Slider Baggie Counting

Need something new (and concrete) for those students that are struggling with math counting? Having something physical to see the adding and subtracting of items as they move the manipulative can really assist in children’s understanding of basic math skills.

How about a fun video idea?  

I recorded a little something new today for you. 

The best part is that it will cost less than the price of a daily coffee stop to have a while class set for each student!

Just grab a worksheet, baggie, sharpie, and dry erase marker!   Simple and inexpensive enough for an entire class counting set!

Prefer to read the transcript? No problem!

“Hello, Charity Preston here from Organized Classroom.

I want to share with you today a fun little tip for probably your smaller students. I’m thinking kindergarten, even maybe up to first grade where they’re just learning to add and subtract.

And I have a really cool, easy, super inexpensive way for them to practice even at a center at their seats.

These are so inexpensive that you could actually make an entire class set and it doesn’t really matter if they get ripped because you can just make another one.

So what I did was I took a gallon Ziploc bag that has the slider on the top.

That would be the important part here.

Okay. See my slider.

Got it going on. Okay.

And then all I did was take a Sharpie marker and I basically just put it a number line on it.

The best part about this is you can slide in a worksheet.

If you want to put a regular sized worksheet in there, you just might need to chop off a little bit at the top or the bottom. And the thing I like about this is then it is reusable if they use a dry erase marker.

So the students could actually sit at their own seats and work on their own problems.

Example: if they see two minus one, this is how it works. Let me teach them to start at two. And we’re going to go back one. Now what number are we at? Two minus one equals one.

They get there little dry erasemarker out.

They write one on the baggie and then they can finish the whole rest of the sheet and bring it to you then to check.

Or you can be walking around assessing as it goes to see who is understanding the concept and who isn’t.

Of course my number line is a little bit bigger so it only goes to 10, but you could probably get up to 20 on there if you write smaller numbers,

That would be up to you as to what you needed (even a differentiation idea).

You could even do zero to five. If you’re working with even smaller kids or students that aren’t quite ready to get all the way to 10.

It’s just a fun way to work on their addition and subtraction facts.

I hope you’ve enjoyed that fun little tip and I would love to see pictures of yours in action.

All right, talk to you soon. Bye.”

Do you think this would work for helping counting in your classroom?  We would love to hear in the comments below!

~Charity