Early Number Ideas with Feet!

I am joining in with some blogging friends on a HUGE hop filled with BRIGHT IDEAS!

Yes, you heard right! Bright and interesting ideas on a huge variety of topics for classrooms and teachers! Hop along the blogs in order, or use the Linky Map below to find something more specific  that appeals to you!

My Bright Idea is to use your student's feet to help with a range of early mathematics concepts! This is perfect for early in the teaching year (Aussies are in their first full week of school for the week now). You can integrate it with a "Look at Me" unit and it will also help students learn about their friends in the classroom. 

Ask all your students to trace both of their feet onto a nice bright piece of paper! Are these not the most beautiful looking, brand spanking new pair of school shoes you have ever seen?! 

Once cut, use them to create a number line in your class. Do lots and lots of forward counting, backward counting, skip counting and numeral awareness activities with them. Students can place a matching number of tokens on each foot to match the numeral. Match each foot to a number flashcard. Turn some numbers over, and talk about the missing numbers in the sequence. Mix them up and have students put them back into counting order.

Spread them out, scattered on the floor. Students can hop from shoe to shoe, in number order, counting as they go. 

Laminate some feet shapes, and stick them down on your classroom floor. When students come inside in the morning, they can stand on the shapes and say 'left' and 'right' to help consolidate their awareness of both sides of the body.

Ask students to measure their shoe shape. Once measured, ask them to find something in the classroom that is shorter, and something that is longer than their shoe. Get them to leave this on their desk, and then bring the object to sit next to the shoe to distinctly compare the two objects. 

A great idea is to use counting cubes to make an interactive counting track for each of your students. Have a tub of these at the ready - they are PERFECT for a range of number activities and also measurement activities. Aussie friends, I got these counting cubes from Officeworks - and then stuck little sticker dots onto each. 

Ask your students to compare their foot with another person in the class. 

Ask them to find the area, with counting cubes, of their shoe shape. 

Don't throw the feet away when you are done with all this math learning! Turn them into an artwork. Students can cut a circle for a head, a triangle for the body and then attach their traced-and-cut shoes and hands to create a nice artwork - again perfect for the beginning of the school year!

Thank you so much for stopping by friends! I hope you find a wonderful collection of ideas today as you hop around some wonderful educational blogs!

Please head over to 2nd Grade Smartypants to find another Bright Idea!