March Math Games UPDATE and new FREEBIE!

Hello Friends!

I have updated my March Math Games pack to correct an error and add a few new games to the set.  I wanted to share a FREEBIE with you today! :)

This game will help your students practice doubles plus one.  To win the game students will have to make it all the way to the last net (11) by rolling a five.

Enjoy! :)

Fall Math Game FREEBIE

I have thoroughly enjoyed using my pack of Halloween MathGames in my classroom this year.  They are just as engaging and exciting this year as they were for my students last year!  I made an additional set of Fall themed games to help my students practice basic skills in the morning during arrival.  

Students will be able to practice addition to ten, number words to six, fast facts with five, finding one more and one less, as well as adding and subtracting on a ten frame. The Fall theme will give us extra time to practice these skills after Halloween and through Thanksgiving!

First graders frequently work with ten frames, so the Fall 10 Frame game is a fantastic FREEBIE!  I hope you enjoy it!  Hop by my TpT store and check out my Halloween and Fall themed items or visit my past blog posts to pick up a few great freebies from last year!  Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Spring Math Game FREEBIE

My Spring Math Games pack is finally ready and on TpT!  This pack includes10 games and they are all so much FUN!  The kids had a blast "testing" this pack in the classroom!  I always get "supportive" comments from my students.  One little boy said to me, "Ahhh...I see what you did there, Mrs. G!"  I love it!  Some kids play the game and practice basic skills while others are able to identify the specific math strategies I tried to emphasize for each game.
 

Spring Math Games for 1st Grade

We've been working with visualizing (making mental pictures) during our ELA block; many students were able to see that visualizing is a good math strategy too!  We use the "ten frames in our head" to solve addition and subtraction problems to 20 fluently.

Students are also becoming more fluent at visualizing the hundred board in their heads as they add tens, ones, and decade numbers.

I have a great FREEBIE game for you today.  It's called "Bee Nice Dice."  A lot like candy land, students move ahead to the correct number space.  Each time they roll a die, they follow the code to add, double, triple, or subtract to make 4, 9, or 12.  The kids really enjoyed it.  I did get one bit of constructive feedback, though, that games could always use a "go back to start" and "loose a turn."  Oh well!  This game is a move forward game!  Download the FREEBIE and help your students get through the bee hive by following the number code.

If you enjoy the game, stop by my TpT store and pick up the whole pack.  Many of the games are great to play as a whole class and then as early finisher activity!  Thanks for stopping by!

St. Patrick's Day FREEBIE

There is nothing I love more than setting up my reading table on Thursday afternoon in anticipation for math game day on Friday!  What makes it even better is when I set out new seasonal games I've made for my class!  We celebrated St. Patrick's Day this Friday and the kids had a blast with the shamrock and rainbow themed games!

In the past I have had kids rotate through game stations in predetermined groups.  Recently I started something new.  I partner students and allow them to come "check out" their first game from my kidney table.  They play until they have completed the game, and then bring their game back to the table to exchange it for another game.  It works really well!  There is no noisy clean up or "switch" time and kids don't get bend out of shape because they didn't finish or get a turn to "win."  Since I usually had kids switch partners with each rotation, the new system alleviates all of the arguing and "I don't have a partner" business.  Children work with the same partner the whole time and I try to be sure kids have a new partner each week.  We had great fun today!

My students loved the Lucky 17 (race to 17 cents) and Leprechaun Line Up (add number up to 17).

 

I also used an adorable game from TpT called Leapin' Leprechauns.  My kids played doubles plus one with this game.  I let them use chocolate candy (gold Rolo and gold almond Hershey's kisses) as game pawns.  When the reached 100, I let them eat their piece of candy.

I have a great FREEBIE to share today.  Paddy's Puzzles is a hundred board puzzle game that students can play together.  Students choose a shamrock number to start with and then take turns filling in the rest of the numbers on each puzzle.

If you enjoy my freebie come check out my March Fun game pack on TpT.  It includes 7 more ready to go games for your first graders! Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Make 100 math game FREEBIE

I have a great FREEBIE for you today! My class will celebrate the 100th day of school this week, and Valentine's Day is right around the corner!  I made a game that compliments these two themes.  We play a fun math game in our class called Make 100!  This game is played like Go Fish where students try to find decade numbers that will make a sum of 100 (40+60).  

I have included an owl themed set and a bee themed set.  You can print as many of the number partner cards as you like (depending on how many students you want to play the game at one time) and you can choose to include the 100 cards or leave them out.  My students love the 100 cards because they don't need a match and can be used right away!  

 

I hope your students have a blast playing Make 100!

February Math Games & Grounghog Math Game Freebie

I can't believe how time flies!  February is already here!  I made a great set of February Math Games that includes groundhog, Valentine, president, and dental health themes.

My sons test the games for me to be sure they are "cool" enough and "fun" enough.  They are in kindergarten and second grade, so I get a good sense of the strategies that can be used to play the games.  I love watching my sons approve the games before I test them with my first grade students.  One of my second grader's comments this time was, "Your fonts are all good!"  Sometimes he has me go back and change things!  

Our favorite game is The Love Connection where you have to cover decade numbers that make 100.  When all the numbers are covered, the player with the longest connecting string of numbers is the winner.  We had a blast playing again and again to see if we could get a longer string of connecting numbers.

I realize Groundhog Day is right around the corner, so I'm linking one of my groundhog games, Shadow Bump, as a FREE PREVIEW.  Students roll two dice and add.  Then they add ten to the sum.  Players can cover, bump, or lock numbers!  It's lots of fun! I hope your students like it!

Stop by my TpT store and check out my February Math Games, and Winter Math Games.   Thanks!  
 

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!  :)

Winter Math Games

I've got a great freebie for you today!  My Winter Math Games are now posted on TpT!  The set includes 8 game boards.  I use the games with my students as morning meeting activities (the kids lOVE to play boys vs. girls with the game projected on the BenQ board), guided math small group instruction, and then in the skills/games math center.  

 

Some of my advanced students master the game strategies quickly, so I made recording sheets for seven of the games as an extension or enrichment for the game.  Some of the sheets are challenging and would work well as a guided math group lesson.

I want you to have a sample of one of my favorite games, Mug O' Mallows, which focuses on combining tens to make 100.  I hope you can use it in the classroom to reinforce decade numbers and making sums of 100.  Students can't have enough practice working with groups of ten.  A second grade teacher colleague told me that many of her students still struggle to fluently add decade numbers!   

My son (a second grader) loves playing these games and trying to teach my kindergartener how to play!  I think the games would be great for first or second grade students (depending on independent skill levels).  Have fun with the freebie and if you like it, visit me on TpT for more details on my new Winter Math Games pack.  :) 

Christmas Math Games

Christmas is right around the corner and I am so excited to share my holiday themed game boards with you!  I posted the set to TpT last night!  There are 12 game sheets (one game has two parts to it).

The games include many first grade skills in addition, subtraction, counting, and tens and ones.  I use these games to teach and then review basic operations concepts in my 1st grade classroom.  The games can be used in 2nd grade as independent practice or review. 

Games titles include:

*Candy Count (skip counting by 2s, 5s, 10s)

* Elf Doubles (doubles of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, & 10)

* Reindeer Race (add two dice and tell if odd/even)

* Naughty or Nice? (add three dice and tell if < or > 10)

* Plus Five (add five to 10, 25, 40, 65, 75, 90)

* Subtraction Stars (subtract ten from a two digit number)

*Trim the Tree (spin a tens number and cover the tens number that makes 100)

*Stockings and Candy Canes (chutes and ladders – adding ten to a two digit number)

*Ornament Roll (roll a die and subtract that number from ten)

*Shop ‘til you drop (spin for pennies and dimes and find/cover the total)

*Fact family fun (add or subtract to make a fact family equation)

My favorite part of designing these math games is using them with my students.  They always have such fun with the creative approach to practicing skills.  Today I used the Candy Count game and the Reindeer Race game.  The students loved trying to make their way to the gingerbread house and trying to "harness" all of their reindeer for Santa's sleigh.  

It blesses my heart when students say "thanks for making this for us" and when they ask to play the games again.  The rule in my classroom during math game rotations, is that you must never have the same partner.  Students look forward to switching partners with each rotation and have learned how to work with ALL children in the classroom.  I love how they recognize that different students have different strengths and favored strategies.  I appreciate how they will try new strategies with their partner and feel comfortable working toward the "win" as a team.

I wanted to give you a fun freebie, Naughty or Nice, from my game pack to try in your classroom.  Hopefully you can use this to keep your little ones engaged right up to the last day.  If you like it, please stop by my TpT store and pick up the whole pack for $4.