Teaching Decomposing Numbers in FDK

I feel like I haven’t posted about math in so long!

I have been teaching math, I promise! 😉

Last week we started decomposing numbers.

I started by telling them the learning goal “We are learning to decompose numbers” and then explained that decompose means to take apart.

Our success criteria is “I know I can do this when I can show how 1 number can be broken apart into smaller numbers.”

Then I demonstrated what I meant by doing a shake & spill activity.

On the first day we decomposed the number 5.

We used a large 5 frame and number magnets to practice saying the sentence

“___ and ___ make 5.”

On the second day we decomposed 6 and 7.

This time we used the SMARTBoard!

We did both shake & spill with the double-sided chips and

decomposing a stick of snap cubes.

Then we had this shake & spill centre out each day to practice decomposing numbers independently.
Here the kiddos are decomposing the number 6 or 7 and recording their work.

On the third day we practiced decomposing 8 and 9…

and on the fourth day we practiced decomposing 10 and started to use the addition symbol.

If you would like these “let’s practice” sheets that I used for my whole group lesson, you can download them for free by clicking here.

(Credit: Fonts & Graphics by Bubbly Borders & More and Kimberly Geswein)

*Sidenote: If you want to use them on your SMARTBoard like I did,

open up the pdf, click file –> print and change your printer to SMART Notebook Writer (apparently the name may be different depending on the computer but it should at least have SMART Notebook in the name) and click print.

After a couple seconds you will see the file being converted and it will pop-up as a new untitled SMART Notebook document. Click file –> save as and save it to your desired location!*

On the fifth day we practiced rolling a dice, building the number we rolled with snap cubes and decomposing the the number into 2 numbers.

Then we tried 3 colours to challenge my higher kiddos!

During centre time I called my high group over and observed as they decomposed a number into 3 parts..

but apparently the numbers 3-8 were “too easy peasy” for them..

so I ended up switching out the post it notes in the dice over and over!
The 3 kids I worked with ended up going all the way up to decomposing numbers in the twenties!

On the sixth day, we played this “In & Out” game.

The students were instructed to grab a handful of counters, count them and drop them into the pan.

Then they write down how many are in the plate and how many are out of the plate on the recording sheet.

Once they got confident with a handful they moved on to two and three handfuls!

Apart from “in & out” we had these write and wipe sheets out to practice decomposing any number at centre time.

If you would like any of these activities my decomposing unit is on sale for the first 24 hours!
You can click on either of the pictures below to see it in my TpT shop!