Your Mission…Should You Choose to Accept…

When I presented in Chicago, I shared some fun {to me!} math activities that my kids really love{d}.  I figured y’all might be able to use a few of them so I wanted to share some of them here, too!  The best thing about these activities is that they can be used in all different ways…whole group, independently, dessert tubs, etc.  Just a few really simple ideas to keep your kids engaged in hands-on learning!

One of my favorite ways to keep my kids engaged is with this little “Beat the Timer” notebook.  This would work for anything…not just math.  I have a tub in my room that holds my little sand timers and this little notebook.  Basically, the kids will take a timer with them to a “dessert” tub {fast finisher activity}…puzzles, write the room, etc.  If they finish the activity BEFORE the time runs out, they get to sign their name in the “Beat the Timer” notebook.  Simple. Easy.  And the kids absolutely go NUTS for this!  You could use any kind of timer…I just happen to have a whole class set of these, so it’s what works for me!  I love that the kids are SO serious about their work when they’re timing themselves.  Definitely keeps ‘em focused & engaged!

 

Here’s another fun, SIMPLE little activity that gets used A LOT in my classroom.  My kids like to “build” houses.  I have a set of these little Home Depot aprons and these plastic hard hats.  My kids get to don an apron and a hard hat and then head to the “Make 10” takeaway tray and start building their houses.  I just cut a little roof out of scrapbook paper and glued it to a little tray {Dollar Tree, of course}.  Then my kids get to pick two different color popsicle sticks out of the box.  I keep about 4 different colors inside.  They can only use 10 sticks to build their houses and show me how many different ways they can construct it using two different colors.  Then they have to record their work in their Math Journals.  Y’all.  They die.  Seriously.  Something so simple!  Maybe it’s the aprons and the hats.  Whatever it is, they LOVE “building” houses!  And it really helps to build their number sense, too!

 

This last idea was one I received several emails about from sweet girls who wanted to know if I’d add these to my little shop.  Math Missions!!! 

I made these for my “fast finishers”, but this quickly became a class favorite!  My little math detectives would anxiously wait for me to introduce their new “mission” and couldn’t wait to finish their work so they could earn a little fingerprint.  Confused yet?!  Let me explain…

Before sending my kids to Math Tubs each day, I’d introduce a new “mission”.  The missions were math tasks my kids would complete independently and at their own pace.  All of the “missions” were simple review activities I wanted my kids to practice.  Here are some examples of the tasks {these are divided up by the CCSS domains}.

They recorded their work in their “Top Secret Math Mission” notebooks and it was a great way for me to quickly assess understanding.  It also gave me some great teaching/reteaching points for math conferences.  Each time my kids CORRECTLY completed a Math Mission, they got to stamp their little fingerprint on their Math Mission Tracking Chart.  They thought this was the bees knees {does using that saying make me old? or lame? or both??}. They keep their little tracking charts in their mission notebooks…just taped to the front cover. 

Once they earned 10 fingerprints, they got to color a little Math Mission badge and glue it inside their Top Secret notebooks :)

I loved that these little missions were pretty versatile, too.  Depending on the day, I might introduce the mission{s} at the beginning of the day and let my kids work on the tasks whenever there was time or just wait ‘til Math Tubs and let them work on the task{s} during their Dessert Tubs {after the main course :)}  There were many days I didn’t introduce a mission because of time restraints, but that just made my kids that much MORE excited to get to them the next day :) 

If you’re interested in implementing these Math Missions in your class, just click on the pic below and grab ‘em from my little shop.  These were created for my Kindergarten classroom, but they’d also work for beginning of the year 1st grade {review}. 

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For those of you who came here this week to link up with my little Throwback Thursday & Favorite Pins Friday party, so sorry they were non-existent!  Now that Kacey is back with the Five for Friday linky party, I won’t be hosting Favorite Pins Friday.  It’ll be moving to a new day!  We’ll be hosting “Marvelous Pins Monday” every Monday starting next week.  Throwback Thursday will make a comeback, too!  Just in time for a new school year!  Woot!