Fall is such a special time of year! I like to bring Fall Math Activities into the classroom. Here are Ten of my Favorites!
Category Archives: guided math
Super Fun Math Games & Activities
If you have been in my classroom or read my blog you know I love math games! Games are a wonderful way to keep students engaged while they are learning and practicing math concepts. Students who are engaged will understand and remember more or what they have learned!
Here are a few seven of my favorite math games & fun activities!
1. Multiplication War – This is a great twist on the classic card game “War”. For directions, see my post here.
2. Rounding Buzz – Students will love the cute bug theme! Practice rounding to the tens and hundreds. There are “Buzz” cards which add a fun element! The “Buzz” cards give directions to pass cards to a different player or put a few back in the stack. At the end of the game, the player with the most cards wins!
3. Multiples Card Game – Players will race to order multiples. Watch out for the smile cards … they slow you down! The cards can also be used for a sorting center!
4. Flash Card Favorites – Use your favorite games, such as Connect Four, or Candy Land, and put a set of Flash Cards or Task Cards with them to make a classic favorite a math game. Players solve a math problem before they get to take a turn.
5. Fraction Matching – This game is a great way for students to practice composing and decomposing fractions while having fun!
6. Multiplication Spinner Games – Students can spin and win while practicing their facts! There are spinners for each set of facts on their own, and a few with mixed facts.
7. Word Problem Scavenger Hunt – Give your students a record sheet and let them search the room for problems to solve! Is fun for partner or group work, but could also be used as an individual activity for early finishers.
For more great math games and activities look at my Pinterest Board!
Early Finishers
What in the world do you do with early finishers? This is a big question for teachers! I think it is important to teach your students to check their work when finished. Teaching students to improve their work when they think they are finished is a valuable lesson. But, after that, there are always going to be a handful of students who will finish their work sooner than the rest of the class. So, back to the question … What do you do? Sitting and waiting for the rest of the class to finish or doing busy work can be very boring and is not giving these students a chance to continue learning. Here are some of my favorite ideas for early finishers!
Set up a system for students so they can find out what to do without disrupting the class or asking you while you are helping other students. I love this display that can be set up at the front of the room. The signs can be switched out depending on what you want the students to do each day.
Make sure your students know your expectations so they are not off task or disruptive. This poster is a great example and it is free! You could also make an anchor chart.
Have a place to organize the materials and supplies the students need for the activities to minimize questions such as “where do I get paper for _____ …. ?”
Extension menus are great for independent work. I like this reading menu, but you could make a menu for any subject. For example, if you are working on place value you could have a menu with place value activities for students to choose from.
Bulletin boards such as Boggle or Noggle can be fun! You can change the numbers or letters out every week or two. You could even put some students in charge of updating the board and making the answer key!
Stem Bins are a great hands on activity. Lots of fun while building reasoning skills.
Partner games and centers are a way to let your students interact with others while practicing skills.
Computer games and websites can be great learning tools. Make sure you set procedures up for how to get online and which sites students will go. Here are some of my favorites!
For more great ideas check out my early finishers board on Pinterest!
Tips to Plan and Prep for Math Workshop or Guided Math
While there may be times that you want to use a traditional whole group model for instruction, there are other times you need to work with small groups in order to differentiate for your individual student’s needs. Math workshop (or guided math) is a very successful way to work in small group instruction time and maximize student learning. To make the best use of your time, planning and preparation are key. I have rounded up some of my favorite tips and resources here:
1.) Plan how to use your time! I like to start my Math class with a quick warm up and skill review and then move onto a mini-lesson when needed. Some new concepts can be taught to the whole group quickly and then reinforced in centers / stations. Some need longer time. This is where you have to decide what is best for your classroom, but a few helpful blogs have great ideas for scheduling:
2.) Find or create a simple lesson plan template and/or small group template:
3.) Set up a binder to keep schedules, plans, templates, and notes.
4.) Pick and post your rotation system.
5.) Group students by ability or interest. Grouping should be flexible and change often based on student’s individual needs. For example, sometimes you may need to group students who need re-teaching on a specific skill and other days you may need to group students based on interests when planning projects. Another idea is to sometimes work with students you know will need extra help and pre-teach them a skill you will be teaching the whole class later in the week. This can save you time re-teaching later and will help boost their confidence and success when the class learns the skill.
6.) Teach your students the expectations for groups.
7.) Set up an organizational system and teach your students how the system works.
9.) Reflect and Plan for Next Time: When you get to the end of the schedule, take some time to reflect before setting up the next rotation. What worked? What was confusing? etc… This is also a time to look at your student groups and decide if you need to change anyone to a new group.
For more ideas, check out my Pinterest Board “Guided Math”.
Top Tips for Simplifying Fractions
How do you help your students really understand the “why” behind the “how” when it comes to simplifying fractions? Here are a few strategies I find helpful:
How to Solve Multi-Step Word Problems
After many years of teaching I have put together a “tool box” of tips and tricks to help students really understand and solve word problems, even the all complicated multi-step problems. Today I would like to share some of those tips! Whether you are a teacher, home school parent, or a parent helping your child with homework, these tips should help! Continue reading
Decomposing Fractions in Upper Elementary
There have been a lot of changes in Math objectives and instruction over the past few years. One change that I wasn’t so sure about at first was “decomposing fractions“. At the time I was teaching third grade and there were already so many fraction concepts to teach. But, let me tell you, after working with my students on decomposing fractions, I see that they understand fractions a lot better than when we just labeled the fractions. Composing and decomposing the fractions helps them to really see how the parts and wholes relate. Now that I am tutoring 4th, 5th and 6th graders, I see how decomposing fractions really helps them to understand the “bigger” things that they do. Continue reading
Christmas Math Games
Looking for some Math Games to keep your students engaged during December?
This time of year is a great time to play educational games with your students! They are thinking about the Holidays and the upcoming break, so games with Holiday themes will be sure to engage them! Here are a few of my favorites:
① This division tic tack toe game is a great way for your students to practice division skills while also having fun! Students take turns solving division problems and then finding the answer on the tic tack toe board!
② Your students will love getting out of their seats and solving these equations! The holiday theme makes it more fun!
③ How about this matching game for expanded notation? This is a skill that students need to practice all year long, so this holiday matching game is a perfect review/practice!
④ Who doesn’t love a game of Go Fish? Use these fact family cards as a go fish game, matching game or as a sort!
Top 10 Rounding Activities!
My last post included many resources and ideas for rounding! Today I want to share 10 Activities for rounding!
1.) I love this video from Math Coach on You Tube because it uses number lines to help the students understand rounding. To turn it into an activity, have your students use dry erase boards to solve the problems with the video. Pause the video before the answers are shown to give your students time to work. Continue reading
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