I grew up hating math. Like super hating math. In high school I was in honors English and a class called "finite math" which was code for "the football team and Denise" I'm not even kidding. I was the only girl in the class which was made up of most of the football team and taught by the football coach. I have no idea how the heck that happened, but it made for some fun comments in my yearbook! I was band geek who normally didn't fraternize with the jocks, but they turned out to be really nice guys. They just weren't too swift in math, like me.
It wasn't until college that I started to feel that maybe I
could do math. I had a professor who just had a way of explaining things that made sense to me. Or maybe my brain was just finally ready to accept math. Whatever it was, it really made an impact on me as a teacher. My early struggles with math have definitely shaped how I teach math.
One of the things I find most effective is presenting material in a few different ways. I incorporate games, manipulatives, movement, writing, partner and independent practice into just about everything we do. Right now we're working on adding and subtracting 10. This seemingly easy skill is one even my gifted kids need some extra practice because it's such an essential foundational skill.
So, besides using our textbook as a resource, I have a few other things we've been using. First is a math center I made. I have an overabundance of these foamie shapes so I used them for the manipulatives. You could also use bottle caps or even just laminate and have the kids write write on the mat.
{Visit the TBA Freebie Friday linky for more awesome freebies!}
The mats come with an answer key, so I put the mat in a bag with the manipulatives and the answer key to make it self checking. Check the links at the end of the post to grab them free.
I also created some practice pages for my kids to use with dice. They basically roll two dice, make the largest number they can and add ten. On the back, they do the same and subtract ten. Also included in the freebie are pages for them to do the same with three dice and one hundred. It just adds a little fun factor to the basic practice.
How cool are those dice in dice? They were perfect for this because I only had to give each kid one. You can get them
here on Amazon.
I've also been using the resources in my Common Core Essentials pack for 2.nbt.2. I created these because I wanted focused resources without a seasonal theme that I can use any time of the year for directly teaching the skill, remediation, one on one assistance, centers or enrichment. Each pack contains anchor charts, printables, journal topics, and some type of class or partner game, center, or task cards depending on the standard.
And of course, I'm using the assessments from my Common Core Assessment Pack. Since I updated it to include three assessments for every standard, I now use one as classwork, one as homework, and then one as a final assessment.
Links to the featured activities in this post:
and for a really great "get up and move" activity,
I've been using some of her other Gallery Walk packs and they are fantastic!
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