Shape Lovin' math game FREEBIE

My grade level has a new approach to planning this year.  We use planbookedu.com and lesson share.  With the stress of aligning our teaching methods with the rigor of new Common Core State Standards this has been a huge help!  We have a template that each team member posts lessons to.  Each team member hunts and searches through our county's curriculum pacing and finds fresh and fast paced ways to present the information to our 21st century learners.  One team member writes the CAFE/literacy mini lessons, one writes the phonics program mini lessons, one writes science and social studies, another writes the writing mini lessons and writer's workshop lessons, and I do the math.  I'm a literacy girl but as you can see from my TpT store and blog, I've been getting creative with math lately!  As the weeks go by we continue to improve now that each of us is becoming the expert in our one area.  This week I FINALLY got my lessons in by the deadline...6pm on Sunday evening.  (Grad school often gets in the way of my timely execution of lessons and laundry!)

We all have projectors in our room so often times I put a pdf of a game on the big screen during morning meeting and we play girls vs. boys.  We move magnets around the game board in place of pawns.  I can write directly on the board or game spaces and the kids have so much fun.  It's a great way to integrate skills into the social aspects of your morning meeting.  Many times we play games as a group before they are introduced in a guided math small group or before students play them with a partner during math games rotations.  I like to be sure the kids get lots of exposure to the skill or strategy before I turn them loose with a game.

Since I have many so many themed sets, I find myself changing the graphics on the games to make a quick review that goes along with our current theme.  We are beginning third quarter with a shapes unit.  I re-purposed one of my Thanksgiving games to play during morning meeting.  I'm currently working on my February math games pack, so this may make the cut, or I may just leave it as a freebie.   The game is called Shape Lovin'!  As students move around the game board, they name shapes and give real examples of objects with that shape.  When I played with my students we tallied flat and solid shapes during the game.  It was fun and generated authentic math talk among students.  Download it and let me know what you think!  :)