Who knew that number lines could be so much fun? Well my students and I found out just how much fun they can be during one of our recent math bag days.
We started our morning math by reading “The Line Up Book” by Marisabina Russo. This is a simple to read aloud book about a boy who is being called to eat his lunch but decides he needs to make a line of toys, books, and other things all the way from his room to the kitchen as his mother keeps calling him – “Time for dinner” calls his mother.
After reading our book, I invited the children to retell the story using our very long number line on the floor. The children worked together to place the math tokens they had brought from home along the number line kind of like the little boy did in our book – “Just a minute!” calls the little boy.
As the children lined up their math tokens, we had fun retelling the story. I would say “Time for dinner!” and the children responded with “Just a minute!” until all the tokens were lined up on our number line.
After completing our number line, the children helped me add the missing numbers.
And then we counted all of our tokens to see just how many we had brought today.
All throughout the process, I could see the wheels spinning as the children began to understand how the number line works. You know when you have one of those moments when you just get it right? Well this felt like one of those moments. Hurray for Number Lines!
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