Scrolling to Build Number Sense

We celebrate every time somebody makes it to 1,000!

I heard about scrolling at a conference a few years ago.  To make scrolls, take empty paper towel tubes and tape a blank hundreds chart on it.  Kids fill-in numbers on the chart.  Once the chart is filled to 100, we use a glue stick to add another chart to the end of the first and they write 101-200.  The scrolls just keep growing!  This is AMAZING for building number sense.  Some kids really struggle to see the pattern in the numbers.  "What comes after 310?"  We can go back to the chart and find 10, then 110, then 210.  It is such a great resource!  Another thing I love about scrolls is how they differentiate themselves.  Some kids may be working on the three hundreds and others are on the thousands.  Everybody works at the level that is right for them.  My kids do scrolls for about 15 minutes once or twice a week.  My teenage daughter saw them in my room and told me she couldn't believe I was so mean that I would make the kids write so many numbers.  Gotta love teenagers!  The truth is, THEY LOVE SCROLLING!  When I take scrolls out, they cheer!  They keep telling me how excited they are to take the scrolls home and show their families how long their scrolls are.

Here are some tricks that make scrolling successful:

• We use rubber bands to hold scrolls shut when we are not using them.  Teach the kids to slip rubber bands on their wrists.  We don't wrap rubber bands around multiple times, but just slide them onto the scroll.  When they try to wrap, they crinkle their papers.  
• Check for accuracy as they go.  If they skip a number, it is easier to catch it early on.  
• Teach them to check that they are on the right track.  When my kids get to the end of a row, I have them check that all the numbers in each column end with the correct number (the entire column of 5's ends in a 5 - 5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, etc.)
• Use clear packing tape to attach the first chart to the tube.  
• Put labels with student names on the inside of the rolls.
• Ask for paper towel rolls to be donated at the end of the year so you are ready to go at the beginning of the next year!
• Teach them how to cut off the edge of the paper so that this becomes one continuous chart.  (See picture below for a visual of this!)

The student on the bottom of this picture has cut off the edge of the paper and is ready to glue a new chart on the back.  The charts should line up to form one continuous chart.  

I store scrolls in a basket with rubber bands around each one.  

  Once scrolls are made, they are super easy to maintain.  To print your own charts, click here!

Thanks for reading!