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!

Pirate ABC's

Hi, Teaching Friends!

The pirate fun continues! Since so much of what I've been sharing for Talk Like a Pirate Day over the past few weeks has been for first and second grade, let's talk about some fun for the tiniest pirates, our PreK and kindergarten friends!

Here's a cute printable for a pirate-themed alphabet hunt, from School Time Snippets. With your kiddos searching the room for letters, this would be a fun and active alphabet experience.

From Melissa Freshwater at TpT, here's "Shiver Me Letters", a free set of adorable pirate-themed alphabet cards. You just can't get too many sets of alphabet cards ... use them for sequencing matching, sorting, assessment, and memory games like concentration.

Here's a huge pack of pirate fun and learning from Pam at Over the Big Moon. This set includes cuttting, sorting, matching, letters, patterns, numbers, puzzles, and lots more!

How about a fun pirate alphabet book? Have you seen Twenty Six Pirates by Dave Horowitz?

Cute and clever pirates, great for alphabet practice, predicting from the picture, and phonemic awareness using the rhymes. On this page for example, on your second reading of the book, have your students complete the rhymes: " Pirate Paul. Cannon ......", "Pirate Quaid. Not ......". Great for producing rhymes and also for using pictures for information.

If you're looking for more read-alouds about pirates, try these!


Last, here's a freebie for matching uppercase and lowercase letters. Each of the cards in this set has an uppercase and a lowercase letter. Match each uppercase to its lowercase form and build a trail to the pirates' treasure!  Click and enjoy!!

Happy Teaching!

Books for Pirate Day, Plus a Pirate Math Freebie!

Hi, Teaching Friends!


Stop by my post at Teaching Blog Roundup to find out about some great books for Talk Like a Pirate Day!

If you read David McPhails's Edward and the Pirates to your class, here's a free set of word problems to go with the book. Enjoy!

Happy Teaching!

Pirate Day Math!

Yo Ho, Teacher Friends!

It's September, so in primary grade classrooms, it's time for fall colors, Johnny Appleseed, and ... pirate fun! Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19th, has become a fiesta of phenomenal fun in schools, with books, games, songs, and lots of eye patches and pirate lingo.

So, why not join in the festivities by making Friday the 18th Pirate Day in your classroom? Get on board the pirate ship now for some math activities your little learners will have a blast with!

Keep it simple by starting out with classroom games that you already use. Since these are games your students already know, or that you'll definitely want to teach them for use throughout the year, you'll be saving yourself some time in the long run. Here are a few examples for easy ways to switch up old favorites.

* If you play an ordinary game of  Top It while you're wearing an eyepatch, it's suddenly a pirate game!  This works like a charm with anything.  Review flashcards with a partner? Yes, please! Read the Room with subtraction facts? More! More!

* Number fact bingo is fun anyway, but on Talk Like a Pirate Day, let the little winning matey call out something fun like "Yo Ho!" or "Walk the Plank!"

* Are you practicing skip counting by fives?  Try having all of your students stand in a circle and count aloud by ones, one at a time around the circle. Here's the Pirate Twist: whenever the number is a multiple of five, that child says "Aaaargh!" instead of the number.

Are you starting off your year teaching place value? Here's a free I Have, Who Have game for you!
Click here to get your copy!

These games take a little more preparation, but if your kids love pirates, you'll find yourself using them all year, even when it's not Pirate Day!

Five pirate-themed math resources for K-2:  

* 12 games for adding and subtracting multiples of ten

* Buried treasure on the number line - 135 addition and subtraction clue cards, number lines, a cut-and-glue assessment page, and a board game

* Pirate addition games, 10 easy-prep one page games for sums of 2-12, sums of ten, addition doubles, addition doubles plus one, and three addends with sums of 18 or less

* Pirate's Bounty Fact Sort, a game for addition and subtraction facts 10-20

* Addition Doubles Games,  3 four-in a-row strategy games (this one's a freebie!)

You can get them all separately, but you'll save by buying them bundled!


Happy Teaching!

Pirate Riddles with Two-Digit Numbers - Aye, Me Mateys!

Hi, Teaching Friends!


I love creating resources that sneak a lot of learning into a bit of fun. Games, riddles, puzzles, ... learning in a fun package!

So, here's a taste of some more of that kind of learning. These riddles for two-digit numbers are elimination puzzles. Your students will read 4 or 5 clues and compare the answers to a set of nine numbers, crossing out the relevant numbers. The number that's left at the end is the Pirate's Secret Treasure Number.



                                        

Here are a few examples of the kinds of math riddles your students will be solving.

"It's not greater than 7+19."

"It's not an odd number."

"It's not 41+ 22 or 51 + 32."

"It's not half of 100."

"It's not a number that you can make using only nickels."

"It's not a number with two different digits."

Lots of math skills, critical thinking, and variation in levels of difficulty.  There are 24 cards in all, plus a student response page with answer key. 

Use them as task cards for math centers, for early finishers, or as bell ringers. These cards are great to use for a skills rotation (Scoot!), with your students moving around the classroom either alone or with a partner, solving as they go. Or just put one of the riddles up on your doc camera when you have a few minutes - a super sponge activity, packed with lots of Common Core content practice!

Click here to see this set at my Teachers Pay Teachers store!


Would you like to try a sample? Just click on this cover and enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Teaching!

Pirate Day Fun!

Hi, Teaching Friends!

Talk Like a Pirate Day is right around the corner! The cute, cute, CUTE pirates from KPM Doodles have inspired me, and I seem to be obsessed with making pirate math activities. I thought I'd do a quick listing here today! Just click on any of the images to get a closer look.

Let's start with a recent freebie ...Pirate Number cards. This post also includes four ideas for math games with the cards.

If you teach second grade math, you'll like this set of 24 challenging riddle cards for addition, subtraction, comparing numbers, and coins. These were fun to make, and I think your kiddos will have fun with them, too!

Would you like to try these four pirate riddles free?
Click here to get your copy!

Next up is a first grade favorite that will be perfect for your new second graders, too. It's a great collection of seven games for practice with adding and subtracting ten and multiples of ten.



This one's got a freebie in the preview, too. Just download and you've got "It's Time for Plus Ten!".

Ready for another freebie? Here we go! Your kiddos will be bouncin' in their seats with all the excitement of Talk Like a Pirate Day, so you might as well get them up and moving to get some of the wiggles out. Here's a way to do that ... another freebie for adding and subtracting ten. Click here to get your "I Have..., Who Has...?" game!

Do you know Harry Kindergarten's song, "When You Subtract with a Pirate?"  Check it out here on YouTube. Then use this free template to create your own class book based on the song.

If you're a first grade teacher, you want to give your students lots of tools to build their flexibility with adding and subtracting. Here's a set of 45 multi-step clue cards to practice using the number line ... with some "Yo ho, matey!" pirate fun, too!

"Pirate's Bounty" is a partner game for addition, with the bonus of practicing odd and even numbers. Always nice when we can sneakily squeeze in another standard, right? ;)

Want to save a few dollars? Three of these resources plus two more are bundled in this set!



Happy Teaching!

Pirate Day Math Games

Hi, Teaching Friends!

Avast, me mateys ...  I spy a silly holiday on the horizon! "Talk Like a Pirate Day" approaches, September 19th, to be exact. So, to quote ... myself, I guess ... as teachers, why would we let such a high interest day slip by without squeezing a bit more learning into it? The proverbial spoonful of sugar, if you please!

Here's a set of number cards you might like to use that day, or whenever! Keep reading for four ideas for math games that use only the cards, with few or no additional materials.  Print up several sets of the cards to use for these games.  ** If color ink is a concern, blacklines are included. If your students color materials for games and centers, sometimes they get a bit more careful about taking care of them afterwards, and that's always a good thing! 

Click here or on the picture to download the cards.

...and here are the games!


1) Walk the Plank!  This is a game for two to four players, but with enough extra cards you could probably use it in a small group lesson. Put all the cards face down on one pile.  Players take turns turning over the two top cards and adding them. If the sum is even, she keeps the cards. If the sum is odd, it's time to "Walk the plank!" - put the cards on the discard pile. The first player to accumulate ten cards is the winner.


2)  One, Two, Three, Flip!  Shuffle the cards and deal equally to two players. Players each put their cards face down on a pile in front of them. On the count of "One, two, three, flip!", both players turn over their top two cards and subtract the numbers. The player with the greater difference takes both cards. Variation: The player with the lesser difference takes both. Older students could multiply or divide the numbers.


3)  Pirates' Bounty  The difficulty level on this one is easy to adjust ... trade just pennies for nickels, or pennies to nickels to dimes, ... or right on up through quarters to one dollar! You will need a big pile of pennies, plus additional coins according to the level of the game. Put the pennies in the center of the table, along with a face-down pile of the pirate cards. Players take turns turning over the top card and taking that number of pennies. Play continues with taking pennies and trading up until the goal amount is reached. Easy-peasy coin review!


4)  Mind Reader - It's All About Five! Deal five cards to each player. Put the rest on a face down pile in the center of the table. Players hold and see their own cards but don't show them to the other player. At all times during this game, each player must have five cards in his or her hand. Player One tries to guess any card in Player Two's hand by naming addition facts.  Player 1: "Do you have 6+2?", Player 2: "No, I don't have 8", or "Yes, I have 8". If the answer is yes, he gives the card to Player 1, who places it face up on the table in front of him. Then Player 2 takes another card from the pile to keep five in his hand. Players take turns guessing until one player has five cards laid out in front of him.



You can find lots more pirate math games at levels from K-3, at my Teachers Pay Teachers store!



If you're not into pirates, or maybe you'd just like four more ideas for easy games with number cards and another set of free cards, stop by my post at Teaching Blog Round Up for these monster number cards!

You can also just download them here by clicking on the picture below!

Happy Teaching!

Yo-Ho! Bring on the Pirate Place Value!

Hi, Teaching Friends!

Isn't it amazing how adding a bit of extra fun with a theme can help kids stay on task longer? Whether it's dinosaurs or dump trucks, superheroes or silly faces, graphics simply add more fun to the "fun and games"! And, of course, the longer your students play, the greater the potential for learning!


Well, yo-ho! Your kiddos will love the theme of this game set- it's PIRATES!! While they have fun with the cute pirates, parrot, and treasure map, they'll also be getting lots of practice with adding and subtracting multiples of ten.


Take a peek!

Here's a closer look at one of the activities. There are two versions of this game, one for partners and the other to be played by just one student. There are four sets of 24 cards each that can be used with each of these versions:

            Adding Ten
            Subtracting Ten
            Adding and Subtracting Multiples of Ten
            Adding and Subtracting Multiples of Ten, Commutative Property

So actually, that's eight game combinations just with "Tell Me, Pirate, Is It True?".

The set also includes these games: Walk the Plank (68 cards for adding and subtracting ten from two-digit numbers), Arrrr! The Seas Be Full of Pirates! (a 120 chart board game where students roll and add two dice, moving back 10 or ahead 20 based on their roll), and Shiver Me Timbers! It's Time for Plus Ten! (a four-in-a-row game for 1.NBT.5). There's also a Pirates' Treasure Hundred Chart for students who may need extra support.

You can get more details here at Teachers Pay Teachers.


Here's a pirate freebie to give you a taste of what the other games are like!

With this pirate game, your students will have all the fun they always do when they play "I Have..., Who Has...?", PLUS they'll get some great practice with adding and subtracting multiples of ten, PLUS (and this is a BIG plus!) they'll get to TALK LIKE PIRATES! Yo- HO!!

Click on the cover now to get your free game!

Edited 3/2024:

Updating your collection of activities for adding and subtracting multiples of ten? Here's a set of 32 four-piece puzzles and 7 easy prep games to use with them! Click for a closer look!

Happy Teaching!