Math Tools

Click the picture to download this FREEBIE!

As an educator, I'm always looking to develop best practices in my classroom to benefit my students. Our Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice (MP5) require students to use appropriate tools strategically.  "Mathematically proficient students consider the available tools when solving a mathematical problem. Proficient students are sufficiently familiar with tools appropriate for their grade or course to make sound decisions about when each of these tools might be helpful, recognizing both the insight to be gained and their limitations. They are able to use tools to explore and deepen their understanding of concepts."

Basically, students should be familiar with a variety of math tools and be able to choose one to effectively and efficiently solve a mathematical problem. 

*Interactive Journal pages to introduce math tools. 

*Ten frames are incredibly useful tools to help students develop 

their number sense within to context of ten.

With this in mind I decided to develop a printable set of my favorite first grade math tools. It made sense to share this as a FREEBIE to compliment my Growing Bundle of Math Supplements a plethora of interactive journal pages, math games, activities, and assessments to cover all first grade math concepts and skills. 

Check out all of my Math Supplements here!

*Hundred and 120 charts assist students in counting, skip counting, adding, subtracting, 

rounding, place value and they begin to notice patterns within our number system.

*Place Value charts help students understand the value of each digit within a multi-digit number.

*Part-Part-Whole Mats help students add, subtract, and find number combinations.

This FREEBIE includes interactive journal pages to introduce math tools as well as a multitude of basic tools to help students begin constructing cognitive models for math concepts and processes. Math tools engage students and increase both interest and enjoyment of mathematics. Students who are presented with the opportunity to use math tools are more interested in math and that interest translates to increased mathematical ability!

Printable manipulatives help engage students and 

encourages them to persevere in problem solving.

For many of the tools there are large mats for teacher modeling and math centers. There are also mini-tools perfect for individual student math tool bags! To manage materials, I print mini-sets of tools on a variety of colored copy paper so one student in a group has green, another has yellow, blue, and so on.  I also print and laminate these math tools for durability and repeated use.

You may also want to add connecting cubes, base ten blocks, counters or two colored chips, dry erase markers or additional manupulatives to use with these tools.

What math tools do you use in your classroom?!?

The Polar Express Book Companion

This past weekend I was 86ing old documents from my computer and I stumbled into a book companion I've flirted with for a few years but never seem to wrap in time for the holidays!  I decided to hop right on updating clipart and adding new (more relevant to my current teaching style) activities.

This 41 pager is PACKED full of reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing, crafts, and math activities!

In the Reading Comprehension section you will find large picture cards for a whole group retelling and a sequencing cut and paste to provide students with individual practice.  There is also a beginning, middle, and end graphic organizer for students to use to retell the story through pictures and summarizing.

Finally, there are 3 variations of the story map.  Each map asks for characters and setting but they differ in requesting problem & solution, plot & conclusion, or main idea & supporting details!

The Vocabulary section provides words that are used in the story and extension words such as "caribou" to extend your students vocabulary on beyond "reindeer".

There are puzzles and mini-vocabulary books for students to practice using the language of the Polar Express!

There are 2 very simple crafts available in this book companion.  The first craft is a gift that you can print on contrasting paper and allow students to decorate.  Add the narrative writing prompt to the front for a fun little holiday display!  The second craft is a ticket that students can cut out and use to "board" the Polar Express!  Each year I put the tickets on a string and have my students wear it while we read the book and watch the movie.  This makes for an awesome and extremely adorable keepsake!

To round out the pack and provide cross-curricular themed activities I added some math activities!  In it you will find common core addition, subtraction, and data based games for your students to participate in.

The addition and subtraction activities include a battleship game, part-part-whole game, ten frame game, and story problem game with work mat.  There are also printable numeral cards and printable manipulatives for students to use to build models for each problem!

The data activities include 3 questions where students will collect, represent, and interpret information on a graph, and tally chart.  There are also sets of questions for students to answer about their data sets!

Last but certainly not least, there is a FREEBIE in the product PREVIEW on TPT!  Just click PREVIEW and scroll to the end to snag this sequencing activity for FREE!

Establishing Routines and FREEBIES!

Its been a minute since I've worked with kindergarteners!  I forgot just how much work kindergarten teachers do to engrain rituals and routines into students minds and behaviors.  The reminder that they build so much of the foundation that we all work off of has made me appreciate kindergarten teachers even more!  Throw a kindergarten teacher a hug TODAY!

Two of my little people practicing "Buddy Reading".

Establishing rituals and routines can be tedious but it is an essential part of good classroom management.  It needs to happen in EVERY. SINGLE. THING. that you do with your students so that they understand expectations and consequences.  Lining up, coming to the rug, getting water, using scissors, sliding down the slide, partner work, independent work, blowing noses, and so on and on and on and on, over and over and over again!  Oh, it's painful, but the payoff for a few weeks of tedium is a year of peace!

I'm a big fan of the collaborative expectation setting approach.  For example, today we are going to use scissors but I think we should make a list of rules to follow while we use them so that we can all be safe.  Turn and talk to your partner to create 1 rule you think we should follow to be safe when we use scissors in our classroom.  Partners share their rules and I chart them.  When the chart is complete I ask what the consequence should be for someone who chooses not to follow the rule.  Usually a warning and clip move is the decided upon consequence.  The result is a memorable discussion and chart to display and refer to through the year.  

After our discussion and expectation setting I give them an activity to practice their new ritual/routine.  For the next few weeks, every time we use our scissors, we review the chart before we begin the activity.  After that it's typically smooth sailing because the expected behavior has been engrained in their minds and they understand the consequences.

To make establishing these rituals and routines a little easier I'm sharing my anchor charts and activities for cutting and gluing with you for free!

 Click here to get Scissor Practice for FREE!

Click here to get Glue Practice for FREE!

What Does the Fox Say...on Valentines Day?!

I know what you're thinking, this is a smidge late.  You're right :).  The past year was a little challenging professionally and ended up bringing lots of changes with it but I wanted to take some time this summer to share a few of our special moments!

Did your students freak out over the song What Does the Fox Say?  Mine did, they sang it EVERYDAY.  On the bus going to field trips, during literacy centers, during independent work in math, while they were writing, swinging, walking, picking their nose...you get the point.  Around the holidays I finally gave in and pulled up the "Just Dance" video and let them get all kinds of weird.

I have to admit, watching kids sing and dance along makes the song EXPONENTIALLY less annoying.  One chilly, well chilly for Florida, January afternoon a 5th grade class saw us dancing (I participated too, don't judge) and challenged us to a dance off.

5th graders versus 1st graders on a Valentines Day dance off to What Does the Fox Say.  

After one full month of trash talking 1st grade brought the HEAT!  I cut red feather boa's to make fox tails for them and used Halloween makeup to draw a fox nose and whiskers on their sweet little faces.  Several of them wore their fox shirts and one little guy even wore his tuxedo!  #fareal

After an intense "dance off" an impartial panel of judges declared 1st grade winners!  

We had a blast and ended up adopting this class as our FCAT buddies.  To help ease the pain of their embarrassing loss to the littles we brought them these valentines.  Snag them HERE to use next year if you'd like!

Math Supplements

Hey there!  It's been a minute...err well, actually it's been about 3 months.  Yikes, sorry about that!  I've been drowning (literally and figuratively) in work.  Tough start this year.  Let's get down to business though!

This year I'm focusing VERY heavily on my math instruction.  It's amazing how much there still is to learn about the developmental level of students on a grade level you've been working on for 5+ years.  Every year I find a new way to challenge myself.  I can see how people can enjoy teaching the same grade level for their whole career.

The curriculum guide in our district for math this year is solid and cleverly laid out (for once :).  The only real problem with it is a lack of assessment pieces.  Because we jump around our curriculum materials (we use Math Investigations AND enVision Math) so much it isn't feasible to utilize the assessments in those resources.

We have been given more time to focus on math and implement math centers but again, our curriculum resources do not offer a variety of engaging activities to use during this time.

Our district has also moved into serious implementation of interactive journals, which I thought I'd hate.  As I have begun to understand their purpose and see my students engagement I'm really enjoying our work in creating them.

Click here to check out the Commutative Property Supplemental Pack!

I'm sure you can see the problems piling up.  I noticed these deficits a few weeks into the school year and started creating materials to fill the void for my grade level.  It's always hard to implement something new so I started out with the interactive journal pages.  I created one for the teacher-side (right) that served as a guided instructional piece.  Then the student-side (left) serves as a way for students to practice the skill either individual or with the assistance of their table mates.

I added a few games and activities that can be used in math centers to practice the concept/skill and I topped it off with an assessment and occasionally a craft.

Get this Flip Flop Fact free in the Preview!

 These packs have turned out to be exceptionally helpful so I thought they could benefit others!  I've got 4 supplemental units complete and packaged and plan on creating them for each Common Core standard/skill/concept we work on in first grade.

Click here to check out the Fact Families Supplemental Pack!

Download Domino Fact Family for free under the Preview!

Click here to check out the Missing Addend Supplemental Pack!

Download Missing Number Match up for Free in the Preview!

Click here to check out the Doubles and Near Doubles Supplemental Pack!

Download Near Doubles Game for free in the Preview!

Let me know what you think and definitely share anything you'd like to see added!

Number Lines

We've been getting to know all the cool tools we will use in math this year!  Last week we really focused on number lines and began exploring the strategy of "counting back."

I love using the songs from Have Fun Teaching to help engrain skills in my students minds.

We've been shaking our tail-feathers to this Counting Down From Twenty video for DAYS!  They're still asking for more, I love it!

We kicked off our lessons using these Write & Wipe Number Lines from Lakeshore.  They were part of my most recent Donors Choose project so I was excited to break them in!

If you use Math Investigations you may be familiar with the game Start With/Get To.  These number lines helped students count forward and backwards and create equations during the game.


Later in the week we started working with adding 0, 1, & 2.  To keep it consistent I had students use the number line to practice this.

Last Fall I created Hop Along the Number Line and thought it would tie in well.  Click on the caption to download this game for free!

Grab this game for free here!

To wrap up our number line practice I decided to take it outside!

Students worked in groups with number cards (1-9) and dice.  We played 2 versions:

1) Students drew 1 card and stood on that number.  They drew a second card and hopped to that number.  Finally, they had to state an equation to represent their movement.


2)  Students drew 1 card and stood on that number.  They rolled the die and hopped to that number.  Finally, they had to state an equation to represent their movement.

Students are now using the anchor chart we created last week as they continue to practice using number lines this week with subtraction story problems.

We are getting familiar with the rituals and routines for math center time this week so I added a few number line games to one of the center buckets!  I'm looking forward to differentiating this time more as students become independent and I finish collecting data for tiering!

How are you using number lines with your students?!?

Sight Word Baseball

Do you ever get a little carried away transforming your classroom into a camp ground, cave, beach, or train for special thematic day?

I like to turn mine into a baseball diamond once a week and play ball!  Sight Word Baseball to be specific!  I have always used index cards to play but decided I needed to "jazz" it up this summer.

We play a few different versions of baseball to keep it fresh and separating these words into 5 games will definitely help me differentiate a little more.  I use this game as a whole group and small group activity. You will find several resources in this pack that will help you facilitate both whole group and small group versions.  There are instructions for each, a color-coded poster for students to reference, a baseball diamond game-board, and a score sheet as well as 500 color-coded words printed on baseballs.

For the first quarter we will play ball with the 1st 100 Fry words as a whole class during Skills Block.  Usually I keep the class together and I rotate through all students once or twice.  Sometimes I mix it up and we play on teams or I change up how students move around the bases.  Obviously this is a walking game (unless you like to get a little crazy and let 6 year olds run laps around your classroom, I'm not judging...yes I am).  My top 3 favorite movement variations (in order of most to least) are: 1) dancing, also known as shaking your tail-feather  2) any animal inspired movement, particularly slithering like a snake or doing the worm and 3) dancing, did I mention dancing.  Seriously, what's better than kids dancing?  I wish I had that much fun doing...well, anything :)

Freebie available in Preview

During the second quarter I will transition to the 2nd 100 Fry words as a whole group game and put the 1st 100 words into literacy centers for students to continue practicing words with their partners.  There is a score sheet for students to keep track of the score (for those competitive kids).  When I play as a whole group I don't worry with the score.

I plan on using the 4th and 5th hundred as a small group enrichment activity for my students performing above grade-level.  As the year goes on you'll be able to use the words you've already played as a whole class in remediation activities with students who may not have memorized the words yet.

Earlier I mentioned that I like to keep students in a whole group and rotate through them once or twice during a Skills Block lesson.  The words are color coded to indicate the number of bases the student can move to if they read the word correctly.  Green words are worth 1 base.  Blue words are worth 2 bases.  Yellow words are worth 3 bases.  Red words are a home run!  So if a student reads a blue word correctly they move to 2nd base.  If the next person reads a green word correctly they move to first base and the previous player moves to 3rd base.  If the 3rd player reads a red word correctly they get a home run and everyone scores!

What happens when they read a word incorrectly?  I always "pitch" them 2 more words (3 strikes, you know).  Most of the time a student can get on base with 3 chances.  Occasionally it doesn't happen and you're left with a choice:  walk them or strike them out?  Totally your decision, some kids can deal with a strike out and some can't.  This is supposed to be fun and you don't want them to disengage so keep that in mind as you decide how you will play with your class!

Here's one of the best parts of Sight Word Baseball....the bases!  I found this sweet treasure at the Dollar Tree!  After 4 years of use my old bases were pretty worn so I picked up a brand new set.  I can't wait to tape them down!

Students playing in a small group will need the baseball diamond game-board, plastic bears or place markers, a set of 100 baseballs.  The score sheet and poster for referencing are optional.  Each student will take a turn flipping over 1 baseball and reading it.  If they read it correctly they move the number of spaces indicated by the color of the word and keep the baseball.  If they read it incorrectly they place it in a discard pile.  The next student then takes their turn.  It is up to the students playing the game to keep each other accountable.  I encourage this by telling them that if they catch their partner reading a word wrong they should help correct them and make sure they discard because the objective is to have the most baseballs by the end of the game.  Keeping their partner accountable could help them win the game.

Sight Word Baseball is available in my TPT store and this Score Sheet (pictured above) is a little freebie that you can get in the preview!

Pick up your copy today and play ball all year long!

Earth Day

Whoa.

Two updates in two days?

Try to contain yourselves. :)

I had a lot of kids out today so we took a little extra time with our Earth Day activities.  I wasn't planning on doing much but when I realized I didn't want to start a new writing and math sequence with so many people out I figured "why not?!"

We kicked it off with this www.brainpopjr.com video:

Who loves brainpop as much as I do?  The Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle video is free this week (and may be free all the time, I'm not sure).  I have a membership, it's THE BEST $8 I spend every month.  No lie.  Go ahead and subscribe right now if you haven't already.

After the video we talked about things we could do to help take care of the Earth and read Recycle by Gail Gibbons.  I would go on about how much I love Gail Gibbons and how you need to buy all of her books but I try to limit my obscene enthusiasm to one per post.  I'll throw that one at you next time.

Finally, I threw together this little writing activity asking students to make an Earth Day promise.  Some of my favorites were "I will not litter and not make smoke."  One little guy wrote "I will ride my 4-wheeler instead of drive my Mom's car to save gas."  Um, not sure if I'm more worried about him totally not getting the whole "save gas" thing or him driving his Mom's car but I definitely like the effort!

You can download it here for free.  I know it's a little late for this year unless you're planning on doing more later this week but at least scoop it up for next year! I mean, it is free!

Check out a few of our our promises!