Tens and Ones

My students love when we use food for math. I always find that my students are so engaged and excited about it. This is probably because they know they get a little treat when they finish! I recently posted an image on Instagram of an idea that I thought of for tens and ones using m&m candies.

I had the idea to use the snack size bags of m&m's for the lesson. I may have sampled a bag just to make sure there would be the right amount of m&m's. I planned to have my students find how many m&m's they have in their bag, how many groups of ten, and how many extra ones. I knew it would fit perfectly with the Common Core standards we have been focusing on:

K.NBT.1a Compose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record each composition by a drawing or equation (e.g., 18 = 10 + 8)
K.NBT.1b Decompose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record each decomposition by a drawing or equation (e.g., 18 = 10 + 8)

I first modeled this activity for my students. Modeling is definitely important with our young learners so they know exactly what is expected of them. Then I sent them off to their seats to work. They loved it and did such a nice job with the lesson!