with you.

Some of the students in our class were struggling with subtraction. I decided to create a "Subtraction Bowling" activity to help support the idea of taking things away and thinking about how many are left. Bowling is a fun activity and something that most students can easily relate to. I am a hands on teacher and I love to get the kids up and moving. So I decided to purchase a small plastic bowling set at Walmart for under ten dollars. I have to admit that I was feeling a little uneasy at first as I was unsure of how well the lesson would go. I thought to myself "Oh boy, is this going to get my students crazy acting and out of control."  I explained the rules carefully to my students and let my student know that they had to sit quietly behind the lines near our pretend bowling alley to stay safe, if they wanted a turn to bowl.. To set up my pretend bowling alley, I took a long piece of colored bulletin board paper and set up the pins behind it.
At first, we just started with five pins and I let some of the students bowl. I then added more pins and let more student bowl. We kept adding pins as we went along. After each student bowled, I had them go up to the whiteboard and write a number sentence to go along with how well they bowled. You could also pass out small whiteboards while the students are waiting their turn to bowl and have all the students record the information. This activity was a BIG HIT and such a HUGE success. They all loved it, and the best part was they did not act up or act crazy at all. Students were happily cheering on their classmates and very willing to think about the subtraction equations. We followed up this activity with some subtraction bowling worksheets. After doing this activity for a few days, even my struggling students were successfully subtracting.

Check out this activity at
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Subtraction-Bowling-Print-Go-KOA2-1OA1-1159127





Continue on The Best for the Best Teacher Appreciation Blog Hop by clicking the picture below.

Check out a Rafflecopter giveaway in which you could win this activity that I just donated to you as well as 55 best selling classroom resources by some amazing Kindergarten and First grade teachers. Best of Luck!