Tens and Ones and the Popcorn Ghost
This is a favorite activity that I got from Box It or Bag It "The Popcorn Ghost."
Cut out a host shape from a posterboard.
Show the ghost and have kids estimate how many pieces of popcorn it will take to cover the ghost.
Record their answers and discuss the numbers... ex. which numbers are even; which are odd; which number would come next in this pattern: 25, 30, 35, ___; which estimate is the largest; which is the smallest; which estimate has 3 tens; etc.
Allow each child to take out a handful of popcorn.
Give each child a blank piece of paper to count their popcorn pieces into groups of tens. The children circle each group of ten pieces of popcorn and leave the leftover 1's uncircled. They then write the number that tells how much popcorn they had by writing the ten's and then one's.
The children then take unifix cubes and make groups of ten to match their circles and have loose unifix cubes to match the ones.
The children take their popcorn to the ghost and glue it on. This works best with an adult using a paintbrush to smear the glue around a small area at a time.
The children put their unifix cubes together... all the tens in one group and the ones in another. After the popcorn ghost is complete, the children watch as the teacher takes the loose unifix cubes and puts them together to make as many groups of ten as possible. Then the teacher takes the groups of ten and makes as many groups of hundred as possible.
When it's all complete, the children easily see the number of popcorn pieces on the ghost.... the hundreds, tens, and ones.
I usually go back and glue eyes and a mouth on top of the popcorn pieces. The kids love this activity and the finished ghost is so cute. We do this again in April with a marshmallow egg.... same concept... egg shape... miniature colored marshmallows.... I usually draw off sections for each color marshmallow to be glued in and it makes it a striped Easter egg.
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