Using Doubles

Here are two activities to help students with the concept of using doubles to solve other math problems.  One is an activity that you can differentiate for your students depending on the dice you have the use.  For my struggling math students, I use six-sided dice.  For other students I use ten and twelve-sided dice.

I have also attached a game.  I use a ten sided die for this one and it has the numbers 0-9.

Box Cars and One-Eyed Jacks Workshop

Tomorrow our district is hosting the folks from Box Cars and One-Eyed Jacks.  I am so excited!  They will be providing two workshops on math games for K-2 students and 3-5 students.  They also have all their games aligned to the Common Core.  After I was lucky enough to attend a few of their workshops, I started creating videos to help my students with math games at home.  Box Cars and One-Eyed Jacks even started posting them on their website.  If you ever get a chance to see them or have them come to your district, you will be very lucky!

p.s.  They will be at NCTM in Chicago later this week.

Dominoes-Sum Snakes

I think dominoes are a "must have" in every primary classroom. I love this game from the Origo site.

Outside Math

This is the craziest time of the year! We are all trying to cram three months worth of work into one. Queen of the Jungle has come up with a great activity to get your children to burn off some energy while doing math!

Tic Tac Ten

I love this activity from Michelle Flaming.  It is a great way to have kids practice adding and subtracting by 10's. 

Super Cool Calculator Activity

I just learned a super cool calculator activity!  Maybe you already know about this, but I was so excited to learn it!  I am in the middle of reading Teaching Student Centered Mathematics by John Van de Walle.  In one of his chapters he talked about turning the calculator into a fact practice machine.

 Let's say you want your kids to practice their +5 facts.  They should punch in +5= into the calculator.  Then the child enters any number and says the sum of that number plus five before pressing = sign.  They can try out other numbers and the +5 = DOES NOT need to be repeated.  It will automatically add 5 to whichever number they push.   Try it out.  It is very cool.  Subtraction also works with this nifty trick.

Math Fact Cootie Catcher

This would be a fun way to have kids practice their facts-have them make cootie catchers.

Compliments of 5 and 10

I really love K-5 Math Teaching Resources! Here are poems to help kids with compliments of 5 and 10.

Toothpicks and Number Sense

I think this idea from the blog First Grade Parade is great for beginning of the year math tubs. It is simple, but yet you can differentiate the activity easily by using larger numbers.

Math Flashcards

Here is a great resource for all different types of Flashcards from the site Have Fun Teaching.

Great Ideas About Equal Signs and Flashcards

Check out Heidi Samuelson's blog Swamp Frog First Graders.  She has posted a YouTube video of ideas she has learned from Dr. Copley's Workshop.  You will find two excellent activities.  One demonstrates the importance of teaching students that the = sign means "the same as" instead of the sign that comes before the answer.  The other idea is how to make flashcards that can be used for addition and subtraction.

Online Games

The blog First Grade in the Desert recently posted a link to the Investigations online math game site.  There you will find games for counting/numbers, addition/subtraction, geometry, data, and patterns.

Place Value-Mini Tutorial on Using Base Ten Blocks

This site actually has a mini tutorial for showing children how to use base ten blocks to make numbers and add/subtract.

Common Core-1st Grade Number Activities

WOW!  This site is awesome!  It has examples of activities that correlate to each of the Common Core State Standards.