The Hungry Alligator Lesson

Last Thursday I taught the whole classroom of first graders for the first time!! Probably the most awesome feeling ever.  This is the first time I have gathered activities and materials and put them together AND taught it all.  I suddenly feel like a real teacher and it feels pretty good.

So anyways, let me fill you in on the details.

My teacher asked me to review the students on comparing numbers.  You know!  The greater than and less than signs that barely make sense to us (or maybe just me) still.  Well the first thing that popped into my mind was the hunger alligator.  I used to always draw and eyeball and teeth on my greater than/ less than signs.  I started thinking of what could I do to make this stick in first grader's heads?  And this is what I came up with...

          Tada!           


I used green poster board for the head, the biggest wiggly eyes I could find, and copy paper for the teeth.  I didn't get the sturdiest poster board so I broke one of my old coat hangers to keep the mouth open. 

I printed out a lot of paper fish.  I used the paper fish to help the students