A Quick Post about Math!

I'm not sure about you, but I feel like we do a million different things every day during our math block. There are so many basic skills to learn in first grade that we need LOTS and LOTS of practice and many opportunities to explore those concepts in different ways. Our math block is right before lunch so we play lots of math games and do interactive centers to keep our minds off our rumbling tummies!

Frames and Arrows:

My school district uses the Everyday Math series and we work a lot on Frames and Arrows problems. Students must apply a rule, such as "add 5" or "count back by 2s" to a set of numbers. Many students struggle with applying the rule and the problems get even trickier when students have to figure out what the rule is on their own. In our classroom, we use hundred charts (or number grids) to help us apply these rules. Here's a FRAMES AND ARROWS FREEBIE that we used today (along with a blank template for you to create more problems) and here is a link to the hundreds chart that I printed and had laminated for a class set!

Composing Numbers using Base Ten:

Another skill that we work on in first grade is understanding hundreds, tens, and ones. One of our activities today was using hundreds, tens, and ones base ten tools to create two and three digit numbers. I printed the base-ten block cut-outs on cardstock, cut them out, and then laminated them to make them durable. Students used the "blocks" on sorting mats with numbers into the two hundreds. Pick up your set of SORTING MATS and BASE TEN CUTOUTS here! Enjoy!

Probability Exploration with Dice:

In our math series, we explore various forms of probability. Today, students worked with a partner to roll two dice. They would record the sums of their dice in their math journal. After several minutes, we figured out which sums were rolled the most often. We discovered that 6, 7, and 8 had the most frequent rolls because there are many combinations of dice rolls to get those sums. Students then applied that probability rule to a game called Clear the Board. Click the link for your own CLEAR THE BOARD GAME BOARD created by Shari Stone (2008).

These two boys wanted to see what would happen if they placed their cubes identically on their game boards to test the probability theory even further.... I love when you can see their minds are turning with big ideas!!

Hope you enjoyed this peek into our math block today!