Math Fluency: 5 Vital Tips for Building It

May 23, 2016 By Proud to be Primary 1 Comment

5 tips to building math fluency to help teachers set up math routines, lessons, and activities to develop student confidence, engagement, and math skills.

5 Vital Tips for Building Math Fluency

Why Build Math Fluency?

Math fluency is the desired outcome of continuous learning and practice in math. It is more than memorizing math facts and recalling answers to questions. It is feeling confident and able to take part in math lessons and activities. It’s the ability to complete assignments and activities accurately, without hesitation. It is engaging in math in fluid and effortless ways.

Provide the concepts necessary to develop a deeper and more thorough understanding of math. Math fluency develops gradually and at different rates for different children. A math concept may take years before reaching fluency, through many repeated experiences with it.

Ultimately, we want children to be able to understand and explain their thinking. We want them to be flexible and use appropriate strategies. We want them to be able to solve problems accurately and find the right answers.

Below are my five tips to building math fluency with primary students. Having taught first and second grade combined classrooms for years, I have experience implementing thoughtful and systematic ways of developing these skills in our daily math block, while meeting the needs of all learners.

Tip 1: Build Math Fluency with Frequent Lessons & Practice

Frequency is important to building math fluency. Math lessons and activities should occur daily during a systematic math block. When children are taught math and are given opportunities to practice skills daily, their math understanding develops.

Having daily whole group lessons, small group lessons, and independent activities, will help build confidence with new skills. When math lessons occur are part of daily learning, they become comfortable and familiar with strategies and can use them more easily.

Teaching a math skill once is not enough. Children may appear to understand a concept after it is taught and they may be able to complete an activity to demonstrate knowledge. Yet when they are asked to repeat an activity later or show understanding in a new way, they may have difficulty.

Plenty of time needs to be spent teaching and reviewing different concepts to learn them well. When the same skills are taught and reviewed repeatedly throughout the year and following years, those skills become automatic.

Ideas for Daily Math Fluency Practice

There are many opportunities for incorporating math into each day.

When students enter the classroom, have a question of the day for them to answer and use the answers as a class to create a graph.
Provide engaging math morning work for students to work on at their desks while the rest of the class gets settled.
During transitions, have the class count (by 2’s, 5’s, 10’s, forwards, backwards) together to practice lining up or moving from one activity to another.
Have math activities and centers ready for “fast finishers” to complete throughout the day.
At the beginning of a math lesson, have a math problem ready with whiteboards and markers for students to attempt while you get organized.
Have shelves and tubs filled with math manipulatives for students to explore when extra time is afforded.
Build math fluency daily with Math Mats. They each provide important spiral math review for first grade. They can be completed independently, in centers, in small groups, or as a class.
Complete number of the day activities and deconstruct numbers to help build number fluency.

Tip 2: Build Math Fluency by Providing Variety

Variety is also important to building math fluency. It is beneficial early on to provide many opportunities to experience math in different ways. This happens through a variety of activities, assignments, and lessons, as well as ways of teaching.

Imagine learning how to do something new, such as tying your shoes or riding a bike. If you are taught in only one way, you may become stuck. Either you may miss developing a deep understanding of the concept, that method did not work for you, or not enough practice was provided or encouraged.

As teachers, we need to get creative. We need to teach lessons in different ways. We need to connect math to the real world and real world problems. While doing this, we need to meet student needs individually and classroom needs as a whole. We need to provide appropriate support and sufficient practice along the way. Differentiation and providing each learner with a task at their level is important.

Ideas for Providing Variety

Provide a variety of activities that are hands-on and can be demonstrated in different ways.

Involve children actively.
Use manipulatives (i.e. cubes, blocks) as math tools. They can be used to demonstrate concepts, used for practice, for free exploration, and much more.
Use different ways to teach a lesson, such as warm-ups, with literature, word problems, oral, drawing, and physical demonstrations, chants and songs, etc.
Introduce many types of activities, such as games, interactive notebooks, centers, journals, math apps, etc.
The Mindful Math curriculum includes a huge variety in every lesson and unit.
Equally important is incorporating a variety of ways to practice and review skills, such as review tasks, practice worksheets, math fact drills, flashcards, assessments, centers, etc.

Tip 3: Build Math Fluency by Making Math Fun & Engaging

Making math fun is important to building math fluency. If children enjoy what they are doing in a daily math block, they will be more engaged in lessons. They will be eager to listen, try new things, and complete assignments. They will learn more if they are having fun.

Whether you have a specific math program you must follow or if you can design your own block, you have the opportunity to make things interesting for children. Put yourself in their shoes: would you want to complete worksheets and tests by yourself every day? Would you enjoy math? Would you retain anything? Ask yourself what you can do to build math fluency and make math fun and engaging for all students.

Ideas for Making Math Fun & Engaging

Teach them different games and center activities to review and practice different skills taught in class.
Have activities set up in the classroom that children enjoy and feel successful at.
Include games with dice and cards that children can play on their own or with a friend.
Have math centers prepared and ready for students to grab and try.

There are tons of fun math activities and ideas available to teachers today.

Teachers Pay Teachers is an invaluable resource filled with different math curriculums, activities, lessons, projects, and so much more.
Pinterest is another amazing place to find excellent math ideas.
Simply search for the concept you are teaching, and you will find tons of activities that children will love.
Check out my board of math activities and games.

Tip 4: Build Math Fluency with Mental Math

Another way to build math fluency is through teaching “mental math”. Mental math is the ability to think of and solve a problem quickly and independently. Mental math takes a lot of practice. In a sense, being able to complete math problems mentally demonstrates math fluency. Children must understand a concept well to be able to solve it mentally. Incorporating mental math into your day helps build fluency and children solve math problems automatically and with ease.

Ideas for Building Mental Math Skills

There are many ways that you can encourage students to use and build mental math strategies.

Ask questions orally without any visual representation of the problem available. Encourage students to visualize the problem “in their heads”. Ask for students to put up their hands when they “have” the answer. This allows other students to have a chance to complete the question as well. After enough time, ask students to give their answers and explain their thinking. Children can learn a lot from others and the strategies they use.
Mental Math flash cards can be used at the start of every lesson.
Have daily math drills. Giving students daily or weekly math drills provide review and build speed. As this practice is repeated, fluency with math facts and mental math strategies develop. Also, knowing basic math facts will help build fluency later with higher level skills.

Tip 5: Build Math Fluency by Applying Problem Solving Strategies

Children need to understand how to solve a math problem. As teachers, we need to teach the steps and strategies one at a time. After learning a new strategy, children need to practice each strategy in order to gain fluency with it.

Solve problems in more than one way, and teach more than one different strategy. For example, solve addition and subtraction problems in different ways. Teach children to count using their fingers, to draw number representations, to use manipulatives (i.e. counters, counting objects, number line) correctly to find answers, and eventually, mental math.

Incorporating and teaching different strategies will help children build procedural fluency. This is important for completing future problems and assignments.

Ideas for Teaching Problem Solving Strategies

Teach problem solving strategies, like other math concepts, in a variety of ways.

Use posters and diagrams to illustrate something new.
Draw and write examples on anchor charts and post them in visible locations and refer to them when needed.
Use different math tools and manipulatives.
Create mindful, hands-on, and active lessons that get children using their bodies, hands, and minds in useful ways.
Children above participated actively in the human number line game to illustrate the strategy of counting, adding, and subtracting using a number line.
Have students show their understanding in different ways, through actions, illustrations, explanations, representations, and more beyond worksheets and tests.

FREE Math Resources

$math mats freebie sample cover$

Build Math Skills & Fluency with the Mindful MATH Curriculum

Have a Blast with These Popular 100 Days of School Activities

The 100th day of school is a BIG deal in any primary classroom. It means that we have reached 100 days of school and have learned a TON! It is a major accomplishment and a great one to celebrate with children. They LOVE it! It is also a great day to reinforce, practice, and build student number sense to 100.

Dressing Up for the 100 Days of School Activities

To create an amusing and lively atmosphere, I recommend dressing up. Send a note home to parents explaining 100’s day and that you would love it if they would dress up. Give them suggestions, such as glasses, sweaters and long dresses for girls, and button-up shirts and suspenders for boys. My trick is to add some baby powder to your hair to make it look grey. Tell the kids to practice an old person’s voice and posture.

Here I am (right) with my student teacher, Ms. Wu. I had a blast “acting” really old and my students loved the character I took on. There was lots of laughs.

These handsome fellas had the perfect outfits with mustaches, vests, hats, and a cane!

Another fun way to dress up is to create and wear 100’s day shirts to school. Ask students to bring in a shirt with 100 things on it and ask for parents to help prepare this at home. My students have brought in shirts with 100 buttons, pins, pom poms, stickers, and more creative ideas.

100 Days of School Activities

A well run 100’s day celebration requires some time to prepare materials in advance. There are many free activities online and ideas you can use in the classroom that don’t cost anything. I purchased some food items for our activities, but you could ask for donations from parents.

I get the materials for our 100 days of school activities ready to go on a table. Being organized is the key to a successful day when there is so many new things happening.

100th Day Hats

On each student’s desk are the materials to make the 100 Days Smarter hat from Kinder Craze.

Students come in, sit down, and work on colouring 100 dots on their 100. We attached the pieces and create a hat to wear. These adorable hats make the perfect accessory for the 100th day.

100th Day Snacks

We take turns coming to the table to count out 100 pieces of food for our 100th day snack. We count out each type in groups of 10 using 100th day mats. You could use any snacks you want. I choose a mix of healthy snacks and treats for our special day. We have pretzels, grapes, m&m’s, marshmallows, jelly beans, fish crackers, bunny crackers, chocolate chips, graham crackers, and Cheerios.

I created these mats and laminated them for durability to reuse each year. To create the mats, cut 11″x 17″ pieces of cardstock. Glue on 10 circles any colour and size you would like. Add a label to the center and laminate. Students can place each group of 10 snacks on each circle. Once they have counted 10 groups of 10 snacks, they have 100 snacks to eat! Yummy!

100th Day Collections

My favourite activity for the 100th day of school is sharing collections of 100 things. I send home a letter to parents asking them to encourage and help their children gather a collection of 100 things. I ask that the collection be brought in a box or in a bag with tally marks showing that there is 100 items inside. This makes a great collaborative project for families to complete together at home.

I mention that they must be things that can be glued onto cardboard for a display. It is also important to share some collections that work better than others. Collections of things that are lighter and smaller glue and stay down more easily than heavier and bigger items.

I’ve done this every year and there have always been such creative collections brought in. Some of my simple favourites are stickers, pasta noodles, paper clips, and toothpicks. Some of the amazing collections I have seen include pennies, paper cranes, and pop-up hearts. We each create a 100 day poster by gluing down our collections and writing what we have brought in.

100th Day Cereal Necklaces

Another fun activity is creating Fruitloop necklaces. You will need a box of Fruitloops cereal, sting, and paper plates. I suggest taping one end of the sting to a desk so the cereal doesn’t fall off the string. Place enough Fruitloops on a plate for each student. They can count groups of 10 cereal and put a paper marker on the string to help them keep count. Once the necklace is complete, we tie the ends together and they can wear/eat it.

100 Days of School Stations

Later in the day, we do fun hands-on, STEM, and other independent 100 days of school activities. We get into small groups (up to 4) and move around the room to stations that are set-up ahead of time. They have a challenge (mental or physical) to complete at each station.

The simpliest station to set-up and by far the most exciting for students to complete is 100 cups. The challenge is to build something using all 100 cups. It’s a great activity for building team work and communication skills. They need to work together to come up with a plan of how to build and keep their tower up.

A few of the stations set-up include items from our math tubs and center bins. I count out 100 items and place them in bags ahead of time. Some of the stations we use are small wooden blocks, Lego pieces, and Unifix cubes. The challenge again is to use up all the pieces in the bag to build something.

Other stations that we use during our 100 days of school activities are…

Draw yourself at 100 years old.
Write 100 words on a chart paper. Students can go up and record words of their own to a class list.
100 exercises such as jumping jacks, push-ups, and sit-ups.
Take 100 steps down the hall and back.

What are your favourite 100 days of school activities?

100 Days of School Resources

Do your kindergarteners need some fun practice counting to 100 on the 100th day? Prep them with this Counting to 100 unit for kindergarten.

Kids will love learning about the numbers 1-100 in this Numbers to 100 and 120 unit for first grade.

Want slightly more in-depth instruction for your second graders? You’ll find that in the Numbers to 100 and 1000 unit for second grade.

Other Holiday Resources

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How to Draw a Groundhog

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Turkey Math: “Stuff” your Number Sense Lessons Full of Fun!

November 7, 2015 By Proud to be Primary 11 Comments

It’s turkey math time! Looking for a fun way for your youngest students and children to strengthen their number sense? Building number sense turkeys will do the trick!

Turkey Math: “Stuff” your Number Sense Lessons Full of Fun!

Today I am sharing a simple number sense activity in time for fall and Thanksgiving. Children will learn different number representations for numbers to 10 with this turkey math activity. This activity is perfect for preschool to first grade.

Read on to find out how I taught this turkey math activity, Number Sense Turkeys, and how you can grab it for FREE!

This printable activity is low-prep, print and go style. Simply print as is and get other supplies ready. The supplies needed are crayons, scissors, glue, and long strips of construction paper if you choose to create hats. This activity will provide a lot of hands-on learning and building of fine motor skills by using scissors, glue, and colouring.

Start by introducing the number on the turkey by spelling the number word, tracing the word, and printing the numeral.

Dotted lines are provided to help our youngest students feel successful. My son, who has been practicing his pencil grip and is learning to print, found this helpful.

I suggest colouring the turkey next. It’s fun to colour each of the turkey feathers a different colour. My son used a different colour for each feather.

For those who are learning pencil grip and are developing fine motor skills, I recommend the triangular crayons from Crayola. They make it easy for your learners to hold on to their crayon properly when colouring.

After colouring the turkey, it’s time to cut along the dotted line and cut out the different number representations. My sons favourite part of any activity we do involves scissors!

Getting children used to using scissors very early is important for future comfort and ability when they have to complete activities in school. Note: My son became comfortable using scissors by cutting dough and other materials in a free exploration center at his Junior K school.

After he cut out each piece, we talked about how numbers can be represented in different ways. We can use our fingers to show numbers or objects, such a blocks or cubes. We can show numbers on ten frames, with tally marks, and dots on dice. Numbers can be shown in many ways and it’s important for children to learn those early on to build their number sense.

We looked at each piece together and did some counting or discussed what it showed. He glued each number representation onto a different turkey feather.

To show his understanding, he used his fingers to show each number and counted aloud. He gained a lot of repetitive practice with this activity and it built his number sense as he completed each number.

As a different variation, you could print multiple pages of this printable and cut the number representations strips up and mix up the pieces. Your students could find the correct number turkey for each number representation and glue them on. This would be a differentiated activity for your students needing more of a challenge.

After completing the turkey, it can be cut out along the outside of the turkey and glued to a long strip of construction paper. Glue the bottom part with the number and number words onto the paper strip.

This makes a fun way for your students to display their learning. This activity would work as a math center or whole group activity. Your students will love to create and wear these number hats!

FREE Turkey Math Number Sense Activity

Thank you for stopping by to read about building number sense turkeys! You can grab this turkey math activity for free by clicking the image below. Enjoy!

Turkey Math is fun along with these other Thanksgiving Ideas:

Turkey Drawing Activity

Gratitude Lesson Ideas

Fall Art Projects

Click the image below to check out all the fall resources available in my store!

Want another fun number activity? Head over to One Sharp Bunch‘s blog to read about her adorable decomposing turkey activity!

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Monthly Math Mats for Daily Math Fact Practice

March 14, 2015 By Proud to be Primary 5 Comments

Today I am excited to share a fantastic was to teach and practice math skills daily. It is using monthly Math Mats for daily math fact practice.

Are you a teacher looking for a math resource that covers many skills and standards and that is fun for kids? Math Mats are great math activities for spiral math review everyday. Great for math centers, morning work, or homework. A FREE printable resource is include.

The reason for creating this product was so that I had something to give my students to practice the math concepts that we needed to know on a daily basis. I wanted each page of this resource to provide an abundance of learning opportunities, as well as the necessary review that is needed in order for students to retain an understanding of math skills and standards. From this idea, I came up with Math Mats.

Here is the breakdown of a Math Math.

Each Math Mat is different and each month touches on almost ALL of the Common Core Standards for Math for first grade. It will also work as a math review for second grade and for those in Kindergarten needing a challenge. You can be confident that your students are learning and practicing the necessary skills in math each month!

Math Skills Covered in Math Mats

*Addition word problems
*Subtraction word problems
*Addition math fact practice with fingers, number lines, 10 frames, and pictures, as well as figuring out the missing addends, adding 3 numbers, and whether equations are true or false.
*Subtraction math fact practice with fingers, number lines, 10 frames, and pictures, as well as finding out the missing numbers, subtracting 3 numbers, and whether equations are true or false.
*2D Geometry – draw, identify, and describe shapes
*3D Geometry – identify, describe, and match shapes with real life objects
*Measurement – counting number of units, describing which object is tallest/shortest/longest, and drawing objects that are taller/shorter/longer
*Time to the hour and half hour – add hands on clocks & reading clocks
*Months of the year
*Numbers to 100 – fill in missing numbers and completing number charts
*Write number words to 20
*Place value to 20 – counting and drawing ones and tens blocks
*Greater and less than
*1/10 more or less
*Number order to 100
*Ordinal numbers to 10
*Tally marks
*Odd/Even
*Skip Counting by 2’s, 5’s, & 10’s – counting groups and using the skip counting patterns
*Graphing – adding data onto graphs and answering questions
*Sorting – counting groups and making a sorting rule
*Patterning – create and complete different types of patterns
*Money – identify and count coins (provided in Canadian on additional pages)

Another reason why I LOVE these mats is the low-prep aspect. They are print and go style printable sheets that lend themselves well to many uses. Below are 4 ways that I suggest using Math Mats in your classroom.

Copy Math Mats on card stock and laminate. You could also put the pages inside a wipe-off cover. Give students a dry erase pen to complete the Math Mat for that day. After they complete a mat, they simply clean it off and give to someone else to complete. They work great for your math center and during your fast finisher time.

You can print Math Mats on seasonal colored paper. You can keep them stored for each month ready to go.

A cover page is provided in each Math Mat pack with the option of creating a booklet for your students. These booklets work great for morning work time or for homework packets to send home with your students each month. Parents would love that!

Do you use Interactive Notebooks? Well, look no further…Math Mats are perfect for your math interactive notebooks! Simply, change your printer settings to print off a smaller, scaled copy of a Math Mat. Follow the steps below!

Math Mats work great in your interactive notebooks during Math Workshop time!

Another option for keeping Math Mats and other math activities all in one place is to use a three pronged folder. I love using these types of folders because my students can keep them in their book baskets or desks and they are easily accessible when needed. You could make a copy of the monthly Math Mats for each students to place inside their folder and use for morning work and during Math Workshop.

Here is close-up sample of a Math Mat. Each mat has a spot for your students’ name and the date. Each Math Mat is clearly represented with the math concept (heading) at the top of each section. The instructions are below the headings and important text is in bold to help students complete the activities. Seasonal graphics and math manipulative graphics are used to clearly represent the problems.

$Are you a teacher looking for a math resource that covers many skills and standards and that is fun for kids? Math Mats are great math activities for spiral math review everyday. Great for math centers, morning work, or homework. A FREE printable resource is include.$

Teacher Recommended

Teachers are using Math Mats in their classrooms and have shared these thoughts and opinions below.

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If you would like to try out a FREE sample of Math Mats, click the image below.

$Math Mats are great math tools for spiral review of skills. Four skills are covered on each mat.$

If you LOVE Math Mats, I recommend buying the Math Mat Bundle. You will receive ALL 10 packs of Math Mats.

$math mats bundle square image$

If you love these, check out Word Mats & Comprehension Mats.

Looking for more engaging math activities for the classroom? Check out this Pinterest board full of ideas!

I hope that you can use these monthly Math Mats for daily spiral math practice in your classroom. If you have any questions, leave me a comment below.

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Math Workshop: Complete Tool Kit

October 30, 2014 By Proud to be Primary 2 Comments

Set up and organize your math block time with the math workshop toolkit which includes posters, planning sheets, and more.

$Complete Math Workshop Tool Kit$

Complete Math Workshop Tool Kit

Today I’m blogging about something that I find very useful in my classroom.

It’s a tool to get your math workshop organized, running smoothly, and looking great on your bulletin board. It’s the Math Workshop Tool Kit.

MATH Acronym for the Math Workshop

I came up with this MATH acronym because it is easy to remember and it helps keep get things organized.

The meaning of the MATH acronym:

M – stands for Math Warm-Up

For Math Warm-Up,
students complete activities or math problems in their math journals, complete
math minutes or math fact practice, or complete a math question of the day I
have posted for them.

A – stands for At Your Seat

For At Your Seat,
students complete a math assignment in their math workbook (I use Jump Math) or
whichever math program or work sheets you assign.

T – stands for Teacher Time

For Teacher Time,
students meet with the teacher in small groups or as a larger grade group (I
take my 1st
graders, then my 2nd
graders) to work on a skill for that day.

H – stands for Hands-On

For Hands-On,
students complete a math game or a math center. I place my materials for these
games and centers in my numbered drawers and students are instructed to
complete one of the activities.

Setting Up Your Math Workshop

Below is the set-up of my workshop board in my 1st/2nd grade combined classroom. I wanted to dedicate a small board to our math workshop set-up in a place that was highly visible and functional for me to change up.In this tool kit, you will be receiving 2 types of rotation cards, numbers, and grouping signs, as well as instructions.

Complete Math Workshop Tool Kit - workshop board

Math Workshop HOW-TO

Students rotate through each part of the MATH in an order determined by you (displayed on a bulletin board). I take time at the beginning of the school year to build the confidence and skills my students will need in each area of the math workshop.They also become familiar with where to find the materials needed and learn the expectations during this time.

Once students are comfortable with each part of the workshop, I set them up in small groups (grade/ability groupings) and assign them a group number. You could use clothespins with student names and clip them onto the grouping cards for easy changes.

Once groups have learned their rotation schedule, they are ready to proceed through the math workshop. I use the EDITABLE planning sheets to write down what each group will be completing in each part of the math workshop rotation.

Math Workshop EXTRAS

I have also included some extras to help you with the classroom set-up. Small numbers are perfect to label my math center bins and drawers.

Complete Math Workshop Tool Kit - math center

I also like to label my math workshop bulletin board with a cute banner.

Complete Math Workshop Tool Kit - board banner

Staying organized during math workshop is key to success for you and for your students. I use the planning sheets every day when I am planning my lessons and activities. Use the 7 different planning sheets included to stay organized. I have included them in pdf form, as well as a separate EDITABLE document for you to customize.

Complete Math Workshop Tool Kit - planning sheets

I hope that this math workshop system is helpful to you and you have success implementing it in your classroom. I’d love to hear how it goes!

Needing more ideas for setting up and running your math workshop?

Check out this Pinterest board with tons of activities and ideas for teaching math!

How do you set up and organize your math block?

More Math Workshop Ideas for You!

Human Number Line Games

Number Sense Activities to 20

Shapes for Kids

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Number Line Games: The Human Number Line!

March 28, 2014 By Proud to be Primary 31 Comments

Number Line games are so much fun! Here’s how to teach and play the human number line math game with 3 digit addition and subtraction.

This post introduces the human number line math game, a super fun game I created for my students to practice 3 digit adding and subtracting with the number line.

The Best of All Number Line Games – The Human Number Line!

We have had the “human number line” on our carpet for quite some time but needed a fresh new game to get us excited all over again!

HOW TO PLAY THE HUMAN NUMBER LINE GAME
STEP #1: Print off all the pieces for the game that you will need.
(Link for the FREE game below)

STEP #2: Cut out the game cards and number signs for your number line. Laminate for durability.

STEP #3: Use masking tape to create a long line on your carpet or floor. Use tape to mark off the number spots (0-10). Tape down the number signs.

STEP #4: Have your students sit or stand in order to have a turn. Give the first person the stack of cards to read to the next person who will jump on the number line.

STEP #5: The student must read the math equation on the card aloud.

Then, starting at 0, must solve the equation by jumping forward and back on the number line.

STEP #6: After the student has solved the equation, they say the answer out loud. If correct, they get to be the card reader for the next person in line.

Note: Keep playing until everyone has had a chance to play.

Your students will love this game!

SUGGESTED TIPS:

Leave it as an option during Math centers and free time.

You can change the game to suit the skill you are working on.

The blank templates give you a chance to customize.

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This FUN FREEBIE is available on my TpT store (click the product cover below).

With this freebie you receive 24 rainbow math flash cards with 3 digit addition, subtraction and mixed equations on them. You receive a blank template to print off and use for any skill you want your students to practice using the human number line.

They are also great for flash cards and any other game you can think up. The colored numbers are provided for you to label your number line. Blank circles are included and would be great if you wanted a number line to 20 or higher.

Want a Freebie for your Number Line Games?

Grab the FREE Human Number Line Math Game HERE!

human number line games -Human number line game with 3 digit addition

I am so happy that you have joined me today to read and learn about the best of all number line games. Your class will love it as much as mine does!

Are you looking for more fun math activities and games for your classroom?

Check out this Pinterest board full of ideas!

How do you get your students to add and subtract using a number line?

More Number Line Games Fun with These Activities:

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St. Patrick’s Day Fun Pack

February 24, 2014 By Proud to be Primary Leave a Comment

I can’t believe it’s almost March…WOW!

If you’re like me there are a few weeks left before Spring Break. I am often looking for some fun activities to do during the last week or so of school before the break.

This is the time I like to do our St. Patrick’s Day activities in class.

I’m happy to have finished my St. Patrick’s Day Fun Pack just in time to show you all and hope that it can provide you with simple, fun and educational activities to do with your class during March!

It is 80 pages long and appropriate for Kindergarten to Grade 2 depending on the levels of your kids.

It includes all that you see here in the Table of Contents.

You can teach the poem and have follow-up activities that are differentiated to meet all your students needs.

I’ve also included word cards and theme words. I use theme words in my class by having my students draw and color the words. Then I put them in our theme word pocket chart for easy reference during writing and reading activities!

Your kids will love the Leprechaun comic strip with thinking and talking bubbles to fill in. They will have such a great time making up the story in speech and thinking bubbles.

There are two activity books included: one full page book with 5 activities or a small half page book with 4 activities. You can pick and choose the activities to include with the covers or assign each activity separately!

Some of the activities included…

There are also two half-page story books to make: one is a read, trace & color book about things that are green and one is writing and drawing about green things.

A St. Patty’s day Board game is included with cards, instructions, game pieces and game board. Just print and and laminate ahead of time if you wish. Great for centre time!

There are tons of different writing activities to complete (differentiated with different amounts of lines, types of lines, with answers/without) and blank templates as well. These writing activities would go great with the Leprechaun craft below and would make such a cute bulletin board!

Here are a few up close…

There are also 2 adorable crafts included to dress up your bulletin boards for March! One is a dancing leprechaun craft and overlapping shamrock art. I can’t wait to make these with my kiddos…they were excited when I showed them! I’ve included all instructions with photos and templates to make preparation easy.

Here are the complete samples…

And finally there are 5 math activities included in the pack: a St. Patrick’s mystery picture, an addition story problem, subtraction story problem and 2 graphing activities.

If you are interested in grabbing a FREEBIE from the pack, it available TODAY ONLY through the Facebook-Free-For-All. It is a 10 page Poem of the Week called “Lucky Little Leprechauns.” If you are interested head over to my facebook page to grab it before it’s gone!

The poem plus activities are also available in my Poem of the Week Pack #2: 20 poems for February to June!

I hope you have seen something you like and go to check out my St. Patrick’s Day FUN Pack…You won’t be disappointed!

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Number of the Day Activities to Boost Math Success

February 22, 2014 By Proud to be Primary 12 Comments

Tips of implementing daily number of the day activities in a primary classroom. Includes free printable for students to fill in with number representations.

Number of the Day Activities to Boost Math Success

I am here today to tell you how I run number of the day activities in my first grade class.

Using Number of the Day in the Classroom

Every week we study one number up to 20 with my age group, but you could do more than one each week. I have each student grab a small white board, dry erase marker, and find a spot at the carpet where they can see our “Number of the Day” chart.

They start by drawing two lines to create a cross on their whiteboards. Step by step we go through different concepts together. I give them a chance to try on their own before asking for responses and writing them down on our large class chart.

The concepts we cover are:

1. Writing the Number Word

(I have posters with the numbers words on a higher wall if they need to look.)

2. Drawing the Number using Dice

(I remind them that dice only go up to 6 each.)

3. Tally Marks

(I use the short poem “1, 2, 3, 4, number 5 shuts the door, 6, 7, 8, 9, number 10 draws the line.)

4. Even or Odd

(I have them draw pairs of dots as they count to see if the number has a partner. If it does then it’s even and if not then it’s odd. I also tell them that you only need to look at the last digit in a double digit number.)

5. Draw a Picture

(I let them draw a picture to show their number.)

6. Ten Frames

(I teach them how to quickly draw a ten frame and then they draw dots on the frames to show the number.)

7. More and Less

(I change the way I ask the question but I want them to show me what is 2 and 1 less and more than the number.)

8. Addition Sentences

(I want them to come up with at least one addition sentence that equals the number of the day. This is a great time to review addition concepts like using own fingers, drawing a picture, knowing rules like +0 or +1, flip flop strategy, counting on, etc. Then we share as a group and I have them read and write the sentences we come up with.)

9. Subtraction Sentences

(Same with addition except use the number of the day to start with, example 14-?=?)

number of the day activities - whiteboard

I can easily see how they are doing with number concepts and it is a quick check-in assessment.

Number of the Day Builds Confidence with Repetition

I see them gain confidence in sharing their work and new skills. It helps that it is repetitive and everyone does it together. Children love using whiteboards and I often hear them say “this is soooo FUN!!”

For my “Number of the Day” poster anchor chart, I took a large black poster board and cut out different pieces of yellow paper. I glue the yellow pieces on the poster board and add bulletin board letters to make a title. I laminate it so that I can be easily cleaned and reused every week.

Some days, I have students complete the number of the day activities on their own at their desks. I give them one of the sheets provided in my “Number of the Day” freebie (link to product below). I use these sheets for assessment to see how much they are able to show me about a given number independently.

number of the day activities - printable

Number of the Day Resources

Click below for the Number of the Day Freebie that you can use for your number of the day activities. It includes the four sheets you will see below. You could use them weekly as practice together or independently as assessment.

Want to create your own NEW and improved Number of the Day poster? Make yours today with the FREE Number of the Day poster templates.

number of the day activities - free poster

Grab the materials needed to start your own number of the day routines. (Amazon affliate links)

Do you do number of the day activities with your class? How?

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you would like more tips and ideas from me, be sure to follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to stay connected with the latest news and freebies!