We started off our subtraction week by reading Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree by Eileen Christelow. We stopped to discuss how many monkeys went away and how many were left after the crocodile came each time. Then we sang Dr. Jean's Five Little Monkeys song. I passed out monkeys and an alligator necklaces, and the students acted out the song as we sang. Then we recorded the subtraction sentence as the whiteboard.
We read The Smushy Bus and talked about how many students were added and taken away. Then I taught the students a little rhyme I made up about students on a school bus. Then we chanted our rhyme and acted out subtraction stories. Then students created their own after a mini directed art lesson.
We read Toy Box Subtraction and worked the subtraction stories as we read aloud. Then we used a treasure box and cars to tell and record our own subtraction stories whole group. Then students went to their tables and worked together to tell subtraction stories using their treasure boxes with cars. Then students created and recorded their own subtraction stories.
We also played a Chow Time! subtraction game partner game I found from The Mailbox magazine. We will add this game to a math station.
