Math + Games -- Dice

Besides number cards, dice are a must have in a math classroom! You can use these "random number generators" (I had a professor who called them that!) in limitless ways. Check out some of these sites for suggestions:

• spaghettiboxkids.com
• teacher.scholastic.com
• activityvillage.co.uk
• proteacher.org

Math + Games -- Cards

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Don't Forget!

Just a reminder to sign up for this year's World Math Day! Over 2 million students are ready to go--don't be left behind!

Online Math Games

You will never be a fluent reader if you always have to sound out "and," "the," "said." Some words you just have to know! Sight word practice can't be the sole focus of literacy instruction, but every good teacher will make some time for that practice.

Math facts are a lot like sight words in reading.

Math instruction is more than drilling number facts. But at the same time, computational fluency can't develop without mastering basic facts. If a student must use his fingers to add 6+7, then 456+987 is going to be slow going!

The bulk of my math instruction is on making meaning of numbers, but we also do some activities where the focus is on quick and accurate recall. Emily mentioned the Banana Split program I have a parent helper run. We also do races and tests and games.

One big wish, though is that I had more computer access. There are on-line games for every math topic. And while some sites are basically computerized worksheets where students see a problem and type a correct answer, there are loads of entertaining games. The reinforcement of immediate feedback is an incredibly valuable thing!


Here are a few of my favorite sites:

• Brainpop Jr. (it's a subscription site, but some activities are free)
• Cool Math
  
• Math Playground
• Fun Mathematics Lessons
• Ambleside Primary
• Eduscapes
• BBC schools
• Fun School
• Primary Games
• US Mint

What are your favorite math practice websites?

Printable Math Games

 
We have a game in the shop that is perfect for teaching basic math facts. Banana Split Math Facts. As students pass off all the math facts in each level, they earn a piece of their Banana Split. When their sundae is complete, they get to enjoy a real Banana Split with all the toppings they earned. Our students LOVE this activity. We have designed it so parents can be in charge of quizzing the kids and helping them add to their sundae but you can run it anyway you like. I think it would be a fun activity for homeschoolers and moms to use at home as well.

World Math Day

March 1, join more than 2 million students across the world who will celebrate World Math Day in a quest to set a new world record for answering math questions! If you're interested in participating (for free!), make sure to sign up before Feb. 28.

Questions come in five categories: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and simple equations. The website attempts to match players of similar ability levels. Results are shown immediately after each round.

Individuals and school classes can register. At our school, each class is assigned a 30 minute slot for a computer lab. That way each of the kids gets the chance to play a few rounds. They love racing kids around the world and I love that they're getting excited about math!

14 Days of Love: Day 11

Remember how I like to have students recite the monthly poem aloud during transitions? Another thing I like to do is sing skip counting songs. Just like reciting the poems, the students know they should be to the carpet or in line before the song is over. It's also a good way to pass the time while lined up waiting to go to lunch or out to recess.

The skip counting songs I use:

2s to the tune of Yankee Doodle to 30 (and sometimes 50)
3s to the tune of Are You Sleeping? to 30
4s to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat to 40

Math Monday--Questions

Instead of math journals, in my class I have the students write me "postcards." I tell them that when you're someplace special you send other people postcards to tell them how great it is. Since I can't visit inside their heads, they have to send me a postcard to tell me what's going on.

I write the prompt on the board and answer brief questions about it. Then I hand them all an index card and insist they write for a few minutes. The trick is keeping them all writing for the whole time!

After the timer beeps, they can "mail" me the postcard in a little mailbox I got in the Target Dollar Spot around Valentine's Day last year. Of course every single one of them has to put the flag up!

The best source of math questions that I've found is from the book Good Questions for Math Teaching. The title pretty much says it all. :)


I don't know that it's worth the original $24.95, but Amazon has it for about $13 and I definitely get $13 worth out of it! I like that the questions are open-ended. I like that they challenge my high kids, but are accessible for my strugglers. But most of all, I like that I don't have to think of my own prompts!

For example:

On a graph about pets owned by children in our class, I counted more dogs than cats. What might the graph look like?

Last week I had the kids answer ___ + ___ + ___ = 13 and asked them to find as many numbers as they could that fit the number sentence.


It was a good assessment for me to see which students recognized the different ways to decompose 13, which students could use patterns to build their answers, and which students still had no clue what was going on.

We're linked up at Math Monday.

Monday Math--It's Autumn Time

It's starting to feel more like winter than fall outside, but I'm not ready to give up on my favorite season just yet! Let's stretch out these glorious golden days a little longer. Are you with me?

kbteachers offers some free season themed math worksheets. The nice thing about these is that you can choose color or bw.


Three worksheets are available at printables4kids.com. All of these worksheets include an extension activity for even more practice! For example, after identifying even and odd acorns, students can cut out the shapes and order them from least to greatest.
For hands-on activities, try Mathwire's list of pumpkin math ideas.


Makinglearningfun.com has a whole list of fall themed fun, including these M&M math trees.

Mathcats makes great use of autumn leaves and one of my favorite math tools, the number balance.


Now I guess it's almost time to start thinking about winter math ideas.

We're linked up at Math Monday. 

Monday Math + GIVEAWAY!!

Growing up, the focal point of our Thanksgiving decorations was mom's cornucopia. I was fascinated by all the different fabric foods and how they were arranged--especially the mushrooms. I hate mushrooms now, so I'm not sure about the attraction, but I loved to sneak and play with them. :)

Those fabulous 70's prints are as much a part of my Thanksgiving memories as turkey and pumpkin pie!

When I was trying to come up with a design for a Thanksgiving card game, the brightly patterned mushrooms and all their stuffed friends kept coming back to me. Which is how I ended up with this:
It's part of an addition came called Harvest Bounty. Players practice adding numbers--with a Thanksgiving twist!

 

This game is geared toward 6 to 9-year-olds, but by using fewer cards, younger learners could easily play.

Now onto the good stuff...

If you would like to win the Harvest Bounty game PLUS TWO MORE games of your choice, bee bop on over to our Etsy shop and peek around. To be entered in the contest, please leave a comment on this post telling us which two games you would like to own. Contest closes Thursday, November 11 at 10:00 PM MST. We'll announce the winner on Friday.

For 5 extra entries into the contest, do any or all of the following and leave a comment for each:
- subscribe to our blog
- follow us on google friend connect (bottom left of page)
- post about our contest on your blog
- "like" us on facebook
- mention us on facebook
- follow us on twitter and tweet about the giveaway  (include link so we can follow you!)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry!

If you just can't wait until Friday to own your own Harvest Bounty game, starting today it's available for purchase in our Etsy shop.

All games are sent via email. After downloading and printing the file, it's quick and easy to prepare games for use. You may print as many sets as your family or class requires, but please don’t make copies to share with others. Laminating your games will help them last longer.

Math Monday--Visual Instruction Plans

One of my favorite classroom activities is to have the students play games. The children are having so much fun they don't realize they're working and a game provides an entertaining context for applying new learning.

But teaching with games is not always so fun for the teacher.

It seems to happen every time: I've gone through all the rules and all the little groups are busy playing. Then I notice the two in the corner who are seeing how high they can throw the dice and while I'm dealing with them, three other groups have suddenly forgotten what they're supposed to do. And by the time I get the first questions answered a new set of students is off task...

You know how it goes.

One of the best tips I've found is from Fred Jones' Tools for Teaching. Jones recommends using Visual Instruction Plans or VIP.

"Think of a VIP as a string of visual prompts that a student can refer to at will. The VIP guides performance just as you would if you were tutoring the student. The student refers to the VIP as needed and, when it is no longer needed, quits referring to it. The student becomes more independent, and you are freed from tutoring."

You can read more about Fred Jones and VIP in this article.

As I'm explaining the rules to any games, I distribute a VIP to each student. This helps eliminate a vast portion of the confusion and off-task behavior during game time.

Here are the VIP for two of my favorite games: Tens Go-Fish and Turn-Over-Tens. So much learning jammed into such a fun package! I've made specific math cards (with numbers 0-10 and Wilds), but a regular deck of card with the face cards removed works great. Uno cards work, too.

Click here to download tens games VIP.

If you expect children to write as part of a game, it's helpful to provide a specific record sheet. I used to give each child scratch paper, but something about the empty, white space is just too tempting. Instead of a paper full of equations, I received a stack of lovely sketches. So here are the record sheets for both games.

Click here to download tens games record sheets.

Happy playing!

We're linked up at Math Monday.