Do You Celebrate Dozen Day?

Hello Folks! Since some of you have already started back to school, and the rest will be there soon enough, this is just a super quick post to share what I do on the twelfth day of school.

Have some math fun with 12 on the twelfth day of school!

First of all, I set up my light box sign to welcome in the kids. It immediately gets their attention, since the only other time they've seen it was the first day of school. I use it sparingly throughout the year and it always emphasizes something special. I don't use anything fancy on the sign, just the letters, emojis and numbers that I got when I first got the box. Our math discussion starts with the sign though- that the letters just happen to be all capital letters, why I there are two hands and two fingers on there, and what the number 12 looks like. The one means ten and the two, two more. We practice making twelve with our fingers, needing a partner to do so.

We talk about how twelve is a special number which gets a special name. We also talk about how some things are sold in dozens– like eggs, donuts, and flowers.

I bring in a dozen hard boiled eggs in a carton. We all get to eat one (I bring in some extra for the whole class) and then we use egg cartons to count out twelve of all sorts of things in math centers.

I also bring in a dozen donuts, which leads us to discuss a "baker's dozen." The history I share goes something like this: The term baker's dozen started back to the middle ages, a looooong time ago, even before your grandparents were born, or their grandparents! There was a very strict law and sellers who sold things by the dozen, but who cheated or even just miscounted and gave less than twelve, were punished. (They had their hand amputated, but I don't add that detail to the story!) So it was very important that everyone could count correctly to twelve. To make sure the shopper ALWAYS got at least dozen, bakers started giving them 13 for the price of 12, and that became known as a baker's dozen. Even today it is nice to get a bonus donut, isn't it??

Our math discussion usually includes dozens we see in our room... like a dozen students, plus seven more. We talk about "half a dozen." I also add an egg carton and a dozen plastic eggs to our Drama area where they stay the rest of the year. You get the idea.

Now PIN so you remember and have fun on your Dozen Day!

Thanks for stopping by! See you next time.