Fun in First

A Teaching Blog by Jodi Southard

Math

Daily Math Notebooks

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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.

This Daily Math Notebook will provide your students with daily math practice. Students will practice word problems, multi-step problems, written explanations of their answers, and many other math skills. This works well in a whole group or small group setting as well as a math intervention group.

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.

This Daily Math Notebook will provide your students with daily math practice. Students will practice word problems, multi-step problems, written explanations of their answers, and many other math skills. This works well in a whole group or small group setting as well as a math intervention group.

 

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 🙂

This Daily Math Notebook will provide your students with daily math practice. Students will practice word problems, multi-step problems, written explanations of their answers, and many other math skills. This works well in a whole group or small group setting as well as a math intervention group.

Tips for Teaching Fact Fluency

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I am sure that I don’t need to tell you the importance of fact fluency for your young students, but I will anyways.
“Lack of automatic recall is a problem as children advance into the middle and later elementary grades, because the need to rely on laborious counting procedures creates a drain on mental resources needed to learning more advanced mathematics.” (Spear-Swerling 2006)
 Think about how often you use addition and subtraction in your life.  It is definitely a lifelong skill.  Our particular math program does not focus much on fact memorization, so we constantly have to find ways to supplement in this area.  I wanted to share some tips for teaching math facts.
The important thing to remember is that children really need a basic understanding of how addition and subtraction works before you start focusing on fact fluency.  If your students do not understand why 3+2=5, then they are not ready to start memorizing their math facts.  These students still need to work on basic number sense and one to one matching with manipulatives.
Use games to keep things fresh and interesting.  I love using games in my classroom.  If students are having fun while learning, they will be more engaged and much more likely to remember what they learned.
You can find fact fluency games in my Addition Fluency packet and my Subtraction Fluency packet.  (I also have a combo packet HERE.)  These are great for partner work or small group work.

The more hands-on my students can be the better.  I love to get them up out of their seats and working with other students.  Games are a great way to review skills or to fill those extra minutes that you have in the day.  I always have plenty of games copied and ready to go.  Whenever I see a need for a change of pace, I can grab a game out of my drawer, and we are ready to practice our learning.


Use manipulatives as much as possible.  Students want to get their hands on things.  I use manipulatives in math as often as possible.

Use technology to practice fact fluency.  We go to the computer lab at school once a week, so we have the ability to use the computers for math fact games.  If you have access to tablets in your classroom (I do not) there are some fantastic math fact apps.
It is important to remember that students will learn their math facts at their own pace.  It is impossible to believe that everyone in your classroom should learn all of their +2’s one week, +3’s the following week, and so on.  Just like anything else, students will learn them at different times.
While learning math facts is extremely important, it is NOT the sole determiner of whether or not a child is good at math.  Some students excel at memorization, while others excel at the higher order thinking portions of math.  Just because a child may be struggling with memorizing their math facts, do not assume that they will struggle with all areas of math.
Most importantly, make learning math facts FUN.

You can find these activities in my Addition and/or Subtraction Fluency packets.

Another simple idea is to change out a Candy Land game to practice fact fluency.  Just write a math fact on each card.  The player must say the answer before moving on the board.
Another fun idea is to have students take turns drawing flash cards from a stack, saying the answer, and then putting them in order from 1-10.  The first player to get all numbers from 1-10 is the winner.
We also love playing Addition Top-It, which is basically the card game War.  Each player turns over two cards and adds the numbers.  The player with the higher sum is the winner of that round and gets all four cards to add to their pile.
Another idea is to write math facts on popsicle sticks.  You can add a star, frowning face, sticker, etc. to some of the sticks.  Players will take turns pulling out sticks and saying the answers.  If a players pulls a stick with a picture, they have to put all of their sticks back into the container.
What are your favorite ways to practice fact fluency?
Want to check out my Addition and Subtraction Fact Fluency packets?  Click on the pictures below.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Addition-Fluency-2374145
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Subtraction-Fluency-2381243
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Addition-and-Subtraction-Fluency-Bundle-2381390
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

‘Twas the Week Before Christmas Break

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Winter Break is just around the corner, and we have been busy, busy, busy!  Even though this time of year is absolutely crazy, it’s a fun kind of crazy.  I always feel like I want to squeeze in so many fun things, but there just isn’t enough time.
We just finished up our unit on measurement in math.  In all honesty, it is one of my least favorite things  to teach in math.  However, these measurement trees were the PERFECT way to practice measuring in inches. 
I pinned these a couple years ago from Mrs. Lee’s Kindergarten, and have loved doing them every since.  Jen, from Teacher by the Beach, gave me the idea to use scrapbook paper instead of regular construction paper.  Genius! 
I had a bunch of random scrapbook paper in my room that I cut into 8 inch x 1 inch strips.  The students measured and cut the strips from 1 inch to 7 inches.  Then, they glued them in order to make their tree.
I gave them each a sticky foam star that I bought from Meijer.  When they were finished, the students painted snow with q-tips and white paint.
Even our elf loved their pictures.
We have also been working on a readers theater that we will be performing for other classes tomorrow and Friday.
I wanted to come up with something a little different, so I wrote a readers theater called ‘Twas the Day Before Christmas Break.
My class is so excited to perform it tomorrow.
 Plus, I have to say, they are doing an AMAZING job!
If you want to check out this readers theater script, click on the picture below.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Twas-the-Day-Before-Christmas-Break-Readers-Theater-2259518


Bunny Math FREEBIE & April Nonfiction

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We are on Spring Break this week, but if you have school tomorrow, and you need a quick math activity for your students, this is perfect.
Students will spin on the Bunny Spinners to see what numbers they will be using to write their equations.  You can differentiate this according to each student’s level.  You can have them add two numbers, three numbers, or more.  You could have students subtract their numbers, or even multiply.

I have also included two different grouping mats if you would like to have the students demonstrate their equation using jelly beans or seasonal erasers.
 
This freebie also includes a recording sheet for students to write down their number sentences.
You can download this FREEBIE by clicking HERE.
 
I have finally finished my Nonfiction in April packet, as well.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Nonfiction-in-April-1791024
 
This packet includes units on Farm Animals (cows, pigs, sheep, & chickens), Plants, Rocks & Minerals (metamorphic, igneous, & sedimentary rocks), and Dinosaurs.
If you have already purchased the entire year bundle, go back and redownload it to get the new update that includes April.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Year-of-Nonfiction-1564581
 


Daily Math Notebook

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When I created my Daily Comprehension Notebook’s last year, they were such a huge success that people started asking if I would create a Math version.
I’m happy to say that I just completed the 1st grade edition of my Daily Math Notebook!!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Daily-Math-Notebook-1st-Grade-Edition-1303873
 
I am very excited to use these during this next school year.  I will be binding one for each of my students like I did with my comprehension notebooks.  I have also heard from teachers saying that they like to copy it at 75% and use the sheets in their interactive notebooks.
Each week contains a “Problem of the Week” as well as a multi-step problem.  Days 3-5 include other standard based math skills for the students to work on.

 
I will have this notebook on sale starting today through Friday if you would like to pick it up at a discount to prep for the new school year!  Head on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.
 


Number Boxes

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Remember last week when I said that I was pretty safe in saying that this Friday was going to be our 100th day of school.  Well…..I was wrong.  We have another snow day tomorrow.  I am beyond over this winter weather.
 
Today, we began working on Name Collection Boxes.  {This is from the Everyday Math series.}
We started by doing some examples on the board together.
 
Next, I put the students into groups of four and gave each group a piece of chart paper to make their own name collection boxes.

 
Such a simple idea, but they really loved it because they love working with partners or in small groups.
I will be adding Name Collection Boxes as an option for students to work on if they finish their work, so I created this quick freebie.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8bTZllX7s9pRzVva29ZVUtXRFE/edit?usp=sharing
Just click on the picture above to download this freebie.  I included a couple different pages as well as a blank one for you to add your own numbers.
 
Hopefully, you’re staying much warmer than we are here!  How many days until Spring again?