If I had to come up with the number one thing that the majority of my students struggle with when it comes to math each year, it would definitely be story problems. The whole process of reading through the problem, figuring out how to solve it, and explaining their thinking afterwards is so challenging for first graders. We work on this skill over and over throughout the school year because it is such an important skill.
We use our Daily Math Notebooks to allow us to work on problem solving as well as multi-step problems, which again, are SO challenging for young minds.
I love these because we can quickly review our important math skills each day. We really focus on not only solving word problems, but explaining our thinking when we solve them.
In my former school, we used two school-wide strategies everyday that I still carry over to my classroom now. The first one was called RUTA-C. This stood for Read, Underline, Think, Attack, Check. This is a great way to help students work their way through story problems. There are many other acronyms that you could use as well. Some of the ones that I have seen include:
- CUBES (Circle important numbers, Underline the Question, Box Key Words, Evaluate and Eliminate, Solve and check your work)
- STAR (Stop and read, Think about your strategy, Act and solve your problem, Review the Answer)
- RISE (Read and reread the problem, Illustrate, Solve, Explain)
Whichever one you decide to use, stick with it and use it consistently. This will really help your students with working through story problems.
Another prompt that we use in our Daily Math Notebooks is, “I know______ because ______.” This is one of my favorite ways to have students answer questions, because it allows them to explain their thinking in a logical way. “I know that Abby has 9 pencils, because she has 5 red pencils and 4 blue pencils and 5+4=9.” Without this prompt, so many of my students fall into the trap of explaining how they got their answers with sentences like, “I am smart.” or “I used my fingers.”
This prompt also works well when explaining their answers during reading comprehension. “I know that Goldilocks was scared when she saw the three bears, because she screamed and ran out of the house as fast as she could.” It truly is a great prompt to use in many areas. Click on the picture below to download the freebie picture to post in your classroom.
Want to add Daily Math Notebooks to your math instruction?
Check them out by heading over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store. DAILY MATH NOTEBOOKS
What are teachers saying about Daily Math Notebooks?
“LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!!!!!!! Was hoping you had a math version of your reading comprehension and here it is!!! LOVE IT! THANK YOU!!!” -Rhonda
“Perfect for my small group and I am able to use the same packet for both my high and lows and adapt what work I ask them to show or how we think about the problem.” -Taylynn
“Quick daily review of important math concepts. Can be used in the classroom in many different ways. For me, I project it on my white board and complete it daily with my class every day during our math meeting. This has been a quick, simple, and useful addition to my daily math instruction.” -Jeffrey
Click on the picture below to head to my store, or PIN it for later 🙂
As of right now, I have two units completed and available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 
Each unit includes 10 lessons for instruction along with many supplemental activities.
These Add and Clip cards make a great independent center activity for your students. Print them on colored cardstock or laminate for durability. I used 
Be sure to follow my 
I have way too many Candy Land games in my classroom, maybe more than I care to admit. However, I love using this game for reviewing many different skills. To create a sight word version of Candy Land, just write a sight word on each colored square. Before the player can move to that color, he/she has to read the sight word. I have also created math fact Candy Land where the player has to tell the answer to the problem before moving to their color. Other ideas for transforming Candy Land include: letter sounds, blends and digraphs, synonyms and antonyms, rhyming words, etc.
Connect Four is another game that lends itself to academics. I just write on the chips, and the students are ready to play. In the first picture, I wrote addition math facts on each piece. The player had to say the answer before putting in their chip. The second picture has beginning blends and digraphs on each chip. The players had to say a word that began with that blend or digraph before putting their piece into the game.
Another idea is to use Jenga. For the game above, I wrote ending punctuation on each block. Before pulling out the block, the player had to say a sentence that ended with that punctuation mark.
We also use Chutes and Ladders to review words with particular vowel sounds. In the picture above, I wrote a vowel on each section of the spinner. Before moving their piece, the student had to say a word that contained that vowel sound. You could use this with short or long vowel sounds. Another idea is to have the student say a math fact that equals the number they landed on before moving their game piece. For the Sorry games above, I wrote letters on each square. As the students move around the board, they have to say the letter sound. For the one on the bottom, I just wrote tasks on each card. For example, “Say a word with 2 syllables.”
These 
My students also love to find a spot in the classroom to work on their Morning Tubs in the morning.
The most important thing to remember, is to be very aware of when your students are starting to lose focus. As the year progresses, students will be able to stay in one spot for longer periods of time, but definitely switch it up often.
One of my students favorite games is 4 corners. There are a couple different ways you can play this game. One that we played recently was Vowel Sound 4 Corners. (You could definitely do 5 areas instead of 4.) I hung signs up in each corner of my room labeled short a, short e, short i, and short o. Each student stood under a sign of their choice. Then, I drew a short vowel word from a jar. For example, “cat.” All of the students under the Short a sign, went and sat down. Then, the students picked a new sign to stand under. This continued until there was one winner. This can easily be adapted to many reading and math skills.
Another great way to add a little bit of movement to your day is to use this 
This can be used as a whole group when you notice that students are starting to get off task. It also works great for students that may need to keep it at their desk to use when they need an extra break. You can download it for free 
Our second tub is a writing activity. I printed these picture cards with pictures that I had purchased from Shutterstock a couple years ago for my 
My next tub is filled with 
The next tub was kind of a last minute idea. I had some extra rolls of yarn in a cabinet that I knew I wouldn’t use anytime soon. I put these into a tub and am letting the students use it as they wish.
Some have cut out shapes. Some have glued pieces of yarn onto paper to make pictures. One group decided to make a spaghetti dinner. Even though it was a cute idea, it was messy. This tub definitely does not look neat and organized now, like it did in the picture above.
My last tub consists of 
It’s another great rotation of Morning Tubs. I will come back to share our next round with you in a couple of weeks. Are you using Morning Tubs? I’d love to hear your ideas as well 🙂
