First Day Math Activities

Math games for the first few days to review simple math skills while helping students get to know their new environment. Check 'em out!

Download HERE

Math About Me: 2 versions (boy & girl)

Shape Hunt: 2 versions (Draw a Shape & Tally)

Number Hunt: 2 versions (draw the number & tally)

Download Here

Kindergarten Unicorn Math Centers: Guided Math Fun!

As most of you probably already know, my class loves unicorns! I wanted to share a fun math activity I use to teach about decomposing numbers using addition. 

Let me begin by explaining that I teach this in SMALL GROUP during my guided math time. After I teach it in small group I put this in my math choice area. My students LOVE doing this activity! 

Download HERE

Here what you'll need:

1. Make a rainbow abacus: 6 pony beads (in rainbow order) on a coffee straw. 

2. Print recording sheet. 


To Play:

1. Students push all the beads to one side leaving the purple bead closest to their thumb and the pink bead in the middle. Count all the beads. Discuss that you have 6 beads and you will be finding ways to make the number 6 using addition. 

2. Move the pink bead over to the other side. Count how many beads are on each side. Color the matching addition sentence the same color as the bead you move. For example, you moves the pink bead first, so you color the top rainbow that says '1 + 5 = 6' pink. 

3. Continue with each color until students have completed the rainbow. 

This activity is part of my Unicorn Math Packet. You can get it

HERE! 

Easy Breezy Reusable Math Centers: Guided Math Made FUN!

"I will not go to Lakeshore today... I will not...". This is the typical internal monologue I have with myself driving past the Lakeshore Learning store after work each day as I try to resist the temptation of purchasing yet another learning game or other materials. Few people truly understand the financial and personal sacrifices teachers make every day to ensure that their students have the materials they need to succeed. Even fewer understand the toll this can take on a educator. Because of this, I wanted to share some fun little activities I've made in my classroom from materials you can find in your classroom... for FREE!

I presented these games at the Atlantic City Kindergarten Convention (SDE) today and couldn't wait to share it with all of you! Enjoy!

This is one of my favorite math activities because it can be used for almost every standard. Simply glue 5 different shapes inside of a use cupcake tin, number the shapes, and throw in a pom pom. Students shake the tin and graph the shape or number the pom pom lands on. Students can also build a cube tower to represent the number they landed on. Possibilities are endless! (recording sheet pictured is in my Math Centers BUNDLE). 

You can purchase cupcake tins on Amazon, or reuse one from a classroom birthday!

Fact fluency is a big part of my math program. Thats why I like to ALWAYS have hands-on activities for my students to practice this skill. In this activity, I use coffee stirrers (try Wawa or any coffee shop), tape, and Pony beads. Simply make different sets of beads and place them in a bucket with recording sheets. Students move the beads across the straw to decompose numbers (Recording sheet pictured is in my Math Centers Bundle). 

Purchase straws HERE. 

Purchase beads HERE.

This activity teachers numbers 1-100 and can also help familiarize students with a 100's chart. Simply decorate paper plates and have students spin the spinner twice to make numbers to 100. Students trace they number as the spin it (Recording sheet pictured is in my Math Centers Bundle). 

Simple Counting Book for Kindergarten

Need a sweet & simple counting activity for your kinders? Look no further! This activity reviews numbers 1-10 and involves STICKERS! YAY! Your students will love this activity!

Download it HERE!

Kindergarten Summer Learning Packet

... Cause We'll Have FUN, FUN, FUN...

  Sweet summer is almost here! It's the time of year where we're all drowning in paperwork and assessments while still attempting to teach and pack-up a classroom. I could seriously use a personal assistant right about now! 

Like most teachers, I always like to send home a summer learning packet on the last day of school. This year I decided to make my own instead of hunting around to put it together. Here are a few pictures of some the activities in this packet. So sit back, pour yourself an ice cold lemonade (or margarita), and enjoy the last few weeks of your year! You deserve it!

Download it HERE!

    

    

    

    

Download it HERE

SHAPE It Off!

We are getting geared up for learning about 2D and 3D shapes in my classroom! Let's keep this low-prep, rigorous, and FUN! These activities are from my NO-PREP Shapes Printables and also my Common Core Math Centers Bundle. Here are a few examples from these packets!

     

     

     

And a few centers from my Common Core Math Centers...

     

Download them HERE!

   

Close Reading Math Word Problems

Get it HERE!

I'll admit when I was first told that my kindergarten students should be doing close reading I was a little skeptical. I just knew that my little kindergarteners could not complete these higher-order thinking tasks. I mean, they're just babies right? But hey, I gave it my best shot. I' admit we started off a little... shaky to say the least. As we reread texts throughout the week I fielded questions like, "Didn't we do this yesterday?", but we powered through. I started by setting daily objectives during my read aloud. One day we'd discuss unknown vocabulary, the next we'd discuss story structure and retelling, and so on. As we head into the second half of the year, I'm happy to say that they're doing great. It's a beautiful sound to a teacher's ears when you hear them explain to me that they're "finding evidence in the text". Winning! Now, I'm not saying that this comes easily to all of my students, but it's worth modeling for our kindergarteners. 

The success I had this year with close reading inspired me to use this skill to help my 1st grade math tutoring group. Why not apply those same reading skills to help students read and solve math word problems? 

I made an easy 3-step process for close reading in math. These help students learn to determine whether to add or subtract, find important details in the problem, and find the question. What makes this more fun is that it involves highlighters! Check it out!

Get it HERE!

Kindergarten Winter Math & Literacy Centers

Download this bundle in my TPT store!

Here are some centers from my Winter Math & Literacy Centers Bundle! Click on the images to download them in my TPT store. Enjoy!

1. Winter Words: Students read simple CVC words and determine if they are real or nonsense words (Includes a b&w version).

2. Penguin Sounds: Students identify beginning sounds with this cute penguin activity (b&w version included). 

3. Let it Snow Snowball Stamp: Students use these activity cards to count and identify teen numbers (b&w version included). 

4. Winter Wonderland Ways to Make 10: Students find ways to make 10 with this fun wipe and write activity with recording sheet (b&w version included). 

5. Winter Roll & Write: Students practice graphing winter pictures (b&w version included). 

6. Snow Day Vowels: Students match and identify simple cvc words using the activity cards and stamping the correct spelling (b&w version included). 

7. Snowy Spins: Students use the snowman spinner to create simple CVC words. They determine if it is a real or nonsense word by coloring them blue or purple (b&w version included). 

 8. Sight Word Snowballs: Students spell sight words using snowballs (b&w version included).

9. Let it Snow Teen Number Addition: Students use the winter activity cards to represent teen numbers at 10 and some more ones (includes b&w version).