My Early Years classes have always loved dinosaurs, and this year is no exception. So Numbers to 10 with Dinosaurs has been updated and is ready to go! 

As always, when children are working with numbers, they need both concrete practice (with manipulatives) and representational (picture) practice - and both should be linked to the abstract (the numeral itself). 

I love Dot Cards in the Early Years - they are such a powerful way to build number sense in young children (see any of my Number Talk posts - and go here if you want a FREE set of dot cards for your own class). I also wanted my classes to have practice with Numbers to 10 at a concrete level - how to do both? 

Well - you can have your class make their own Dot Cards for each number, cutting out and coloring Dinosaur Eggs to fill 10 frames in different ways. The act of cutting out and moving the eggs makes this activity concrete, rather than purely representational - something we should always be looking to do where possible. As an added bonus, classes get some fine motor practice as well! 

My T-Rex Numbers to 10 booklet (picture at the top) has always been a great 'fast finisher' job. There are 2 pages for each number, and it works really well printed as a booklet. Detailed instructions are given in the file if you want smaller booklets, with only 1 of the 2 pages (so you don't have to think about which pages to print yourself!). 

Every early years classroom I've taught in has had children who needed different levels of support and challenge. And that can be tricky! Over the years, I've made a variety of different Numbers to 10 Dinosaur-themed printables that let children practice different skills, depending on where they are in their own development. This file has 10 different printables, which target a variety of skills and knowledge, including number recognition, number matching, number amounts, early addition and early pre-subtraction skills. And including a dinosaur or a dinosaur egg on a printable never hurts! 

I hope the start of your school year is going well! If you are interested in this Dinosaur Number to 10 pack, click on any of the pictures...

And if you haven't already started to Count the School Days, it isn't too late to begin! You can get everything you need in this (FREE!) pack. 

Only my youngest went into school with me today, but we still managed to get just about everything organised and stored in the proper place. Above is the classroom as it currently is (yeah!). I've had to take a picture, though, as weeks 4 & 5 of the summer holiday are 'deep clean' weeks - so when I arrive back at the end of week 6 to start back to school, all of the furniture will be shoved into the centre of the room. This picture should help me to put everything back where it belongs. It will also remind me that I need to buy one more red utensil drainer/pencil holder for my last table.

In the back corner, I've organised our library. I came home with quite a few books, and I need to take some books from home (Magic Tree House, Flat Stanley, Junie B. Jones) into school. A few labels still need to be made and attached, but it's in fairly 'P3 ready' shape, I think. I'll have to see if I can scrounge a few cushions from somewhere as well.

These will be our reading trays. I normally name reading groups for a fruit, then colour code the fruit to the tray (e.g., red strawberries) to make it easy for kids to remember where to put their reading books and find their writing/reading jotters. Each child will have their own grey tray (below the reading trays). The leftover trays will store various supplies.

We also have a 'Maths Area', which kids will be able to access for supplies/math supports/manipulatives that they might need. So far, there are number cards, playing cards, dominoes, 3 different kinds of dice, buggy rekenreks, number lines, 100/120 squares, counting/connecting cubes and counters. There are also some shape building/tiling games that my P1s loved last year, and that I'm sure will be a favourite of next year's P3s as well. I'm planning to put some magnetic base 10 materials on the small whiteboard, and the cupboard underneath the board holds more maths games. One of the only things on my wall so far are the maths rotation boards (I'm assuming I'll have 3 maths groups, like last year - I guess we'll start with that, and adjust if we need to).

I think I'll use my Ikea Trofast unit (below) for 'Fast Finisher' tasks. I bought this 'All Done! Now What?' set from Miss Kindergarten Love on TPT, and it has lots of different tasks for kids to complete. The Trofast unit should be just the thing to organise everything - and it will be right there, after they hand in their 'Finished Work'.

At the moment, the unit is still filled with various maths manipulatives and literacy games from this past year. Yes, I mixed maths and literacy resources! I imagine that would drive some teachers up the wall. I have to say - I'm not naturally organised, but I'm learning that I need to be to teach. This organisation thing is a work in progress for me, but it's slowly getting there (which is a good thing, as I'm now onto my 4th year of teaching!).