Math Center Madness

Hey Sweet Friends, 

Just popping by to talk to you about some math fun we've been having. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself. Math has never been my best subject but this year I've got it down to an art! And it's all because of the amazing program we're using AND my math centers (I'll take 1/3 of the credit). Hehe!

The kiddies love the centers and really understand the concepts after completing them. 

My latest centers include Counting and Comparing Numbers AND Numerical and Non-Numerical Patterns. 

The students love using their dry erase markers on the center cards and this saves our school a lot of paper! I walk around and take notes on how students are doing. I also sit with them and help them out.

I choose 4 out of 8 centers to assess (I combine two packs at a time). I ask students to choose ONE card to record their answer on paper. This gives me concrete evaluations.

Midway through the completion of the centers, I assess their knowledge of math vocabulary. 

I use the math word wall to encourage students to answer some questions about the concepts we are covering. All the answers can be found on the word wall. This gives me a clear idea of who is getting it and who needs extra support. 

You can check out my Counting and Comparing Numbers Math Centers HERE!

You can check out my Numerical and Non-Numerical Patterns Math Centers right over HERE!

You can grab yourself a free copy of my word wall and math vocabulary activity right over HERE!

For the other half of this word wall & a math vocabulary activity to accompany it, please click HERE!

Click on the Math Madness label on the right side of my blog to get more free word walls and check out more of my math centers. 

Until next time...

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Skip Counting Fun

Hi Everyone,

I'm back with some skip counting fun! We have been all about making groups, skip counting, and patterns these days! And, let me tell ya, it hasn't been all that easy!!!!

I decided to incorporate different ideas into our lessons to make it a little more fun, engaging, and meaningful. We've been practicing everyday and they are starting to pick it up!

The problem does not lie with skip counting. They can count 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 ... all the way to 100. Our difficulties lie with skip counting by 5s and 10s while starting with a different number, like 30, for instance. So we started off with these cards and threw them on the floor as we skip counted around them. It was quite amusing and memorable!

We have been practicing a lot and we also like to count in different voices. It's really quite funny and they seem to grasp it better when we are being goofy and silly! 

We also skipped counted on the Smartboard... While popping balloons! 

Loud, but effective!

We skip counted on our number chart and looked for the patterns. 

These clear highlight strips are 

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G btw! 

I use them for everything! I bought them back in July, in Vegas, from Resources for Reading. 

I highly recommend them! They are great. 

We have decided to keep the strips up for the moment and refer back to it quite a bit. 

We looked for the pattern when skip counting by 5s and 10s and this visual REALLY helps. 

We have been practicing skip counting in other ways too. Patterns have proven to be the most difficult, so we have backtracked to simple skip counting and making groups. This has helped a lot. 

You can grab yourself a FREE copy of these worksheets (for 5s and 10s) along with the skip counting cards right HERE!

The more variety you include in your skip counting lessons, the more learning will occur! I am seeing them transfer this concept to other activities now and I am LOVING it! 

Next week we will begin my new math centers.

Counting and Comparing Numbers and Numerical & Non-Numerical Patterns.

You can check out my Patterns Centers HERE and my Counting 

and my Comparing Numbers Centers HERE!

I can't wait to see how it goes and report back to you! The last time we did centers in math it really helped them better understand the concepts we had covered! They rocked their tests!

Until next time...

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