St. Patrick's Day Math Facts Treasure Hunt FREEBIE

Do your students need to practice their math facts?  If they are anything like mine, the answer is yes, and you will LOVE this St. Patrick's Day themed math fact treasure hunt freebie!



Educators and cognitive scientists agree that the ability to recall basic math facts fluently is necessary for students to attain higher-order math skills.  Because of this, I am always looking for fun ways to get my students practicing their math facts.

My students have been having fun with this St. Patrick's Day themed Treasure Hunt Game! I hide a "treasure" picture underneath one of these cups.

The students pick one of the cups. Then they answer the math fact on the cup, and if they get it correct, they get to lift it up and see if they won the treasure.  If not, they put the cup down and the next student tries.

Here is a video of the game in play:

You can download this FREEBIE at my Teachers pay Teachers Store here.  

I also have an addition version for younger grades here.

Have you used this activity in your classroom? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below or tag me on Twitter or Instagram.

And while you're here, enter to win one of our fabulous giveaways!

Two for Tuesday

I am participating in The Teaching Tribune's Summer Blogging Event for Two for Tuesday!  What that means is I have discounted two of my top selling products at 50% off for one day only, Tuesday, June 10th (and since I am a little late to the party due to kids' doctors appointments, the items will remain on sale until 4:00 PM June 11th to give you a full 24 hours to save!

The products on sale are my Kicking it Math Multiplication and Addition Units.

You can read the full post about how I implement this in my class here.

 

Happy students wearing the "belts" they have won!

 

 

Yes, belts, as in karate belts.  The program involves a karate theme and the students pass levels to earn different belts.  They LOVE this!

 

 

We start by practicing our math facts orally.  Each student has their own key ring with "belts" that have the math facts on them - problems only on one side and problems and answers on the other.  One student says all of the problems and answers while the other student coaches, then they switch.  This takes about 2-3 minutes.

 



 

Here is a close-up of the cards.

 

 

Then we complete a 1 minute timed test.  The students have folders with their current level in a sheet protector.  They answer using a dry erase marker.  I only make copies at the beginning of the year!  Yeah!

 

If they finish before the time is up, they raise their folder above their head, I collect them, grade them, and change the sheet out if they are all correct.

 

 

 

 

Their name is also changed on our level board.

 

 

 

  

Water Fight - How to Get Students to Practice Math Facts the Last Few Weeks of School

If I had to pick one thing that almost all of my students need to practice more it would be math facts!  They do not want to take the time to memorize them, so I get sneaky and make it fun - a game really.  I try to have a Kaboom type center available for my students at all times to practice their facts.  I change up the theme throughout the year to keep it fresh and exciting.  My latest game centers around water balloons - because what kid doesn't LOVE water balloons this time of year?

I took some pictures of my students playing the game and I had to share a ton of them because the expressions on their faces are priceless!  You can tell they are having a great time... but did they realize how hard they were working?

They pick a card and answer the fact on it.  If they get it correct, they get to keep the card.  They try to have the most cards by the time the timer goes off  (or I say the game is over).

I try to put the cards into containers that match the theme for extra fun ... I used a pail and shovel for this one.  (We had quite the discussion about the words bucket and pail being synonyms).

Oh no!  The dreaded splash balloon means they lose all of their cards!

If you would like to try this fun game with your class you can find them at the links below:

Addition

Subtraction

Multiplication

Division

For more ideas for practicing math facts, check out this post!

Cookies for Santa - A Fun Way To Practice Our Math Facts

In keeping with the holiday spirit, I decided to spruce up our math fact practice with these adorable Cookies for Santa Kaboom game!  The kids had a blast!

I put all of the "cookie" pieces in a leftover Christmas cookie tin upside down.  The students pulled the cards out and attempted to answer the fact. If they got it correct, they got to keep the card.  If they got it wrong, it went back into the tin. If they got the dreaded KABOOM card - they had to put all of their cards back.  The winner is the kiddo with the most cards when time was up.

Sorry about that yucky glare!  And yes, we were wearing coats in the classroom - it has been FREEZING this week!

You can find the Cookies for Santa Cards in my Teachers Pay Teachers or Teachers Notebook Stores below:  I have addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division versions.

Teachers Pay Teachers

Addition 

Subtraction

Multiplication

Division

Teachers Notebook

Addition 

Subtraction

Multiplication

Division

If you would like to win one, leave a comment below with your email address and I will send one to the first three people who leave a comment!

5 For Friday!

Well, Friday is almost over, but I couldn't let it end without linking up for 5 for Friday from Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Five random things from this week:

1. I spent a good chunk of this week finishing up the final touches on a new product, Kicking It Math! It is a program that I have been using with my students to master their math facts.

My kids have been BEGGING to work on their math facts so they can earn new belts.  Literally begging!  I have one student who stays after school each day to get an extra round of practice.  I practically have to kick him out the door each day! LOL!  Even my 7 year old has gotten in the act and is working on his own belts in multiplication.  He just started second grade, and is already ahead of most of my class because he practices so much!

 

He has also got his buddy (another teacher's child) to come in with him each afternoon to try as well.  So, now after school I have a mini math facts club! I will be posting later on this week about all of the ins and outs of the program and how I use it, but you can also find it on Teachers Pay Teachers here.

 

2. Another happy teacher moment is that Daily 5 is well on its way and we are developing more and more stamina each day.  Our record is 21 minutes, but I would be thrilled if we could go for 20 minutes a round. A few shots of Read to Self:

 

 

 

We are hard at work at using text for evidence to answer questions!

 

3. We also worked hard solving some math puzzlers for place value.

 

 

4. We are also loving our read aloud Wonder - And I am loving their persuasive writing to let me know why THEY should sit at the summer table with Auggie and Summer.  If you have not read this book yet - you HAVE to!

 

 

5. And on a non-school related matter look at this!

 

Let me just preface this with the fact that I am NOT a runner - it is probably one of my least favorite things to do.  But... I am working on taking better care of myself, so I got a treadmill for Christmas.  When I first started using it, I could make it a mile in about 23 minutes with a combination of running and walking - but mostly walking.  This morning I finished a  mile in 14:35 and that included my 2 minute warm up at a slow pace - yeah me!  I know to all of you REAL runners out there this is nothing, but... it's all about the growth right?

 

Last but not least, I have a winner for my TpT gift card giveaway!  If you would like to win next month, simply follow my TpT store for your chance!

 

 

 

 

 

Five For Friday!

 

Well, we have survived the second week of school!  Woo hoo!  Time for a three day weekend, and of course, Five For Friday with DoodleBugs Teaching!

 

Here are 5 Random things from this week:

 

1. I am LOVING the First Ten Weeks: Mentor Sentence Unit from Ideas by Jivey that I bought during the big TpT sale!

 

One thing that I really don't think I taught as well as I could have last year was grammar.  Our district has adopted the Common Core in full force, and in doing so has pretty much dumped all of our text books.  I felt like last year I was just piecing things together.  I love the flow of her unit, and I feel like my students are gaining so much more from this.  Even though things aren't perfect, as you can see above, I know where my students are and what I need to do to get them there.  I love having a plan!

 

2.

My kiddos have been hard at work Kicking those math facts!

This is similar to what I used last year, but they are loving the new karate style theme! I will be posting this to TpT soon - hopefully this weekend.

 

3. Reptiles!  My boys have gone reptile crazy!  My husband took the youngest two to Repticon, a big reptile convention. 

 

 

 While they were there, they learned about a reptile club, which they wanted to join.  The first meeting they went to was this week.  They brought their leopard ghecko to show and tell.  Here are a few of the other pets that were shown:

 

 

While at the club, Cody won a new reptile - A corn snake! Yikes!  I am not sure what I think about this new hobby :/ - but they are loving it.

 

4. Birthdays! We have LOTS of birthdays in August and September, and I always make them wear the birthday hat!

 

 

5. Homework funny:

Just had to share this little homework funny:

 

If you can't read it - it says "The problem was that the author could not write a good book.  The problem got solved when they got good at it."

 

Made me chuckle!