For the first few weeks of school, we always focus on the basics such as how to be a friend, sharing, walking in a line, sitting on the carpet, and writing our name, letters, and NUMBERS! Many students do not enter Kindergarten with a strong foundation in number sense. So before we can dive into the math curriculum, we spend a few weeks exploring numbers to get a deeper understanding. One of my absolute favorite ways to do this is with Digital Number of the Week (or day) Activities!
What Are Number of the Week Activities?
Number of the Week, or Number of the Day is a teaching style that many primary teachers use in their classrooms to help students grow in number skills and number sense. Typically, you focus on one number per day, or in my room one number per week and build a little on it each day. I like to use lots of fun activities to help reinforce the number and have students work with it. It’s a great way to set your students up for success at the beginning of the year when it comes to math!
How We Use Number of the Week Activities
The first week of school usually involves an introduction to numbers and a basic review of counting. The next week begins our Number of the Week Activities for numbers 1-10. During these first 10 weeks, we focus on 1 number each week and really dive into and explore each number. This helps kids get a deeper understanding of the numbers inside and out. It also helps set up a great foundation for addition, subtraction, and teen numbers!
In my room, we use the Digital Number of the Week Activities in both a whole group and small group format. I even assign them for additional independent practice since the kids find them to be so engaging! We usually start each lesson as a whole group listening to a number song and talking about the number. Then we will practice searching the room for things that have our target number on it or finding that many of one object in our classroom. Then, students will complete the other daily activities in small groups or independently. This process continues throughout the week!
Daily Number Activities
Interested in a closer look? Let’s walk through the activities I use in my room in a little more depth. Keep in mind that these Number of the Week Activities are all digital and can be used as a whole group, in a small group setting, or even individually assigned through Google Classrooms™.
Day 1: Number of the Week Activities
On day 1, we focus mostly on number recognition. I want students to understand what the number looks like so that when they see it in math lessons and everyday life, they will instantly recognize the number.
Each day includes a number song that we always listen to first. As a kindergarten teacher, music is a big part of our day and the kids especially love this activity!
After our song, we work on the activities together. Students will complete two activities to help reinforce the number and learn to identify it. First, the students will look at the various number tiles and sort them into the correct jar to see if they are the number of the week or not. The second activity for the day is a “Cover Up” Digital Board. Using the counters, students will cover up all of the number of the week that they see. My kids love these activities because it means they get to use our devices. And since I always start by modeling them on the SmartBoard, students can be fairly independent with them after a week or two of this process.
Day 2: Number of the Week Activities
Day 2 starts similarly to the one before… with a song! After we watch the number video, I model how to build the number with pattern blocks, on the SmartBoard. This is the perfect time to review the number recognition skills we worked on the day before.
In addition to building with virtual pattern blocks, they will complete a number maze on day two. To play, they will start at the race car and follow the number path all the way to the stop sign by covering up each number on the number of the day path with a highlighter counter. Everyone loves “racing” down their number path!
Day 3: Number of the Week Activities
Students will again begin the lesson with the number of the day video followed by building the number with virtual snap cubes. Again, I like to model this first and then let the kids give it a try on their own, the more practice the better!
On day 3, we begin focusing on counting! We will practice in a whole group by finding things in the classroom that are the same amount as our number and counting them together. Then, we break apart into groups and students will work on their activity for the day by counting objects and placing the correct number of objects onto the picture.
To finish the daily activities, students will practice typing the number of the day on their computers or tablets. I love that these digital number of the week activities give them practice with numbers, but also typing! This is first for many of my students and they really enjoy learning how to do so.
Day 4: Number of the Week Activities
Day 4 in Number of the Week is one of my personal favorites. This is when we dive into different ways to represent our number and introduce subitizing. We start with a song teaching students a couple of different ways to represent the number of the week. Then for the student activity of the day, they will look at all of the different ways to represent numbers. Next, we dive right in and play “Cover It Up” by covering the different images that represent our target number. This one is usually a little bit tricky for my students, so we walk through it together first, then give them a shot to complete it independently or with a partner.
Day 5: Number of the Week Activities
On the last day of the week, we take our number learning one more step. After we watch our number video together, I model how to build the number of the week using tens frames. As always, the students get to try this on their own as well. Then, we focus on the activities that are a continuation of yesterday’s lesson.
Students will look at all of the different ways to represent numbers. If it represents a way to show the number, they place it into the number of the week jar, if not, it goes into the other jar. The last activity of the week adds some literacy into our math lessons by having the students read number words.
Making Number of the Week Activities Your Own
As you can see, our daily number lessons with Number of the Week Activities follow a predictable pattern. I love this because everyone, myself included, knows just what to expect. It makes, planning, prepping, and teaching easy! Plus. . . students love the consistent routine. They all have their favorite activities and it gives them something to look forward to.
In addition to the digital activities, I also tend to have the students use hands-on manipulatives as I am modeling building the numbers. I will display these on the board so that we can do them as a whole group but the students will also have a math manipulatives bag so they can build them with hands-on materials too. This is great for fine motor skills and spatial concepts, plus. . . I just think it’s fun to combine digital activities with hands-on learning!
These are great activities to help students build confidence in numbers and develop a strong foundation in number sense skills. They are perfect for the beginning of the school year and they help to set students up for success in their math lessons throughout the school year.
Try Number of the Week in Your Room
Are you loving the idea of focusing on a specific number for a whole week? It’s been a game-changer in my kindergarten classroom! I love using these digital Number of the Week activities to kick off our day. If you’d like to try these out in your room, grab the FREE sample by entering your email below.
Inside you’ll get a full week of activities for the number 1. This means you’ll get to walk your students through the same process I use to practice working with that number!
Number of the Week Activities Bundle
If you already know you want this routine in your classroom, be sure to check out the Number of the Week Bundle! You’ll get weekly and daily lessons for numbers to 20, which will help ensure your students start the year with a strong foundation in math! As a recap, here’s what you get for each number resource inside the bundle:
- Day 1: video, build number, sort number, cover it up
- Day 2: video, build number, number maze
- Day 3: video, build number, count the objects, type the number
- Day 4: video, build the number, cover it up
- Day 5: video, build the number, sort the number, read the number
I know you and your students will LOVE using the daily lessons to form a routine and learn together. Whether you choose to use them at the beginning of the year or at different times, I am confident that these activities will help your students improve their number skills as they have mine.
Save These Number of the Week Activities
Pin this to your favorite teacher Pinterest board so you don’t lose track of all these fun and engaging Number of the Week Activities.
