Nonstandard Measurement

Nonstandard Measurement can be such a FUN math unit in the classroom. It is relatively easy for students to learn and master and it can be a nice break from the continuous addition, subtraction, and place value that we teach all year long.

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite lessons and activities!

 Car and ramp races! 

This is a simple lesson that gets students measuring and building ramps - a little STEM action for the win! My students work in pairs to build ramps using a clipboard and whatever else they can find and race three cars down the ramp. They label where each one ends with a post it. Then, students measure how far each car went with a nonstandard tool of their choice (cubes, paperclips, erasers, pompoms, etc.) Easy and fun for my students to measure and compare lengths.

*This picture was recreated on my kitchen floor with my son's cars because all my stuff is in storage, but I usually use small matchbox cars from the dollar store*

 Stringy shapes is another fun one. I created a bunch of these stringy shape patterns and my students use yarn to recreate the shape. Then, they straighten out the yarn and measure how long each shape is with centimeter cubes (or any other nonstandard tool). I created 10 different shapes so students like to predict which ones they think are longer and then test them out!

 Misconceptions while measuring are super important to clarify while my students are accurately learning how to measure so I alwayssssssssss like to kick off a lesson with some "fix it" cards. [I use these when teaching all of our math units] They pose a problem that another student has completed incorrectly and I like for my students to identify what is wrong and verbalize how they would fix it.

Crooked paths! 

Using a large piece of construction paper I create two different paths and label them A and B. One line will be straight and the other will be crooked. The end of the straight line will appear longer than the crooked line. Students will first estimate and explain which line they think is longer and why. Then, students will measure the lines with a nonstandard measurement tool and see if their estimations are correct. My students are always surprised when they find out that even though the straight line appears to be longer, the crooked one is!

I put all the above lessons with recording sheets (and lots more) in a little nonstandard measurement pack for you! You can click the image below to see more and download the preview to get an idea of the other printables and activities included:

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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:

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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!

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Free Pumpkin Number Match Center!

Apple cider donuts, picking pumpkins off the vine, hayrides... that is what Fall is all about, right?!

I am feeling oh, so in the season and thought I would make this free center for you younger students to practice their number sense!

Students simply count up the seeds (or better yet, identify the number in the 10s frame without counting!!) and match it with the numeral. 

I also included a recording sheet where students will write the number word after matching!

Simple and fun!

To download your free center, click below:

Enjoy!

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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 :)

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Mother's Day, Math Stations, and Mo Willems!

My, oh my! Life has been busy lately.

Us Joneses have moved to a new house and traveled to Seattle the past few weeks! It has been crazy and fun and I have plenty more to share on that, but right now I wanted to share what's been going on in my classroom!

This week back from break we have been getting our Mother's Day presents ready to go. I am all about EASY these days and this quick, and I thought this meaningful gift would be a great keepsake for our special moms:

We used the directed drawings from First Grade Blue Skies to make our moms and then we filled out my questionnaire on the back (FREE, here). These seriously crack me up every year and this year did not disappoint!

We also introduced some new, May math centers this week - Camping math is the theme!

Here we have "fill the fire." Students have to find the missing addend, fill it in, and record. By this time in the year, I want my students solving addition and subtraction problems within 100, so these missing addend problems allow my kids to work on those skills!

I also had some students practice graphing data with "Catch 'em & Graph 'em"
Students had to pick a card, graph the data, and answer questions

These centers are from my new Camping Math unit with 4 other themed centers.
You can also snag the discounted, year-long bundle HERE!

and Mo Willems...

this week we kicked off our Mo Willems author study. Like many other teachers around the world, I L-O-V-E me some Mo! We are starting by diving into some Pigeon books, then Elephant and Piggie, and lastly we will read the Knuffle Bunny trio.

For more Mo Willems activities, check my posts here.

As we are wrapping up another school year, I will have plenty more to share with our end-of-the-year fun, but for now, I am going to enjoy some time with this guy:

xoxo

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Spiraled Math Centers!

We have been spiraling our math learning big time in room 102. Since I was gone for so long on maternity leave I really wanted to be able to see what my students could do in math. So, while I still teach a focus lesson and most of our math activities are based on that specific standard (right now it's 3D shapes), I still have many of my math tubs spiral through older concepts.

That is where my themed math centers come in! These centers are scaffolded and spiraled throughout the year. Each month the 6 centers included go along with what we are teaching currently and what we have already taught throughout the year!

I realized I forgot to share that my March centers had been finished (ya know....a month or so ago...) so here are two of the centers:

 Follow the Rainbow: place value game!

Students each take turns rolling 2 dice to try and make the largest number. Whoever rolls the biggest number gets to move a space and whoever get to 10 first, wins!

 Double digit addition sort: I had my students use base 10 blocks to help them add.

and now for April... I pulled these out yesterday!

 Make it true: students have to pick the missing symbol to make the number sentence correct and record. There are also comparison number sentences that use <, >, =

Cracked eggs! My kids loved this one. They had to put together the pieces of the eggs to practice 2 digit numbers and expanded form.

As always, in ALL my monthly math centers there is a story problem booklet, seasonal graphing questions, and a read the room activity!

You can snag the above activities here:

March

April

or... get them all for the whole year at a discounted price!

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