Measurement, Time, Graphing, and Data

I don't know about you, but in my first grade classroom I feel like I teach addition, subtraction and place value ALL.YEAR.LONG. 

Well, that's because, I basically do, which makes sense because it is so very important for my students to master for real world application and because they need to know it to succeed in 2nd grade!

While that's all fine and dandy, but I do love a little break in our math block and when I teach measurement, time, and data, we get the fun break we need! I like to make these standards as fun as possible with lotssssss of hands-on learning!

I collected and organized lots of the activities I have done over the year for the following standards:

For each of these 4 categories there are 4-5 hands on lessons (some of each are shown above)!

I also included task cards, explanation tasks, sorts, and practice printable pages for each category. You can see some of those below:

If you think your students could use activities and lessons like these, you can download the preview and take a look by clicking the image below:

0

Free Thanksgiving Math Center: TURKEY RACES!

Ahhh.. the holidays are coming... 

The air is crisp, the leaves here in Massachusetts are all shades of orange, yellow, and red and most of them have made their way to the ground already!

With all the excitement, I know my first graders always needed high engagement. Anything that could keep my students learning and on-track was a win during these holiday months.

I'm not sure about your class, but my room always loved a good, competitive partner game. I thought I would share a free little math center that you could just print and use in your room:

TURKEY RACES!

This Thanksgiving math center is a fun, addition partner game!

Students will pair up and grab one board, one ten-frame tracker, & one turkey spinner.

Student A will spin the spinner and track that number on their tens-frame sheet. Student B will do the same. Every time a student fills a 10 frame, they may color in one block on their tower on the game board. 

The first student to reach 100 (the top of their tower) wins!

There are colored boards that can be laminated and re-used with a dry erase marker as well as black and white boards that can just be printed and used with crayons or pencils!

There are also 4 different spinners, so students can play many times with different numbers!

As students progress you can also take away the 10-frame trackers and have students add on scrap paper or in their heads!

If you think your students could use this, please click the image below and grab a copy!

Also, if you are looking for some great community building ideas for Thanksgiving, check out my {last post} about Stone Soup!

0

Summer Math Activities!

Two weeks away folks! 

10 more school days. Well, 9 and a half if you want to be specific... and I do... so 9.5 more days.

We are trying our hardest to remain engaged while still having fun in class these days. The sun is blazing and the last thing my kids want to do is sit in class for 8 hours a day. So in room 102, games are where it's at!

I introduced our last themed math centers for the year, Summer Math, and the biggest hit of this pack was our board game, "The Summer Before 2nd":

This is a simple, yet engaging game that allows students to review all sorts of math before they head out for the summer! Students roll a die and move that many spaces. In order to stay on that space they must choose the matching card and answer it correctly (the other students check). There are 6 different categories of cards: subtraction, addition, time, place value, number sense, and challenge!

In my summer math unit there are also the usual story problem booklet and quite a few print-and-go games with no prep needed. I figured the end of the year is all about easy my students love partner games:

These activities and more are in my Summer Math unit:

and this COMPLETES my math centers for the whole year - Yahoo!

You can snag all 10 units below for pretty dang good discount - you get 2 free with the bundle :)

0

January Math Centers - Snowman Math!

While I have spent most of the past week drinking and eating and loving the holiday season, I found some time to post my January math centers and wanted to share them with you all!

This month's theme is all about SNOW!

As always with my math centers, they are set up the same as the previous months, review a bit from before, and cover some new concepts. Some of the new activities include:

Snowy is Missing!

In this center, students have to figure out the number pattern (2s, 5s, or 10s) of each card and find the snowman that fits in the middle.

A new skill included in this unit is non-standard measurement.

Snowy Footprints is a fun center that the students love! It requires a little bit of prep, but it is definitely worth it. While the kids are out of the room, you tape the 8 different footprint paths on the floor of the classroom. Students receive their own snowman measurement tools and walk around to see how far each snowman walked. This center allows the students to practice non-standard measurement. It can also be used over and over again since the teacher determines how many footprints go behind each letter.

There are 4 more centers included in Snowman math that you can check out by clicking the image below:

If you'd like all my seasonal math centers for a discounted price - check out the bundle!

Both will be on sale through Saturday!

Oh, and I hope everyone had a VERY, merry Christmas!! Our little family sure did :)

1

Addition in First Grade!

I love teaching addition in the younger grades. After we have built a strong number sense, we start with simple addition using manipulatives. We use buttons, cubes, gameboard pieces, etc. Basically anything we can get our hands on. Developmentally, I believe this is exactly what my first graders need to learn addition. 

They need to see it. 

Feel it. 

Understand it.

I want all those things before we practice quick math facts and math strategies. Once they can show me an addition sentence and find the sum, we move onto different addition strategies. Last year, I  created a subtraction unit that we used and loved [see post here] Naturally, I wanted to make a similar addition one. The same set-up, but with addition facts (up to 20) and addition strategies.

Take a look below to see some of the activities that are included:

Add it up! This hands-on activity is where we start. We use different colored cubes or game pieces to build and add and find the sum. Most of the cards only use two colors (2 addends), but I made some with 3 to get us familiar with adding three numbers together at the same time.

Add and Color! This was one my students FAVORITE games in the subtraction unit, so it was an easy choice to make the same game, but for addition.

Some fun anchor charts:

and much more!

Click the image below to check out What's the Sum? in my store and see if it works for you an your students.

0

Math Centers for the Whole Year!

I have been busy, busy with my son, Theo these past 6 weeks, but I was able to finish up my Christmas math centers I had started before he was born!

Every month, I make 6 different themed centers based on what we are learning at the time. They are Common Core aligned and by the end of the year, each math standard will be addressed in these packs. I made these December centers with my previous ones in mind. Each month has different centers, but include similar games and activities - just with harder material. They are scaffolded, so that as the teacher you can spend less time teaching HOW to complete each activity and more time focusing on the content.

If you liked any of my previous math centers, these may be just perfect for you and your students!

Here are 2 of my Santa Math centers:

 10 more and 10 less practice! Students practice matching (and reading -BONUS!) the Santa with the numbers that are 10 less and 10 more. They then record the answers on their recording sheet.

Making 20. In October's math centers (Pumpkin Math), there is a similar activity which requires students to find the missing addend to make 10. This activity is the same except with 20! Students choose a present card, cover up that many presents, and figure out how many more they need to make 20. They then record the missing addend on the recording sheet.

These, along with 4 more centers are included in my newest unit, Santa math:

I also decided to bundle the all seasonal centers together to save some money. They aren't all complete YET, but each month (September through June) will be uploaded by the 25th of each previous month. The bundle will be 400+ pages by the end! Already included in the bundle are also the following:

Apple Math - September

Pumpkin Math - October

Turkey Math - November

Here are the upcoming months' themes:

Snowman Math - January
Heart Math - February
Leprechaun Math - March
Bunny Math - April
Camping Math - May
Summer Math - June

I have the bundle AND the already uploaded units on sale through tomorrow night for even more of a discount :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

1