Objective:

The students will count by 5's.

Materials

• Star Shapes

• Pencils

Procedure

1. Show the students a picture of a star shape.  Discuss how the star has 5 points.

2. Pass out the star shapes (decide ahead of time how many stars each child receives - younger children may need 2 stars to practice counting by 10's.  Older students may be given more stars to practice counting higher by 5's, or even doing some multiplication problems.)

3. Have the students write the numbers 1-5 on each of their star points (each point should be labeled with one number).  If they have more than one star, they should label each of them 1-5, except if the decision has been made to work with 10's.  If so, have the students label their two stars with the numbers 1-10.

4. The students will now be able to practice counting by 5's or 10's.  How many star points do 3 students have?  How many are there in the whole class?  With older students lessons may be done with multiplication.  To find the answer of how many points three stars have, use the problem 3 x 5 = 15.

Other Lesson Ideas

1. Make color patterns with the small foil star stickers.

2. Have a geometry lesson on how two triangles can be used to make a 6 pointed star.

3. Challenge the students to design a game in which they use a large star with each point labeled with a number 1-5 and a dice.

4. Fill a piece of paper with hand drawn stars, or star stickers.  Have the students estimate how many stars are on the paper.  Then count the stars and see how close the estimates are!