Zero The Hero

One of my favorite math activities that threads throughout the first 100 Days of School is Zero The Hero.  Zero is a monkey stuffed animal in my classroom, he wears a cape that has the number Zero on it!  As we count our days in school during calendar time and develop number concepts during math time Zero is used to focus student attention on the concept of zero.  It also provides an opportunity to explore different ways of counting, by 1, 5, and 10.  When Zero the Hero comes to school (every 10th day)  we have a celebration.  We sing a special song and have a mystery Zero the Hero visit our classroom.  We choose important people who work at our school to be Zero the Hero, that peerson wears a cape, mask, and brings 2-3 items that they work with that are in the shape of a Zero.  Children show this mysery person all their smart ways of counting and then this mystery Hero gives us thier Zero  items they work with as clues as to who they are.  We then make guesses!  I like taking the Mystery Hero's picture to use in a class book!


During Math we have art activities that represent the special 10 number.  For example, the 20th day of school we make Apple Trees where the students need to create 20 apples.  I will post pictures!  The idea is that this will become a math/art portfolio after 100 days!  I even paste a picture of who the mystery hero was on the back side!  As the numbers increase, it is fun to observe how children count by multiples, organize groups of numbers, and use 1-1 correspndence.  This is a great time to assess!


SNACK IN THE SHAPE OF A ZERO!  Parent volunteers send in a snack in the shape of a Zero!  Children LOVE to practice counting while eating these yummy treats!  Some ideas include:  life savers, froot loops, oreos, round pretzels. ets....