Thursday, July 23, 2015

Tally Marks Math on the Light Table

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We haven't been playing on the light table as frequently lately, but I recently found translucent cocktail stirrers at the dollar store so, of course, we had to try them out. I knew immediately that they would work perfect for working on tally marks counting. So we tried it out. This math light table activity for kids is such a colorful and simple way to work on tally marks.

Elementary math for kids: tally marks on the light table from And Next Comes L

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How to Teach Tally Marks on the Light Table

The only thing we used for this light table activity was translucent cocktail stirrers, similar to these wavy versions. I have been waiting for these to show up at my dollar store and was thrilled when they finally did. I've only been waiting like two years for them to appear!

For this activity, I simply called out a number and five year old J counted out the correct number of stirrers. We could have used dice or light table number manipulatives as well, but me picking random numbers worked just fine.

Elementary math for kids: tally marks on the light table from And Next Comes L

Elementary math for kids: tally marks on the light table from And Next Comes L

Aren't they the most beautiful tally marks ever?

Elementary math for kids: tally marks on the light table from And Next Comes L

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Tally marks on the light table: elementary math activity for kids from And Next Comes L