Finger Knitting & Stamp Game

We are warming up to teaching knitting in my 1st/2nd grade class. I began with finger knitting and this week we made our knitting needles (the easiest place to buy dowels for this is in the cake decorating section of Michaels, A.C. Moore, WalMart, etc. because Wilton sells them in the perfect diameter and length).

My class adores finger knitting and we have decided to try to finger knit a mile! That's 5280 feet. Each day we measure our finger knitting before we begin and again after we are done. When a ball of yarn is used up, the final length is measured and recorded and added to the previous total.

The Montessori Stamp Game material is what we use for the addition. It's a great way to get in daily practice with measurement as well as adding larger numbers.






By the way, I've been making notes on the Montessori materials that I think are really excellent and would purchase for my own use, even if not teaching in that type of school. This is one! It's inexpensive and very flexible. I think it is the best material I have ever seen for teaching dynamic addition and subtraction (carrying and borrowing), very hands on and active, and it makes SENSE.