Cube Trains

Developing number sense is sooooo hard for some kiddos because it requires hands-on experiences with numbers. As primary teachers, we already do sooooo much of this but we need to provide daily experiences where they build and compare numbers and create visual representations of numbers to store in their minds. Throughout the year, we give various assessments where the children have to order numbers from greatest to least or from the least to greatest and several sweet little kiddos each year struggle with this...sometimes even those kiddos we think as having number sense do not do well on this because number sense comes down to place value and the relationships between numbers. Activities on the 100 hundreds board, estimating, and place value will help build this number sense.

Here is a little activity to help build number sense. We will use cubes to make the number trains. We talk about using the cubes to help us count better and faster. This means keeping them grouped in 10's and then counting on by ones (We talk about this not being the most helpful time to make patterns). Each child starts with a conductor train and players each take a card and build his/her train with that number of cubes. One player spins the spinner and if the spinner lands on more than the player with the longest cube train gets to add a train car. If the spinner lands on less than, the player with the shortest cube train gets to add a train car. Players continue until there are no more train cars. The players then spin the spinner to determine the winner. If the spinner lands on more than the player with the longest train wins. If the spinner lands on less than. the player with the shortest train wins.

We've played this game whole group this week and the kiddos love it!

cube trains

cube trains recording sheet

graphics by Scrappin Doodles

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