At the End of Your Rope? Knot Yet!

Hi All,

Keeping track of the number of days of school has to begin right away (especially if you want to celebrate that special 100th Day of School later on with some accuracy.) I know I'm a little late with this for some of you, but you can always "catch the class up" and begin any day.

Here's one fun and physical way to do it. Using a long piece of rope or clothesline (30 feet should be enough), tie a knot for each day of school as it occurs. You can give students turns tying the knots each day.

Have children paint or use marker to color every fifth knot yellow, and every tenth knot red. The other knots can be left the color of the rope or colored black.

Through this pattern, they can practice counting by ones, fives, and tens. The rope really helps children "take hold" of math skills and concepts, letting them see and touch patterns and relationships in simple counting.

You could have a class rope and students can have individual pieces of string to do the same thing on a smaller scale. It is fun to keep the class rope in a drawer and take it out each morning to count the new day.

If you are teaching virtually, every student will enjoy having their own rope or string at home to do together with you as you work on the calendar, date, and number of days so far on the "class rope."

All the best,

Bob

From Fresh and Fun: September by Bob Krech (Scholastic, 2000)

Comments

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