Have A Heart Valentine Math Station

Happy New Year!  Can you believe the holidays are over?  Well, almost- we always have Valentine's Day!  Here is a little math station to work on addition and subtraction facts.  I was perusing the dollar section of Target -don't tell Dollar Tree about this little indiscretion, I swear it was the first time!  I found some festive little ice trays, adorable hearts and plastic heart containers. 

You can hear it, can't you?  It's practically jumping off the screen saying, "Here I am!  Turn me into a math game!"  That's pretty much what I heard in Target.  First, I added numbers to the ice cube trays (2 for $2.50).

I took some of the small hearts and put them in the larger heart containers. 

The students will toss 2 small hearts into the ice cube trays.  The students will use the numbers to make a fact and then complete the fact family.  Students could also practice 3 addend addition!  Short and sweet- no pun intended! 

 



Money Sudoku

Hello Bloggers!  I'm sure you have all had a pretty hectic few weeks so I have a little Christmas gift for you...Money Sudoku!

I was at the NCTM conference in Atlantic City in October and saw the neatest money activity.  It was a sudoku game played with coins.  Besides the great logic, reasoning, and planning skills that emerge from this kind of puzzle activity, it is a great way to help young children identify coins.  Instead of buying the game, I thought I would make one myself. 

I created and laminated the board below.

Click here to download Money Sudoku board.

Once the board is laminated, I used my hot glue gun to glue on some plastic coins in various places.  Then my board looked like this.

I made 6 different boards with varying degrees of difficulty. 

 I wrote a number at the bottom of the board to correspond with the envelopes (the gold 5 X 7 size) that held the coins necessary for solving the sudoku puzzle.  Mine look like those pictured below, but I made some cute labels for you to put on your envelopes.   See download below.

Click here to download labels!

This is what a finished set looks like.  Your set will be better with the label.  To begin this activity I am enclosing the coins the students will need to complete the sudoku.  As they get better at this kind of brain teaser, you can make it more challenging by supplying more coins than necessary for solving. 

***IMPORTANT TIP- When gluing the coins on the laminated board, make sure you leave heads and tails showing to help students generalize the different sides of the coins!

It was a lot of fun making this game and I hope you enjoy it!  Have a wonderful, restful, well-deserved break!

 

Number Hoops

Ah, yes, I hope Dollar Tree doesn't get jealous.  I made quite a find at Target.  It all started in their dollar section.  I found these great hanging hampers. 

It doesn't look like much in the package, but this hamper comes in orange, pink and lime green.  When you take it out of the package it looks like this:

I used a magnet clip to attach it to the back door of my classroom.  I picked up some wiffle balls and wrote numbers on them.  You can get these almost anywhere, even my beloved Dollar Tree.  I grabbed these at Target. 

I will have my students stand a few feet away from the hampers and throw the balls in them.  Then they will record the numbers of the balls in the hamper on their recording sheet.  Later, when we work on 3 and 4 addend addition, they can add the numbers instead of ordering them.  I thought this would be a good station to begin the year with.  And there you have it; building skills while having a lot of fun! 

Enjoy!

Computation Stations

Hi All!  We have 7 more days of school and I have to say, I'm feeling a little crispy around the edges.  For those of you who do not know me, that means I'm burnt out.  I wanted to share something we do in our first grade.  Each Friday we have Computation Stations.  Computation Stations is a 1 hour rotation of math games and activities.  Some of the games/activities we do during this time have been posted on this blog.  I try to make sure the games/activities are hands-on, fun, and quick to do.  The children have 15 minutes to complete each station before moving on to the next.  One station is on the computers and SmartBoard.  The other stations are on the floor or at tables.  I set my timer and off they go!  I give them a five minute warning and then a one minute tidy time to ready the station for the next team.  Most of the stations focus on computation, but I also rotate in stations that focus on the current concept (time, money, geometric shapes, etc.).  The children love it and complete a ton of math in a short time.  They have so much fun and don't seem to realize how hard they are working.  Well, these sweet little friends asked if we could do "every single Computation Station we ever did!"  I have to say, it was a proud moment for me!  As a "special treat" they wanted to do HOURS of math!  I just love those learners!  Well, there are too many stations to set up in our classroom so we will need to move to the gymnasium for the day.  I can't wait for Computation Station Marathon!  It should be great fun and a fantastic way to close our math learning for first grade!  I hope the end of your year inspires you, too!