Start Summer with These Free Shark Math Games

Originally posted on Teaching Blog Roundup

Ah, summer! Here it comes! We may be lucky enough to be relaxing on the beach, gathering pretty shells, eating sandwiches with real sand in them. But our kiddos?  Always in search of adventure, they're thinking about SHARKS!  So it's definitely time to take advantage of that with these free shark math games!

It's hard to ignore the fascination kids have with sharks These free shark math games for kindergarten through third grade are a great way to put that enthusiasm to good use!

Here's a sample of the games directions that you'll find in this download!

The difficulty of these games ranges from "Fin It to Win It!" (arranging cards in numerical order) to "A Shark's Place" (two-digit place value) and on up to "Everybody Out of the Water!" (shown above), which has some trickier two-step directions, strategizing, and mental math.

Just a warning...  I had some pun-ny fun coming up with names for these games! The download also includes

* Shark Sighting

* One, Two, Three, Flip!

* Treasures of the Sea

* Sharks Alive, It's All About Five!

* Belly Up

Can't say I didn't warn you! :)

Your download includes number cards for 0-9 in both color and blackline (some of your students will love to color their own cards!) as well as the directions for eight math games.

These games would be a good match for your beach theme or ocean unit. Fun learning and easy prep for the last days of school, too! Use the same cards and try a new game every day!

Click here to download your free shark number cards and directions for math games!

If you're looking for more ocean-themed activities, this bundle might be just what you need! Click now to see it!

Happy Teaching!

MORE Third Grade Math Riddles for 1 through 120!

Third grade teachers, I'm SO happy to share that the second set of number sense riddles for 1 through 120 is finally completed!

So, what are these riddles all about?

Each of the cards in this set has two to three clues that lead to a number between 1 and 120.  As your students progress through the clues, they'll narrow the options for which numbers might be the answer, until the last clue brings them down to just one number.

Here's an example.

Solving a riddle is great for daily spiral review and most definitely motivating - have you ever had a student who didn't like riddles?  But there's so much more that you can do with these cards!

Listen to some of the conversations that might happen beyond the solving if you were to use this card as the basis for a number talk. Note the great opportunitites to differentiate.

    "Can you switch out 8X11 and 100-7 to other expressions and still get the same final answer?"

    "Is there a quick way to tell if a number is odd or even?"

    "Is 5 a multiple of 10 or a factor of 10?  Explain..."

    "Can you substitute a new clue for the final clue and still get the same answer?"

    "Let's create a whole new riddle for this number."

And, of course, always, "How do you know? Explain your thinking."

See what I mean?  If you're teaching your students virtually, try giving your students the riddle of the day ahead of time, with the dual assignment of solving it AND coming up with a math talk question about the riddle.

How are teachers using these riddles?

* Using one or more each day is a great way to keep math vocabulary and concepts active in the minds of your students.

* Take a screenshot of any page and use with Seesaw or your favorite app so your students can solve these right on their devices.

* Practice comprehension skills across the curriculum by "thinking aloud" to model identifying key details, inferring, and drawing conclusions.

* In a small group or with partners, use the printable and task card activities. Great for small groups and math centers!

* Use math riddles as a sponge activity throughout the day.

* The riddle cards are a productive use of learning time for fast finishers or for enrichment.

*  Level up or down to differentiate with individual students or small groups.  See riddles for first and second grade here, and for fourth and fifth grade here.

You might be wondering what math topics these riddle cards address.  Here's a quick rundown of the topics/vocabulary in this set.

 

*  Addition and subtraction through 1,000

*  Multiplication and division facts

*  Products, factors, multiples

*  US coins and measurement

*  Area and perimeter

*  Attributes of 2D and 3D shapes

Are you ready to try this free set of six? Click here or on the picture below to download them now and try them with your students!

Happy Teaching!

Building a Home - School Connection with Learning Games

Are you thinking about ways to build a connection with your class families this year?  With this crazy mix of teaching formats that schools will be using, you may need to be resourceful to develop a home-school connection with families that you might never get the chance to meet in real life. 

Just one more challenge for teachers to face... and conquer!... in this new school year!

Do you send games home for families to practice skills with their children? Games are a non-threatening enjoyable way for families to come together and support children's learning while they have fun together!

Here's a little freebie that might help you as you work on building open communication and a mutually supportive relationship with your students' families.

Click here to download these letters at my TpT store.

This resource includes tips for parents about playing games together. For your convenience, the download is provided in both Spanish and English, and has both portrait and landscape orientations in each language. 

One of the most important tips in the letter is "please let the teacher know if your child has a problem with a skill".  Without the usual ability to be constantly watching and making informed decisions, changing the course of instruction for individuals or even the whole class as needed, teachers will be depending more than ever on information from families! Open that avenue of communication!

Each letter is a separate JPEG, to make it easier to either send home digitally or post on your password-protected classroom website.

And if by chance your school is holding in-person Meet the Teacher or Back to School Night events, these make great hand-outs!

The directions are just a bit specific to my easy prep one-page games, which I have soooooo many of in my TpT store, but you can really use them with almost any game that you send home.  Click here to see my one-page games!  

Would you like to sample some free one-page games?  Here's Johnny Appleseed's Subtraction  and Pirate Addition Doubles Strategy Games, both of which are great for the upcoming September "events", Johnny Appleseed Day and Talk Like a Pirate Day.  You can simply send the link to your class families, or you can easily create a JPEG by using your snipping tool to take a "picture" of the page and send the game to them that way.

What will you be trying this year to increase communication with your students' families?

 

Pirate Day Number Activities

With Talk Like a Pirate Day right around the corner (September 19th this year), let's talk about some fun and easy ways to bring number activities into the mix, starting with number sorts.

Sometimes the simplest of activities can bring great results. Number sorts are a simple and effective teaching technique to help your students develop number sense. 

Here's a set of 36 cards, printed nine to a page, perfect for a pocket chart sorting activity. Two sets of headers are also included: odd/even and more than 50/less than 50.

The cards are also good to use to build a looong train of numbers on your classroom floor. So much fun for your kiddos! Have them count up to or (definitely trickier!) back down from 100. There's more than the usual challenge in doing this with this particular set, because not all numbers are included.

I love to get LOTS of use from whatever I print! You, too? Read on!

Use your pirate cards to play "What's My Number?".  Use sentence strips to put together some quick headbands and clip a card to each one, or use a mini binder clip to attach the card to the back of your students' shirts. Pair up your students and model how to give clues for the number, aiming at whatever you're currently teaching.

→ Comparing numbers? "It's between 54 and 59."
→ Addition? "The number is two more than 56."
→ Subtraction? "It's three less than 71."
→ Place value? "5 tens, 8 ones."
→ Adding tens? "30 more than 28".
There's as much learning in creating the clues as there is in figuring out the answer!

Download your set of pirate number cards here!

Another Pirate Math Freebie! 

Do you read Edward and the Pirates to your students on Talk Like a Pirate day? Click here to download this set of word problems! 

If you're interested in even more Pirate Math, here's a bundled {read: save $$$} set of 19 games at my TpT store!

Happy Teaching!

Keep Your Calendar Time Engaging - 2 Calendar Freebies!

Hi, Teaching Friends!

Are you always looking for new ideas to keep your calendar time fresh and engaging?

Many years ago (probably more than 15!), when I first started using our daily calendar time for spiral review, I remember our math supervisor observing and being amazed at how much concentrated teaching could be done in that short time. So true!!


But after a while, I realized that some of the calendar activities could quickly become rote and repetitive. They weren't really moving my students thinking and skills ahead. They might be good activities, but they definitely didn't need to be done day after day.


Over the years, I tried other formats for calendar time, including a smartboard calendar.  The one I used was engaging - hey, it was on the smartboard, after all -  but it got to be somewhat repetitious after a month or two.

The other format I tried was calendar notebooks.  I liked the notebooks because I could change out different skills and activities for different months, but even that got a bit tedious, and truthfully not always as engaging as I wanted it to be for my students. And then there was the roulette of having first graders use three ring binders... we never had an incident, but I had to be pretty vigilant, you know!  ;)


Eventually, I switched back to using the wall calendar, but with a bit of a twist. We had certain activities that we did routinely every day, like...

* Adding the date
* Counting up to the 100th Day by adding a straw every day, and then bundling the tens and counting the total each day until we got to 100.  By the way, if you haven't tried this, it's a super way to lay the foundation for teaching place value before you even come to it in the math curriculum - lots of kids picked up place value very quickly because of our daily counting and bundling with straws.


But the "twist" that I eventually added to keep interest high was Pick a Calendar Stick. Each day at the end of our calendar time, the Top Banana (our crazy name for the helper of the day) got to pick a craft stick from a jar. The sticks were labeled with calendar activities, like "Say the names of all the months in the year",  "Name the number that's ten more than today's date", or "Turn and tell a friend how many tens and how many ones are in today's date". They loved the variety that the sticks brought to calendar time. After all, it was practically a game! :)


You could make your own sticks with the skills and activities that your own students need to practice. or you could keep it even simpler with this freebie. Just roll a die and follow the directions. This freebie isn't editable, but I've included a blank page, so you can just write in your own ideas. Click to download!

Here's another idea for something to add to your calendar time once in a while. Kids love solving riddles, and these combine knowledge of the months of the year with first grade math skills. Here are some samples. The cards in the file are blackline, but these are printed on bright colors, just for fun!

There are 60 riddle cards in the set. They are not linked to any specific year and they don't include any references to holidays or seasons.

If you're using the cards as a whole class activity, you can build even more calendar knowledge by posting a current yearly calendar and having your students locate and highlight the date when they solve a riddle.

The set includes a short instructional video to teach your students the steps in solving the riddles, plus additional support materials:  a 120 number chart and two sets of cards to support your little learners as needed with the names and sequence of the months (full name of the month and abbreviation). A student recording page and answer key are included, making this resource suitable for independent use in a math center.

Click here for the first grade set.

Click here for the first/second grade set, which focuses on the skills are taught in the second half of first grade and developed more in second grade.

Click here for the bundle of both sets, with 120 cards so you'll have plenty to do together with extras to use for early finishers, as challenge work, or in math centers.

And for your second freebie...

Try a sample set of Calendar Math Riddles! Click to get your copy at my TPT store!

Keep sprinkling your teaching day with fun!

Happy Teaching!

New Math Freebies for Shark Week

Hi, Teaching Friends!

I see them on the horizon ... the fins. And I see all those cool Shark Week shows that are about to begin on the Discovery Channel.

And I see the boatloads of shark freebies!  Whether you're teaching summer school or year-round school, homeschooling or - good grief! - back in school already, or maybe you're busy planning for your new class, you know that the shark theme is pretty much unbeatable among the primary crowd. So let's take best advantage of that enthusiasm, right?

I've blogged about Shark Week for several years, and have a growing collection of shark-themed freebies old and new to share with you. So, let's dive in right now {uh-oh... shark pun!} and start scooping them up!

By the way, I've fallen in love with these adorable Surfin' Sharks from Dandy Doodles on TpT! I use these cuties again and again because they've got so much personality! You'll see them surfacing again and again in these freebies ... oh, darn, another shark pun!


Freebie #1:

Here's a game for practice with /not/ contractions. School of Sharks can be used as a board game, or just print up the 16 sets of contraction cards for a matching activity. It's a sample activity from my Oceans of Fun resource, a set of 16 cross-curricular activities which you can find here at my TpT store.

Freebie #2:

Spark some jawesome writing with this roll-and-write freebie! Just roll your die twice to come up with a character and a setting for a fun shark-y story starter.

Freebie #3:

This one might look like it's just for my for my PreK and kindergarten friends, but don't be fooled by the cover.  When you download it, you'll find not just shark-themed number cards, but ideas for eight games that need nothing else but the number cards to play. These games will take you right up through second grade! Please excuse their pun-y names! Click here to download.

Freebie #4 {here's the new one!}:

Two first grade math games!

Here are two shark-themed first grade math games for you.  Shark-in-the-Dark is a sample from Missing Addends Games, and Shark Frenzy  is from the Missing Subtrahends set.  Each of the sets includes ten one-page games.  Like your sample games, these are low-prep and easy to use, with no cards to print, cut, or lose! :)

If you like the simplicity and convenience of using single page games like these, you'll find over 300 of them when you visit the One-Page Games category at my store!



Have fun with Shark Week activities ... and I won't even be the one to tell you to stay out of the water! :)

Happy Teaching!

Gold Coin Math Game Freebies!

Hi, Teaching  Friends!

Hello, March! It's time for some St. Patrick's Day gold coin math games!

I'll bet you already have a stash of these deliciously engaging gold coins. What kid can resist them, right?  If you don't have them, you can pick up a few packs at the dollar store.  A few dollars worth will go a long way with these games.  Plus, you can get double duty from these coins when you use them again in September for pirate games on Talk Like a Pirate Day.


All your students will need to play these games is gold coins and dice - no game boards, no cards!  A few of the games also require a whiteboard and erasable marker, but your students can just use paper and pencil. If you'd prefer not to use the coins, two-sided counters or even pennies are perfect substitutes!


Here are the games in this free set:

* Roll and Give - addition, sums through 12

* Roll and Take - addition, sums through 12

* Shamrock Toss and Tally - counting, tallying to 50

* Away with the Coins - subtraction from six or less

* Toss Ten  - combinations of ten

* Roll, Tally, Stack - addition sums through 12, tally marks

In this free file, you'll receive a task card/directions card for each of these six games.

I  love using these games for March math rotations.  Your students will have fun finding a new game or two each time they visit a center! Enjoy using them!


Games are an AWESOME way to keep our students actively practicing skills in math centers. Games are fun, so they'll want to play again and again (less of that "I'm finished! Now what do I do?" that we all dread hearing!)

Here are two more game sets your students will love! There are ten games in each set, and they all come in both color and ink-saving black/white.  Click either picture for a closer look!

                              

                                First Grade Games                                 Second Grade Games

If you're looking for a wee bit more St. Paddy's Day math practice, here's a set of riddle cards for two-digit numbers. Can your students find Lucky's Magic Number?  See the details at my TpT store, and download the preview for four free cards!

Click here to see all of my activities for St. Patrick's Day!

Happy Teaching!

Need a Quick Freebie to Celebrate Reading? Try These!

Hi, Teaching Friends!

Are you and your students taking part of this week's huge celebration of reading? What a wonderful reason to celebrate - reading changes lives! The door to the future opens when a child begins to read, and how privileged we are as teachers to be part of helping that door swing open!

I made these bookmarks to give to the students in the classes I'll be reading to on Thursday.  When I
put a photo on Instagram yesterday, a reader wondered whether they're in my TpT store.  Great idea- I'm delighted to share these!

Would you like a free set of these bookmarks for your class? Just click here to get your free set of bookmarks and celebrate that reading truly is a super power!

Happy Teaching!

120 New Math Riddles for First Grade ... and a Free Sample, Too!

Hi, Teaching Friends!

As the 100th day of school approaches for many of you, I'm thrilled to be offering a brand new set of one of my favorite resources, 120 Riddles for the 120 Chart.

These riddle cards are a fun way to build number sense and review first grade skills like addition and subtraction through 20, place value, adding and subtracting tens, coins (pennies, nickels, and dimes), odd and even numbers, and comparison signs.


The original set of one hundred multi-step riddle cards for the numbers 1-100 has been through a number of revisions, notably adding in riddles for 101 through 120 and adding a projectable version which allows you to easily use the riddles on your interactive board and handheld devices. 

If you are among the more than 5,000 teachers who own the set, be sure to download the most recent update!

See the original set (Set 1) here.

Although you'll find this riddle set to be perfect for your 100th Day celebration, there are so many other uses for these cards.  From teacher comments at my TpT store, here are some of the ways that teachers are using their riddle cards.


Angie suggested using a few riddles as a math lesson warm-up.

Gabrielle uses a riddle card to introduce the number of the day. 

Heidi says, "Great way to get the kids talking about numbers and exploring the 120 chart!"

Another buyer said she uses them for calendar time and finds them easy to differentiate. 

Amy uses them as a sponge activity between lessons.

Jan uses these riddles to build number sense and ease math anxiety.

Karen uses these cards to reinforce specific math concepts.

Lisa uses them once a week for problem solving.

Kathie G. says, "Perfect for whole group, small group, or even as a filler for when you have a few minutes between activities."

Another buyer uses the riddle cards for "Out the Door" cards as her students line up to leave the classroom.

A teacher uses them with her afterschool tutoring club.

Title I teacher Darlene uses them with partners and small groups.

Kristina uses riddle cards as an early finisher activity with her document camera. 

Jacqueline H. says, "I use it as a center activity in my grade 3 class, great reinforcement of concepts they should know."

Another buyer uses them for morning bellwork, and sometimes has her students write their own riddles and share them.

Laureen took the poster version of this resource and turned it into a book for the math library -  so clever! 



So, reading all of these wonderful ideas and comments (thank you, thank you - do you know how much TpT authors LOVE your feedback??), I got to thinking that many teachers who are using these riddles might be running out of riddle cards around this time of year.  

Every one of the riddles in Set 2 is totally new.  Even the graphics are new - adorable goldfish from Ashley Hughes at TpT.

Here's a closer look.

Click here to see them at my TpT store!


Would you like to try a few before you buy? Click here to download a free sample set of twelve riddle cards from the latest set!

Happy Teaching!

Keep Learning Fun with Riddles!

Hello, Teaching Friends!

If you want to keep the fun in teaching and learning, try using RIDDLES!

I'm a big fan of making learning fun, because when kids are having fun, they want...

more,

more,

MORE!

... and what teacher would ever argue with a request for more learning?  When your students are having fun while they learn { I'm talking about the ... ahem.. "controlled" variety of fun, not the Halloween-on-a-Monday or running-around-screaming kinds of fun, noisy is fine, but no thank you to craziness ;) }, their brains are actively engaged and they're learning more.  

Besides, when they're having fun, I'll bet that you probably are, too!

1.   They encourage the development of extended attention. You've got to keep listening to get all the clues!

2.   Riddles help develop your students' listening skills, like attention to detail and focusing on the speaker. What a great social skill to have - listen all the way to the end of what your friend is saying,

3.   They are a superb way to teach using key details, making inferences, and drawing conclusions, critical skills no matter how you label them, and whether you're a Common Core district or not!

4.   Riddles encourage the use of mental images, a vital comprehension skill. Try solving a riddle without building some kind of mental image or even a graphic organizer in your mind, and changing it as new clues are added!  We do this as adults without thinking about it, but solving riddles together is one great way to model for your students the act and the language of how to develop and use mental images.

5.   Vocabulary! Our little learners are flooded with Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary in November.  Once the words have been taught and your kiddos have had a variety of experiences to help them sink in, use riddles as a great review tool.

6.  Solving riddles encourages the use of connections, a comprehension skill we all try so hard to develop in our students.  Connecting the clues with schema and prior knowledge is a skill that takes intentional practice, and lots of it!  As you talk through the thinking process with your little learners, those skills will grow! When you're working together to solve a riddle, it's a great time to ask the questions, "What's your schema? How can what you already know help you figure this out?"

7.   Riddles are incredibly engaging! Everyone wants to play along, everyone wants to guess, and to make a reasonable guess, you've got to ...LISTEN and THINK! 

1.   Riddles are great as a quick supplement to your calendar time. A riddle can be solved in under a minute - that's a lot of learning value for just a tiny snippet of time!

2.   Use as a daily whole group activity when teaching social studies (or math, science,... whatever is relevant to the topic. They are a great way to get everyone quiet and focused!

3.  Use a riddle card on your smartboard to develop reading skills like those listed above. Call on students to identify and mark on the screen key words that helped them arrive at the solution.

4.  Listen without looking.  Can your students solve the riddles without seeing the words?  That's a whole different skill set than #3!

5.  Here's a cool idea that I recently received in a customer comment - use riddle cards for a quick and easy bulletin board display! A principal I once worked for required all hallway bulletin boards to be instructional and interactive. It was a bit challenging to create these at first, but once we all got into the swing of it - wow! You could always stop for a quick learning tidbit whenever you were walking your class anywhere in the school!

6.  Put a set of riddle cards in your sub tub, teamed with a themed read-aloud and a writing activity. {Most of the riddle sets in my TpT store include a template for your students to write their own riddles.} 

7.  They're a quick and engaging literacy center activity.  You might choose to have your students just number a paper and write the answers to the riddles. Or you could shake it up a bit by turning a set of riddle cards into a Read the Room activity.  Speaking of "shake it up", how about putting the answers on little cardstock scraps and sticking them into a shake-a-bottle?

8.  A riddle card on your smartboard is a no-prep Do Now when your students arrive in the morning, or come back to the classroom after recess.

9.  Early finishers love solving riddles. Print, cut, laminate, and put on a ring - a great alternative to extra worksheets!

Here are two free sets for autumn! The first has 8 riddle cards for words that you are teaching throughout autumn...

Click here to download!

... and the second free set consists of eight cards specifically for Thanksgiving.  This set also includes a cut-and-glue activity, and is a part of a Thanksgiving Literacy resource that you can find at my TpT store.

If you're as sold as I am on using riddles in the classroom, I'd love it if you'd click to see the Riddles category at my store, where you'll find loads of riddle sets for seasons, science, math, sight words, and more.

Happy Teaching!