The Simplest of Things

Well, we've finally finished up our units on double digit addition and subtraction with regrouping (a HUGE part of 2nd grade math) - YAY! Here is one of our math anchor charts:

Common core has actually made teaching regrouping just that much easier, as students are really delving deep and making their own understanding and connections. I love having "math talks" in the classroom and hearing students explain their thinking and reasoning. We are always discussing various strategies, and it's fun to see students hear other kids and how they may have solved a problem in a different way. 

Anyway, we've started our unit on place value to 1,000, and our lesson yesterday was focused on having students find number patterns and skip count by 5's, 10's, and 100's. At the end of our lesson time, we played a little game. First, I had a 5's/10's/100's spinner on the board. 

After having a kiddo come up and spin the spinner, I would make up a number pattern based on what the spinner showed. The students would then have to either continue the number pattern or find the missing number. They would write their answer in shaving cream on their desk, and then they'd discuss with a partner and justify their answers (love that my 2nd graders are using that word and know what it means!). 

 Such a simple activity I know, but it was motivating, fun, engaging, and it got the students talking and discussing. Sometimes we as teachers need to remember that it can be the simplest of things that can be the most effective. :-)

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Free Pumpkin Thief 1 Before and 1 After Game

Happy Thursday! We our taking our sweeties to the Pumpkin Patch today - so excited! I just love going to the pumpkin patch, and taking the students and seeing their joy and excitement makes it so fun. We have a great day ahead!

Anyway, here is a math game freebie! 

This game is to be used for helping students practice 1 more and 1 less (1 before and 1 after) with a hundreds chart.

To play, each student will place his/her chip on "Start." They will take turns flipping a red/yellow counter. If the counter lands on red, the player will move 1 spot. If he/she lands on yellow, the player will move 2 spots. For whatever number the player lands on, he/she must say the number before and the number after, and the other player should check his/her answer. If a player lands on "Splat", he/she loses his/her her turn (I tell them that means they dropped their pumpkin). If they land on a "Hidden Passage" spot, they get to take the shortcut down the arrow. The first person to make it to the square marked "Finish" is the winner (we always go over good sportsmanship in our classroom).

Hope you can use this game in your classroom or with a small group of kiddos! It's a fun way to practice those math skills. :-) To download, click HERE, or click the picture below. Enjoy!

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Catching Butterflies

I haven't posted much this week with it being Spring Break! Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that I haven't forgotten you - I'm just taking a bit of a break. :-) Here is a free math game/center I created to help my students practice using ten-frames and making numbers. To prep this activity, I will be putting butterfly (bow tie) pasta in baggies. I will be making quite a few baggies of mixed, random amounts between 1-20 (you could extend this by adding more pasta and having students use 2 or more mats). Students will then choose a baggie, place the "butterflies" on their ten-frame mats, and record the number on the recording sheet. I set up the recording sheet so they have practice writing the number of butterflies in 4 different ways. The students can then just keep repeating this. If you can use this, feel free to download, and leave some feedback if possible!! Just click the link below the pictures to download. Happy Thursday! I can feel Spring upon us, and it feels great!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Catching-Butterflies-Using-10-Frames-and-Making-Numbers

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