Baseball Place Value

While at the Texas Ranger's game the other night, I came up with a baseball themed game to review comparing larger numbers: Baseball Place Value. To play the game, divide your class into two teams. One team will be the guests and the other will be the home team. A player from each team will draw a number card and each will build their specific number with the bats (tens) and baseballs (ones). The player with the largest number will move their player to the first base. The player with the least number will pick up a strike card. Play continues to the next players on the team. Once a team gets their player around all the bases, they mark their score on the scoreboard with tally marks. When one team receives three strikes during an inning, that inning is over and all players start back at homeplate. The team with the most runs at the end of the ninth inning wins! After modeling a few times, students should be able to play this game in small groups during math centers. To download the game, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

Jeopardy!

Thank you to April Larremore, our district's Kinder/First Grade Strategist, for giving our class an electronic Jeopardy game. The students love it! We connected it to our Promethean Board thanks to the help of our Instructional Media Specialist, Sharon Thornton. The software that comes with the game is very easy to use and I was able to create several review games. My teammate, Ms. Branch, and I combined classes one afternoon during math to review various concepts. Each student had a dry-erase board to work out problems, as needed, and they took turns controlling the joysticks. They stayed engaged the entire time.

Bubble Burst: Odd Numbers

Now that we have the Promethean Board in our class, we have been doing a variety of review games from various websites. One of the students' favorite games is Bubble Burst. In this game, the students have to pop all of the bubbles with odd numbers in them. During these mini-reviews, one student gets to be "Board Boss" and choices a student to play who is showing the good behavior characteristics from our Capturing Kids' Hearts Social Contract. I love this game because it is highly engaging for the students without being overwhelming on the graphics side but also because the students have to work together to rationalize quickly which would be odd and which would be even. The students work well together to tell one another which to choose and why.

Math and Science Family Night

Last Thursday we had a great turnout for our annual Math and Science Night. Congratulations to Carmen for being a winner in the Math and Science Night poster contest! In first grade, the students could make constellations in the science room or play addition and place value games in the math room. In science, the students placed a printout of a constellation on top of a piece of black paper. They then used a push pin to punch a hole where the stars were located. When they held up the black paper to a light, they could see the light through the holes and the constellation shape. In math, they could play "Go Fish to Ten." In this game, it is played like the traditional "Go Fish" game but instead of playing for a matching card, they ask for the card that would add up to ten with their card. Whoever had the most cards at the end won the game. In the other math game, each player would take two cards from the stack and make the biggest number possible. For example, if they drew a six and an eight, the greatest number they could build was eighty-six. Whichever partner had the greatest number overall got to keep the cards. Whoever had the most cards at the end won the game. These are games that can be easily played at home with a simple deck of cards.

Dinosaur Dentist: Doubles -1

In math we have been reviewing how to use doubles addition and subtraction sentences to solve other math facts. The students created doubles neighborhoods to relate doubles and doubles +1. I teach the students then when they are thinking about doubles +1 the two addends are "neighbors" on the number line. The concept is the same for doubles -1. If it is +1, go up one on the number line. If it is -1, go down on number on the number line. We also discussed how doubles are always even numbers and doubles +1/-1 are always odd numbers. You can learn more about the doubles neighborhoods here.

To help the students practice this concept, we played a game in the computer lab called Dinosaur Dentist. In this game, the students pull one tooth from a dinosaur, which has the same number of teeth on top and bottom (the double). They then have to use the double to determine what the answer to the double -1 would be. You can have your child play this game at home for free along with Robin Hood Doubles where the students simply identify the sum of a given double.

Clock Match-Up

As a way to review time, the students played a game to match digital times to their analog clock counterparts. In the beginning, they just matched the two cards but eventually they played concentration with the cards to add a little challenge. The students can play these games during math stations while I tutor small groups.

Globes: Land and Water

Last week in Social Studies we talked about different landforms and bodies of water that are found on earth. As a part of that study we played a game where the students rolled the globe to one another. When the globe rolled towards them, they could only touch it wiht one hand. They then had to identify if the part their hand landed on was land or water. As each person had a turn, we tallied their response. The students quickly realized that they landed on water the majority of the time. This led to a discussion of how the earth is covered mostly in water. After the game, the students folded a paper plate into fourths. To help them remember that the earth is mostly water and that is approximately three/fourths water, they colored three out of four parts as water and one out of four parts as land. This was a fun way to also introduce a little bit of fractions and probability.

Clock Shoot

This week we have been learning to tell time on the hour and half hour in both analog and digital formats. We will be working more on these concepts next week - especially telling time to the half hour. To help your child practice matching analog time to digital time, have them play the game Clock Shoot. In Clock Shoot, the students move the mouse to reveal an analog clock. Using the analog clock, they aim and shoot at the matching digital time. There are varying levels so the students can work in "relaxed" mode or they can increase the rigor with a timed moded.

Don't Let the Cows Out!

A few years ago in an effort to find an engaging way for the students to practice math facts, I created a game called "Don't Let the Cows Out!" In this game, the students sit in a circle on the floor and take turns throwing two large foam dice into the center - we call the dice "cows." The first student to add the two numbers together stays in the middle and competes against the next player. The students are the fence and we have a rule that if the "cows" get out of the fence, you lose your turn and have to go clean up after the cows...you know, "cow patties." Yes, I realize this is strange but the kids love it!  And, it discourages the students from throwing the dice all over the room. I have no idea why this idea came to me but it surprisingly works and the kids love it! Now that the students are well-versed in the rules and expectations of this game, I can assign a "trail boss" to monitor the game while I provide other students with small group instruction in math. The students who are not in the middle provide encouragement with cheers and by pretending to make food for players who have been in the circle for a while. It keeps the students active while waiting their turn. We try to play this game at least fifteen minutes per math period to spiral in math facts but they would play all day if I would let them. They love it so much they ask to play it when we have indoor recess.

Shake Those Beans

To help the students understand the concept of addition and subtraction, we have been playing a game called "Shake Those Beans." Each day we practice finding addition sentences for a set sum. The students get a cup of two-color beans that equal that set sum. They then shake the beans and count how many of each color and add them together. Fellow teachers, you could use two-color counters for this as well if you do not want to spray paint beans. They mark their answer on a graph. After each student has rolled their dice a total of ten times, we tally on the board which addition sentence they rolled the most. This is a great probability connection because most of the time, the addition sentences in the middle, such as the doubles, are rolled the most. The students find this fascinating! We follow up this lesson by building the various addition sentences with two different color sets of Unifix cubes. We then practice flipping over the stick to show how addends in a fact family just "flip flop" but the sum stays the same. We then find the related fact family subtraction sentences by taking away parts.

Fact Family Practice Online

EZSchool has a free fact family game online that students use to build four related addition and subtraction problems. The game gives the players three numbers and the students click on them to put them in the correct order in a number sentence. Parents, you can help your children while they play by remind them that in addition you start with the two smallest numbers and in subtraction you start with the largest number. Then remind the students that in fact families, the two smallest numbers switch places. Or, as we call it in our class, the two smallest numbers "flip flop."

Online Addition Practice

Over the last two weeks we have been practicing various addition and subtraction problem situations. The students are required to solve various problems including when the start is unknown (ex. ?+4=9), when the change is unknown (ex. 5+?=9), or finding the missing sum (ex. 5+4=?). I found a game online, Count Hoot Addition, that presents addition sentences in this format and increases difficulty as the students achieve success.

Subtraction Practice

Also on MoreStarfall, your child can play bowling to help practice subtraction. The students roll the ball and then a subtraction problem appears which helps them visualize taking away objects as a form of subtraction. We play a variation of this game sometimes in class with miniature bowling pins that I picked up in the toy section of Target. The students take turns rolling the ball twice. They count how many pins they knock over on the first roll and add it to however many pins they add on the second roll. You can extend the learning to relate addition and subtraction facts by having the students first count how many bowling pins there are and then subtracting how many they knock over in their fist roll. This can lead to a discussion of fact families.

Addition Practice

Last week we worked extensively on addtion and subtraction problem situations. The students practiced using a variety of math problem mats and manipulatives. They also practiced solving problems by acting them out and by drawing pictures. One of the mats that we used to help solve problems was a part-part-whole mat. Although not exactly the same, there is a game on MoreStarfall that helps the students visualize two parts coming together to create one whole group when adding. You can click here to play the game.

Digraph Practice Online

To help your child practice digraphs at home, visit the reading website Starfall. They can practice the /sh/ sound at the beginning and ending or words here, the /wh/ sound here, the /th/ sound here, and the /ch/ sound here.

Partitioning Numbers

To help your students build quick number recognition using ten rods and ones, have them play Partioning Numbers. The game flashes various numbers and gives three answer options. As soon as the students choose the correct number, it moves to another. You can also download a set of Place Value Flashcards that I made for FREE.

Dino Place Value

Here is another fun way to practice place value at home. In the game Dino Place Value, the students are given a number to build. They identify first how many tens there and need to mentally calculate its worth. They then identify how many ones there are. In class we practice counting how many tens and then calculating how much the tens are worth by counting them by tens. We use vocabulary and phrasing such as this: "There are 2 tens. 2 tens is worth 20. There are 4 ones. 4 ones is worth 4. 20 plus 4 equals 24."

Base Ten Block Game

To help your child with place value, have them visit Learning Box to play the Base Ten game. The students will build various numbers. We are currently working on building numbers to 50. You can also have your child practice at home with manipulatives you probably have around the house. You can use pretzel sticks, craft sticks, straws, toothpicks, pencils, etc. for tens. You can use marshmallows, candy, buttons, etc. for ones. A trick we use in class to signal when it is time to break a skip counting pattern between tens and ones is to clap in between the units. For example, if we are counting to 32, the students would say 10-20-30-(clap)-31-32.

Complete the Pattern

This week we have been working on identifying, creating, and extending repeating and additive patterns. To help them with this skill, you can have your child play this fun pattern game! The students identify what comes next in the color patterns. As your child plays, ask them what the pattern core is - the part that repeats. Also ask them to label the pattern verbally using letters.

All I Am

A few weeks ago we read All I Am by Eileen Roe to learn about nouns and verbs. After reading the book we created a t-chart of the things that were nouns and the things that were verbs. The students then created a foldable to write and draw two things that they can be. We then practiced the verbs by acting out things they can do through the game "Monkey See, Monkey Do."