Fall Multiplication Practice Freebie Printable

Hello everyone! Fall is in full swing now and I can certainly tell with all of the teaching going on. Shew! I feel like somedays I'm in a whirlwind! 

This year, I noticed that my kids really need to perk up on their multiplication facts. We use the iPad app Speed Drill to practice, and they LOVE it! And....it's free! I also created a fall multiplication practice pack. This includes a few color by the code sheets. Once students find the product, they color by the code. It's just a fun way to practice multiplication facts without the constant drill, drill, drill. {although we still do those drills} 

You can download your blog FREEBIE "At the Pumpkin Patch" HERE. 

I let my students use colored pencils or markers, but making sure they allow me to still see the answer. This is a change in pace from the normal fact sheets. I hope you enjoy!

This is from my Fall Multiplication Pack. You'll find a few more color by the codes and multiplication word problem task cards, too, which I like to use for small group cooperative learning activities or in math centers. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Freebie #5 - Winter Adding, Subtracting, Multiplication Game Board

Welcome Back!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

 

This freebie will be useful in your math centers or cooperative groups. All you need is a set of dice.

 

Pairs of students will roll the dice and either: add, subtract or multiply the 2 numbers shown on the dice. {If using multiplication, students will probably advance quicker on the board, so they may want to keep a tally chart of how many times they reach the North Pole. The "winner" will be the one who reaches the North Pole 3 times, 5 times, etc..

 

To make this fun and exciting I like to use colored marshmallows as playing pieces- students will pick a color.

 

This a fun, time-filler that's educational and versatile.

 

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR WINTER GAMEBOARD FREEBIE!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you've been able to use these Freebies with your students! I'd love to hear how you have used / plan to use these in your classroom! Please comment below.

 

Have a relaxing break!

Hands On Learning: Weighted Numbers & I Spy Bottles

Hello again, Café Friends!!!

 

It's been a while since my last post. I feel like I've been MIA! Finishing up National Board Renewal has zapped my time! It'll be submitted in less than a month, then hopefully I can get back in my "normal" routine - whatever "normal" might be! :-)

 

All of this renewal business has really caused me to reflect on my teaching and help me to remember WHY I do what I do with my students. I've been working on a component about student engagement and wanted to share a few activities I used this past week in centers to help promote hands on learning and student engagement.

 

(1) Weighted Numbers

 

I love using weighted numbers to show how to balance addition equations. These can be found at most teaching resource stores and online for about $20. I would suggest getting a couple of sets so students can balance equations with larger numbers.

 

Each number has the number word on the back so the 6's and 9's don't get mixed up. Plus, this helps reinforce number word recognition.

 

The picture above shows 6+3 = 9. I also wrote on the board: 9 = 6+3. This is such a hard concept for a lot of my students. The balance scale is a concrete learning tool that helps them see the "balance" {equals}.

 I always tell them when they see the equals sign to think of a balance scale. Both sides of the scale {equation} must be equal in order for the equation to be true.

 

I put the scales and numbers in my math center for students to explore balancing equations, helping them to understand that 6+3 is the same as 3+6.

 

 

(2) I Spy Bottles

 

Another hands on activity my students LOVE are I Spy Bottles that I made. Each bottle contains various objects and ten sight words. I've used these in my literacy centers for word work. They're also perfect for time-fillers. My goal is to make enough for a class set.

 

These are great for your kinesthetic learners and students with attention difficulties. I typed a sheet with the I Spy items, laminated the sheets, and students use dry-erase crayons {or markers} to check what they've found. Coins are the hardest to find. It keeps them busy for a while! They love the challenge.

 

Click Here to view an older post about how to make your own I Spy Bottles.

 

 I'd love to hear about engaging activities you use with your students! Feel free to share in the comments below. :-)
 

Thanks for stopping by the Café!

St. Patrick's Day Fun & FREEBIES!

Happy Saturday, Café Friends!

 

There are about 60 school days left! OH. MY. GOODNESS! I don't know whether or not to be excited or freak out because there's still SO much work to be done between now and the end of May.

Spring break for us will be in a few weeks and time usually flies by after that.

 

 

St. Patrick's Day is almost here and I'd like to share some of the activities we've started working on in our math and literacy stations.

 

In our Word Work station, students love searching for words on the Itty Bitty I Spy. They use a magnifying glass to search for words, then write the word on the lines.

 

 

 

The Lucky Charms activity gave student extra practice recognizing and writing numbers within 120.

 

 

This upcoming week I will be using these activities in my math stations:

YOU CAN PICK UP THESE FREE RESOURCES HERE!

 

We've been working on place value so I thought this sheet would give students some extra practice. It can also be used as a quick check-up to see if students know the basics of understanding tens and ones.

 

This sheet allows students to represent tens and ones using "sticks" and "stones". This is the most effective method I've used so far to help students draw tens and ones. It's quick and it really helps when they start to add and subtract 2-digit numbers. They can easily see and count the tens and ones.

 

This activity will be used with my table groups. Students will pick a card and represent that number using manipulatives {rods & units}. Now that we have iPads, I'll also do this whole group and let them show me how to represent the number on their iPad whiteboard {Educreations app} using the "sticks" and "stones".

I like to have a station that includes puzzles and games. This station usually has pattern block activities, jigsaw puzzles, memory games, pentominoes, etc.

This week I'll use these tens and ones matching puzzles. I like to copy this on green cardstock to make it thematic for St. Patrick's Day.

 





This fun freebie will be used at my table groups. Board games are always needed to help encourage cooperation and social skills. We should do them everyday! This game uses dice to help reinforce addition and subtraction skills as students race to the gold.

 

YOU CAN PICK UP YOUR FREE RACE TO THE GOLD GAMEBOARD HERE





 

 

Thanks for stopping by the Crazy Critter Café to check out my St. Patrick's Day activities. I hope you'll find them helpful with your students!

 

Have a great week!

Addition Pizzas Craftivity Make Math Fun!

Hello Again Café Friends!!! {I think I've already started Winter hibernation.}

 

Welcome to 2015!

Christmas is over, the decorations are down, and I'm trying to trash as many leftover sweets as possible. {TRYING is the key word here} Ugh! Sugar is my weakness.

 

To help keep my mind off the white chocolate & peppermint covered pretzels and key lime fudge I wanted to share a fun and simple activity I created recently to help students better understand the concept of adding two numbers. We made Addition Pizzas!

 

 

Before starting this activity I cut out some rough triangles to form the pizza crust. Small strips of white paper were the cheese and red circles were pepperoni.

 

I had each student choose no more than 10 pieces each of the cheese and pepperoni. They "made" their pizzas by gluing their toppings on the crust however they wanted.

 

Once their pizza slice was "made" they were given a blank notecard. {A great Dollar Tree find--I use blank notecards all the time for students to jot down quick responses and sentences.}

 

On the board I wrote: I have ___ pepperoni and ___ cheese. Students copied this and filled in the blanks using information from their pizza slice. From that information, they were asked to use the blank notecard to write an addition equation for their pizza.

 

 

 

Students enjoyed this simple, fun craftivity to reinforce addition concepts we've been learning. They'd compare how many pieces of cheese and pepperoni with other pizza slices at their table, which led to a lot of purposeful math talk.  :-)

 

Throughout our lessons on addition, students completed math vocabulary journal pages related to addition concepts we were learning. These are on 1/2 pages, so it helps cut down on paper. I would copy and assemble the pages into a mini journal booklet. I chose math vocabulary words from this math pack that aligned with our learning.

 

 

 

 

 

This was also a great way for me to differentiate for students. To enrich, I would give students some additional word pages and allow them to use the dictionary to search for the meaning and compare that to their description.

To remediate, I would allow students to tell me what they knew about the vocabulary word as I modeled the vocabulary word with manipulatives.

These would be perfect to use in guided math groups as you meet with students to talk about these math concepts. It was also a great way for me to informally assess.

 

This is from my Math Vocabulary Journals Pack.

 Click here to learn more ways to use Mini Math Vocabulary Journals with your students.  

 

 

I hope you can use some of these math ideas with your students!

Happy New Year to all and best wishes for a productive year in 2015!!

 



Math Fact Fries and Freebies

Welcome back to the Crazy Critter Café! What a week it's been- just when we thought spring was coming we get another "snow" day {freezing rain, actually}. I'm so ready for some warmer weather!

 And... this cold, rainy weather makes me want to just come home, get on my fuzzy pj pants and socks and relax. So in order to avoid cooking dinner {I really do enjoy cooking} we swing by McD's and grab the boys some happy meals. I knew it was for a reason because I finally found a good use for those adorable, miniature happy meal French fry containers. They look like they should belong in a play food set or something.



But, instead of a play food set, I've created a math center / cooperative group idea: Fact Fries. There are several addition and subtraction facts I printed on yellow paper--the "fries". Click HERE for a copy of the math facts I use. I'd recommend printing these on cardstock for durability. {I'll choose a few facts to begin with for the center then rotate other facts for the next week.} For the True/False labels I just typed it, snipped it, and taped it to the container.

Students look at their fries and decide which container the fact will belong - True or False. I have manipulatives at the center so students can work out their facts and prove their answers as true or false. Once the fries are in the container, students will complete the Fact Fries recording sheet where they'll record their equations. You can also get a copy of this sheet by clicking HERE. A good idea would be to have a sheet for students to check their equations before recording them unless it's an assessment-type activity.

A few other ideas for this center would be to hot glue a few marbles in the bottom of each container. This would help keep them from tipping over so easily. I know that sounds silly, but I tried this with a little tin pencil holder--glued about 5 marbles in the bottom and it's sturdy! Who would've known? Or, glue the container on some sort of "tray" to keep it sturdy. {Otherwise this center will take for-ev-er as the fries keep dumping out and then students have to figure out which container it was in.....etc.....etc... Visualize that one.}

So get hoppin' through the McD's drive-thru and start collecting these cute little containers! I'm sure you'll put them to good use!