Walk the Plank!

Hey everyone!  It's Aimee from Primarily Speaking.

I'm popping in today to share one of my favorite partner math games with you! It's an oldie, but goodie. You know, one of those ideas that's passed on from teacher to teacher over the years (which is how I learned about it).  It's called Walk the Plank.  Cool name, right?  Not only does it have a great name, but it is easy to set up and the kids love, love, love it!  It is a great way to help students reinforce and practice their addition facts.  And, it gives them more practice with following rules and working with others.  Win, win!

For this partner game you will need some paint sticks. I sent my hubby to Lowe's one day and they gave him about 10 (for free...even though he didn't buy any paint).  Nice!  Number each stick as shown.

I recommend using the longer paint sticks.  My first set was made with the shorter ones and while they did the job, the numbers were really squished together.

You will also need some number cubes to match the numbers on your plank.  Mine are numbered 5 through 10.  I used blank wooden cubes and simply numbered them with a Sharpie. Easy peasy!  To play, the students will need two number cubes.

As you can see, the two players will also need some linking cubes. Each player places an individual cube next to each of the numbers on the plank.  They will need 11 linking cubes each. Note: you could use any small object as a game piece.

To play, Player 1 rolls the number cubes and adds their two numbers together.  So, let's say that Player 1 (yellow cubes) rolls a 6 and a 7.  They would add these numbers together and get a sum of 13.  Player 1 would then take the cube next to the number 13 on Player 2's side (purple cubes).  That's what the kids love. They get to take the other player's game pieces!

Play continues in this fashion until one player collects all of the other player's cubes.  It starts getting tricky near the end because the students only have a few numbers left on the plank and they can't control what they roll.  But, guess what, each time they roll they are practicing their math facts. They are learning without even realizing it.  It's the best!!

The numbers shown above work for my second graders, but maybe you'd like to differentiate.  Go for it!  You can label your plank and cubes with whatever numbers you want!  You could also use dice and number your plank from 2 to 12.

Have fun!

Math Activities in a Flash! {Freebie}

Hello Primary Powers Friends!

 It's Jeannine from Creative Lesson Cafe! 

I'm here today to share a little a life-saver of a math activity I always have ready to go to fill up those extra few minutes we might have or to mix things up a bit up when my kiddos get ants in their pants! 

I have a little FREEBIE to share with you to help you get something like this ready to go in your room too!

 All you will need are some colorful 0-10 cards.

What can you do with a card set of numbers 0-10?

 Probably more than you can possibly imagine for good, simple math fun! They can be used for addition, subtraction, comparing numbers, even/odd practice, double-digit addition and subtraction, multiplication, place value and more! The kiddos prefer this over a boring practice worksheet any day! I assign the task and the students write in spiral notebooks. There is a lot of value in having the students set up and record their own problems!

I printed and laminated a class set of the number cards above to use for a variety of math activities and partner games. They are the perfect size to store in little library pockets like these from Creative Teaching Press.

It was a little bit of work to cut them all out, so I rounded up some parent volunteers to help. Trust me, it is worth the time spent to have sets to use for years to come.

 Why not just use a deck of cards?

 I like these better than a deck of playing cards because we don't have as many face cards to take out. Besides, in math, sometimes you just need a ZERO! We teach our students that zero is something, not nothing. A zero card plays an important role.

When students manipulate numbers to set up their own problems, we often find mistakes to learn from and have some great number talks!

For the task shown above, the students were asked to turn over four cards and create a double-digit subtraction problem. It's one thing to solve a problem on a worksheet, but making up your own problem involves some different thinking skills. One student had shown 80-93. They decided to flip over some other cards to help them with their regrouping algorithm. You can see they needed to rethink their equation!

 Sound like fun? 

If you want to try these math activities too, you can download this FREEBIE set from my dropbox for your kiddos to use by clicking on the image below! 

I'm sure your class will love mixing up math practice with their own special cards! The file also includes a list of suggestions for some easy peasy activities to use in the classroom. If you want to know more, you can read an older blog post {here} to see more ideas for cards in action!

What are your favorite worksheet-free math activities?

Leave a comment below and tell us all about them! 

Have a fantastic finish to your February!

Winter Math Center FREEBIE!

Hi Friends! It's Jeannine from Creative Lesson Cafe!

I'm so happy to be joining the awesome bloggers here at Primary Powers once again! Every day, I am just amazed at the wonderful ideas they all share with us. This is THE PLACE for all things primary! 

 It has been a brutally cold and snowy start to 2015 here in Michigan. We are used to it though. There is pretty much no other choice but to embrace winter and try to make the most of it. In the classroom, that means teaching around lots of cold weather themes and I love that! I'm here to share a way for you to bring some snowy fun into your room too with mini-marshmallow snowballs!

We're in the middle of a penguin unit right now so I set out this snowball toss for one of our math stations.

 It's a fun activity for some great math fact practice!

Let me tell you, this is the easiest and QUIETEST activity ever!

 Here's how it works:

Students count out either ten or twenty marshmallows. Then, they put them in a small cup or hold them in their hand to toss. They gently throw them over the mat you see in the photo above. Some marshmallow snowballs will land on the mat and some will be off of the mat. The students count the number on/off and record the pairs and /or write equations on the recording sheet.

In this photo, 6 marshmallows were off the mat (one is on the other side of the mat), so for the subtraction sentence we subtracted 6 from the total. My kiddos like to play it as a game. The first person to fill the table without writing any duplicate facts other than the flip flop of the addends is the winner. 

There are recording sheets for firsties too, using just ten snowballs. For my friends who have to watch their ink, I created a black and white spill mat you can copy on bright paper!  

Before using any food items as math counters, I always let my class eat a few before starting if I can.

 Otherwise, we may find we are practicing combinations to 7 or 13!

 Of course, if you want to modify the activity for other sums, you can eat a few too and just white out the title on the recording sheet! :)

  To bring a little snowball fun into your classroom, you can download this math activity {here}. 

My class loves it and I hope that your kiddos will too!

  Try to stop by Creative Lesson Cafe some time to see more classroom fun for winter themes!

I hope to see you soon!

Make Way for MLK: A FREE Learning Packet and Book Recommendations

Hi all.  It's Amber from School Is a Happy Place.  While I'm still totally loving winter break, I'm also mapping out all the special learning opportunities January has to offer.  New Year's, the 100th Day of School, and Martin Luther King Jr. are a few of the important themes that will shape our time in the classroom.  

Today I'd like to share a few things we'll be using to learn about Martin Luther King Jr.  Some of the activities my young learners will be doing are in my packet, Make Way for MLK:  A Martin Luther King Jr. Freebie.

This packet includes two literacy centers and two math centers (both with recording sheets), as well as a writing craftivity. 

One of the math centers provides practice with addition facts.

The other one works with time to the hour.

One of the literacy centers allows students to practice sorting sentence by type (asking or telling).

The other literacy center works with rhyming words.

My favorite part of this packet is the writing craftivity, I have a Dream Just Like Martin Luther King.  With the pattern, you can have your students create a MLK peek over or you can have them make one that looks more like themselves.  Either way can work.

You can click on one of the pictures to check any of these activities out.

There are also some really fabulous books about Martin Luther King Jr.  My First Biography: Martin Luther King Jr. by Marion Dane Bauer is a great choice for early elementary students.  The story is very simple and the illustrations are appealing.

The other biography I recommend is National Geographic Kids:  Martin Luther King, Jr. by Kitson Jazynka.  Like the book above, this one offers basic biographical information about King.  However, this text goes into more detail and uses actual photographs.

After reading these biographies, we will take a little closer on the March on Washington and the I Have a Dream Speech.  We March by Shane Evans is a book I found last summer.  It follows a family as they join the 1963 March on Washington.  The illustrations are very engaging as they focus in on individuals that were at the historic event.

My final recommendation is I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. and illustrated by Kadir Nelson.   The content of this book is King's famous speech and the illustrations are outstanding.  My copy (from Amazon) also came with a CD of the speech.

There are certainly many more activities and books that you can use for your study of Martin Luther King Jr.  I hope some of these suggestions can be of use to you as you plan for MLK learning in your class.

Thanks for stopping by.