Missing Parts

Think Tank Activity

I have talked about doing Daily 5 in my math class. It is a modified version for sure. I always think you should adapt things to work for your classroom. One of the stations I have is Think Tank. At Think Tank, students solve word problems created by me and their classmates, work with numbers, and think about math. One of my students' weaknesses is in solving missing part problems. I decided to create some missing part word problem cards for students to use at Think Tank. I just copied the problems or card stock and laminated the cards. What an easy station! My students enjoy spending time at Think Tank now that I have added and updated some things for them to do. 

 How do you help your students solve those tricky missing part problems?

Willy Wonka Chocolate Math

Using 10 Game

I teach math, social studies and science to first graders. However, that doesn't mean that I don't love books and reading. I have a degree in school library media after all! I love to relate books to math and content. I also love to read to my students for enjoyment whenever I have extra time. I am currently reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Roald Dahl is one of my favorite authors of all time, so I wanted to share my passion with my students. They love whenever we have a few extra minutes before recess so they can hear the story of Charlie Bucket and Willy Wonka and visualize exploring the magnificent chocolate factory. I thought making a game that connected to this book would be very engaging for my students.

Once again I looked to Teachers Pay Teachers and found this AMAZING and free clip art to create this draw and cover game. This game focuses on a 2nd grade fact strategy, using 10. I have a lot of students that have already mastered first grade facts. YAY! This game will give them a head start in 2nd grade. Students draw a card, solve the addition fact and cover the Wonka bar with the correct sum. I haven't shown this game to my students yet, so you once again get to be the first to see it. I hope you like it! Please leave feedback!

Mmm Pizza

Addition Review Game

I love pizza! Who doesn't? I was starting to run out of ideas for clip art to use for games. One of my students had suggested making a pizza game. I had already made a lot of roll and cover games, so I wanted to make a matching game. What do kids like with pizza? Soda!

I found some great (free) clip art on Teachers Pay Teachers and created this memory game for my students. Since I started Fact Time this year, I have had a lot of students do extremely well with their addition and subtraction facts. I have students who are fluent with all of their addition and subtraction strategies and it is only MARCH! Awesome, right?!? We are now reviewing all of the addition facts mixed together and then all of the subtraction facts mixed together. We will move into 2nd grade facts soon. This is a matching game for addition review. The equations on the pizzas match the sums on the sodas. Unfortunately, it is another snow day for us, so I haven't been able to share this with my students. You are the first ones to view it! Let me know how you like it by commenting here or on my TPT store! Enjoy!

Another Snow Day, Another Freebie

Subtracting from 10 Games

Well we have about 7 inches of snow on the ground and more is falling. This is our 2nd snow day this week and I have a feeling we will be off tomorrow too. Yep, you saw the date correctly. It is indeed March 5th. 
We have used all of our snow days already this year... +4, probably 5 by tomorrow. While you all are off enjoying your summer, I will be in school until the 4th of July! Fun times. Well my pain is your gain. I have some freebies for you today!

Both of these games are for Fact Time. If you want to read more about Fact Time and how it works in my classroom, go here.

I have a memory type game with burgers and fries. Students match the equations on the fries to the differences on the burgers.

 I also have a roll and cover game. Students roll a 10-sided die, subtract that number from 10 and cover the ninja with the correct difference.

 My students love both of these games. Let me know how your students like them!

Math Mystery Book

I do Daily 5 Math in my classroom. I have five stations and the students go to one each day after they finish their math work. Here are the stations my kids go to:

• Math By Myself
• Partner Math
• Math Technology
• Math Reading and Writing
• Think Tank

Math Reading and Writing is by far the most difficult station to keep updated with engaging and relevant activities. I have math books for kids to read and they can also write their own math problems to match pictures and dominoes. I was starting to run out of ideas. That's when I decided to make a choose your own adventure type math book. The students will solve the problems on each page to figure out what page to go to next.I put each page in a plastic page protector. I kept them in separate pages because the wrong answers lead to dead end pages. It is kind of confusing to explain.

To say that my students loved this book would be an understatement. Students were finally disappointed to NOT be at Math Reading and Writing. I will definitely be making more of these books. They will have Petey the Penguin of course! Get your copy here!Let me know how your kids like this book and any ideas you might have for new story ideas.

Counting On Freebies

I have a 5 minute fact time each day during math. My students get time to independently practice the addition or subtraction strategy they are working on. You can read more about fact time in this post.

Counting on was a pretty easy strategy for most of my first graders. You just add 1 or 2 to any number. Some of my munchkins still use counting on for EVERY SINGLE addition fact. We are still working on that.

I have 2 games for you today. This is one of my base games. I have a puzzle game for every strategy. The kids know how to play it now, so it is quick and easy to introduce. This is a sea creature puzzle. Students put the puzzle back together by matching equations to the correct sum. You can get this puzzle for free (of course) at my TPT store.

I also make a lot of roll and cover games. This game requires you to make your own +1/+2 die. I found foam cubes at the dollar tree. You can also use wooden cubes from the craft store or blank dice. Students roll a regular die and a +1/+2 die and add the numbers together. They cover the monster on the board that has the correct sum on it. My students loved using the foam dice. They also thought the little monsters were just the cutest! Get your own copy at my TPT store.

I hope you and your students enjoy these games! Please leave some feedback either here or on TPT.

Where's Spring?

My county is once again closed for winter weather... I think that makes day 7... or 8... All I know if that I might be teaching my little first graders well into the summer. It is March right? Well my pain is your gain! I have had some time on my hands, so I took the plunge and created a Teachers Pay Teachers store. Don't worry! You still won't be paying me. Everything I post is free. I just wasn't getting my creations out to enough people through this little blog and Pinterest. In less that 12 hours, I have 4 items posted and nearly 200 downloads! Yeah! Check out my store and follow me if you like! Now for some more freebies for you!

I have a confession...

I am a tad obsessed with Legos. I know I am a grown adult and I probably shouldn't be playing with toys, but sometimes I need a break from real life. Putting together Legos is my stress relief. I will actually buy Lego sets and wait for a really bad day to put them together... Everyone has their thing right? I might have a problem though.

My Lego collection!

Enough about my love of Legos. 1st graders love them too! I have a bunch at school for indoor recess and wanted to incorporate them into math too. I have a bunch of students still working on their near doubles (or using doubles) facts. They can be tricky, so I thought Legos might be a motivating thing to get my students excited about practicing more. I created this independent fact game for my kids to play during our 5 minutes of fact time each day. Students pick a card and solve the fact. They use counters (or Legos) to cover the Lego minifigure with the correct sum.

Let me tell you, I felt like a rock star the day I introduced this game and more of my students are finally moving on past adding near doubles. Win, win!

Now if you will excuse me. I am going to continue spending my snow day snuggling with this guy!

Marty

Dr. Seuss Math

We Love Dr. Seuss!

On Friday, my students had a special treat. Members for our local Rotary Club stopped by dressed like the Cat in the Hat. They brought their favorite Dr. Seuss books and read they to our students. My visitor read The Foot Book and I Am Not Going To Get Up Today. My students loved hearing the stories. It was my first time hearing I Am Not Going To Get Up Today (I know, it's a shame) and I really enjoyed it. The best part about the visit though was that each student was given their own Dr. Seuss book to keep! My kids picked out the one they wanted and got busy reading. I decided to share my favorite Dr. Seuss book with my students as well. Any guesses what it is...?

The Butter Battle Book

I just adore this book and it's message of peace. If you haven't read it, you should.

To continue our celebration of Dr. Seuss, I created a word problem book for my students to solve. All of the problems involved some of their favorite Dr. Seuss characters. My students had a blast solving these problems. Some students used math tools, some drew pictures, others just wrote equations. It was a fun and differentiated way to practice solving word problems (including those tricky missing part problems). Try it out with your kids on Monday to celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday!

Let me know how you and your students like it. What is your favorite way to celebrate Dr. Seuss?

Fact Time

Fact Time

Practicing Facts, One Strategy at a Time

A large portion of first grade math is spent practicing addition and subtraction facts to become fluent. Rather than working on all of the facts at once, my students practice their facts by strategy. 

Our fact time is 5 minutes a day. I have made quite a few games students can play independently to practice their facts. At the end of the week, I give students a fact check. If they get most of the questions right in a certain amount of time (3 and a half minutes or less), move on to the next strategy. If they don't pass, they keep practicing the strategy the following week until they do. This is a great way to differentiate fact practice for your class. 

We go through the strategies in the following order:

• + 0
• -0
• Counting On (+1/+2)
• Counting Back (-1/-2)
• Doubles
• Halves
• Near Doubles (+)
• Near Doubles (-)
• Making 10 (+)
• Make 10 (-)
• Mixed Addition
• Mixed Subtraction

Once they work through all of the first grade facts, we will continue onto the 2nd grade facts. I keep all of the games in one crate and the students keep track of their strategy by coloring their fact strategy page. 

One game students can do is called Domino Search. I place dominoes in baggies making sure some of the dominoes use the strategy students are working on. Students then go through the bag and find the dominoes that match the strategy they are working on. When they find a domino, they write the fact on a dry erase board and solve it. It's simple, but the kids LOVE it!

I will be posting games I have made for fact time a few at a time. I don't want to overload you!

How do you practice facts with your students?

 

Valentine's Day Tallies

Valentine's Day Tallies

Valentine's Day is coming up in a week! While it is one of my least favorite holidays, I love all the cute cupcake things I can find this time of year. Our school does a fundraiser each Valentine's Day to raise money for a local charity. We send Valentine notes attached to pencils. Of course I found some cupcake pencils at the Target Dollar Spot that I am sending my students. I also found some cute cupcake erasers that I might give them. I am debating if I should keep them and use them for math tools... decisions, decisions. 

 One thing I don't have to think about are my math plans for Friday (the 13th, ahhh!). I created a tallying activity for my students that aligns with CCSS 1.MD.4. Students find and count Valentine gifts then record them on a tally chart. They then answer some questions using the tally chart they created. My students love creating tally charts and graphs, but they don't always love analyzing the data. They struggle with "how many more/fewer" questions. We practice them often, use math tools, act them out with students, compare tally marks... Guess we will just keep practicing until they are successful! How do you teach this standard to your students?

Here is my math activity for Friday. I hope this freebie helps you with your planning this week! Happy Valentine's Day! Spread some love and positivity!