Same And Equal Spinners

Welcome to my blog post!

The Same - Not the Same

Count the Objects to Compare

Original spinner-same & not the same

I recently found this spinner that I had used many years ago with a Kindergartener who had difficulty understanding and remembering the meaning of the word ‘equal.’ The student wanted to be involved with our more-less-equal team games but I could see there wasn’t confident yet with the vocabulary.

Original spinner-equal & not equal

Simply cut a circle out of construction paper, draw a line through the center and write the words –Same on one half and Not the Same on the other half. Turn the spinner over and you see the words- Equal and Not Equal. When the student had experiences with the words the same-not the same, we used the opposite side with the vocabulary he would need for all the future skills.

 This was my initial spinner with double sides used. All you need is a paper clip in the middle and a pencil holding the paper clip so it is turned into a spinner. 

Equal & Not equal spinner (2)

Same & Not the same spinner (2)

For this blog, I made a copy of all the spinners for you as well as showing you what I initially made in about 20 seconds.

Both spinners on 1 sheet

Select a couple groups of ‘treasures’ or sorting materials you already have in your classroom. Put a group of those objects each in its own small paper bag. I used key and buttons this time.  

Button treasures

 To ensure success starts with the easiest game—the student puts a hand in and grabs some objects from each bag. Then count the number grabbed. Are both of those numbers the same? If the child needs to count and compare 1 to 1, that’s fine at this stage.

Key treasures

How many ‘keys’ did you grab? How many’ buttons’ did you grab? Are those numbers exactly the same? Is 8 the same as 12?  No, they are not the same, so 8 is not the same as 12? 'Let's count to make sure.'

If you wish, go a step further and ask, how could you make the same number of keys as buttons? That will allow you to assess what the learning is so far and help you see what should be the next developmental step to facilitate the understanding of the word equal.

Are you ready to use the other spinner with words –equal and not equal?  Continue with this very easy start and then move to using the spinner with number cards.

Add a number

There are many ways to do this but I usually start with students selecting a number from the stack. Now student selects one of the sorting treasures to use as objects for counting. If they selected the number 13, they would have to count out 13 keys or buttons. 

Number cards 1-15

Number cards 16-30

Spin the spinner to see whether they have to count out the same or an equal number of the other objects. If they spin not the same or not equal, they have to count either an object less than 13 or more than 13.

Now is a great time to reinforce the vocabulary or more and less, if needed. Keep playing and as you play you will come up with other ways to use this type of spinner in your class. Sooo Easy!

Please check out all the other activities I have in my store at

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Make-Math-Magic

and

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