Hands-on learning is incredibly important for kids. There are a million reasons why! Today I am highlighting more than 60 elementary hands-on math teaching ideas that I have featured over the years on my site.
Want a fun way to teach measurement that can be adapted for all students? Let me introduce MEASUREMENT TAG!
Geometric Art
Free patterns math worksheet for preschool and kindergarten. Students finish the patterns in each row. I would then have the students color the pattern as
Here's a simple way to teacher less than, greater than: with toys! Free printable included.
Integrate math and art with these symmetrical pattern coloring cards. This is a great math art project that kids love doing!
This Australia Lapbook contains lots of fun and interesting elements as well as hands-on activity for children to learn about this unique country.
The 5 Best Methods & Specific Tips on HOW to Incorporate Each in Your Own Classroom Being a teacher is a tough business. It can be hard to navigate the classroom and know if your teaching methods are
Free printable tangrams and tangram pattern cards. These activity sheets are great for preschool math learning centers. Students work on building different animals, objects and shapes.
Math art projects will get kids creative while also teaching them mathematical concepts. Fun ideas for children of all ages and skill levels.
So, yesterday I showed you how I got my angle studies kicked off with my students–how I solidified understanding of “right angle”. We had lots left to accomplish–so I’ll try to share some of the different lessons and activities we did over the next days! Tip 1: If you can get your hands on thin […]
FREE Minecraft Learning Printables (Various Subjects)
My students are always using and referring to different math tools during math centers. I created (and am sharing for free) individual math toolboxes.
Long list of free Montessori materials found online; perfect resource for classroom teachers and homeschoolers; free materials for a variety of levels, especially preschoolers through early elementary!
Co-teachers who take risks together, grow together.
Are you looking for a way teaching math vocabulary in a more visual and conceptual way? To differentiate for your struggling learners? Every year, it seems we get more and more visual learners coming into our classrooms, learners who benefit from math word walls that show concepts and vocabulary in action. This approach has worked wonders in my classroom and I know it will in yours! Adding a visual math word wall to my classroom completely changed how my students access our math vocabulary and the concepts we learn in class. Our math word walls are covered in examples and visuals that show the math concepts in context along with the vocabulary words we cover in class.
Create a solid math foundation with these tips for teaching place value in 1st grade. Use these ideas to avoid place value mistakes!
FREE printable Symmetry drawing activity for preschool and kindergarten kids. A fun art and math activity in one! Kids will complete the symmetrical pictures by drawing the other half.
If you’ve ever struggled to keep your students’ attention during your middle or high school algebra and geometry classes, this is for you.
Practicing math facts can be dull and boring OR fun and engaging. I know my 2nd grade team is ALWAYS in search of new ways of practicing and assessing math facts. It is crucial that our students master these foundational skills in order to be successful mathematicians. Here are a few (hopefully) fresh ideas for ... Read more
Learn how you can start engaging your students with math task cards in the classroom. These ideas will give you some variety in how you use these valuable tools.
Subitizing is the foundation for number sense and mental math. Learn about common mistakes teachers make when teaching subitizing.
As teachers we know that vocabulary is pivotal in students’ success. When I was growing up, our vocabulary activities consisted of looking up definitions in the dictionary and copying them down on notebook paper. Do you think I truly understood those vocabulary words? Not. One. Bit. In order to truly understand vocabulary words and what […]
These This or That Exit Slips are designed to provide students with fun and creative ways to reflect on and showcase their learning after any lesson. There are 20 different exit slips in this resource!Each exit slip or ticket out the door includes 2 choices for students to showcase their learning. ...
Print these free symmetry worksheets and activity pages to use with your students. Learn about the line of symmetry with these fun pattern challenge worksheets. Students must use logic, reasoning, and spatial skills to draw the reflected pattern across the line of symmetry.
Sometimes math centers may not work for your students. This post will share two alternatives to teaching whole group math that are not math centers.
Engage your math students right from the start! In this post, I share five engaging lesson hooks for math, including resource links to get started.
When trying to differentiate instruction for our students, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Here are 6 Easy Ways to Differentiate Instruction
Pass them on to your first grade teacher friends!
Here’s a few classroom procedures that have worked well for me – and a couple awesome ideas I’ve run across since I’ve stepped out of the classroom...
From "Perimeter People" to Cheez-It squares, there are lots of fun ways to learn.
We want students to be comfortable in our classrooms. We want them to feel welcomed and inspired. Classroom decoration can play a role in creating that environment. Below are some simple ways to …
Teacher hacks can be life savers so the Lucky 2nd Grade Teachers Facebook Group came up with a list of 25 teacher hacks to make your life so much easier!
This little story about quadrilaterals helps students remember the family tree and the properties of quadrilaterals in high school geometry. I like to tell this story as part of the lesson when I'm teaching classifying quadrilaterals. After the notes, I play a game or do an activity.
Stinky Feet will forever be my favorite way to review for math! When I saw this from Kelsee { @mrshudsonteaches on Instagram } I knew I’d love it (and my students would too!). As a forme…
As a teacher, there is so much to do when it comes to setting up the classroom, that it is hard to know where to start! Over the course of my first six years of teaching middle school math, a few of these classroom projects have become staples in my classroom. In this post, I plan to share a few of these ideas. (1) Assignment Notebook Board The first thing my middle school students do (or should be doing!) when they come to class is fill out their assignment notebooks. With some ruler tape that I found at Office Max, I created this assignment notebook board. The number 1 on each day is for what we do in class. The number 2 on each day is any homework that is assigned. For example the 1 might be "Multiply Fractions" and the 2 might be "Pg 232 hw (due tmw)." (2) Math is Everywhere Board I have written about this project in a few other posts, but it is one of my all time favorites to start the year! I have two bulletin boards in my classroom. This one gets filled with these tiles. Students must show how they see math in the real world on their tile. On the back of their tile, they must write a paragraph explaining how math is seen in the topic that they chose! You can click HERE for a free set of the bulletin board letters! (3) Challenge of the Week Many of you have already seen or tried out the Challenge of the Week in your classroom! I have loved seeing the pictures! Each week, I put up a new challenge problem. They are optional and students have until the end of the day on Thursday to turn it in. Anyone who gets it correct gets a small prize on Friday when we go over the answer! Both the 6th Grade Challenge of the Week Problems and the 8th Grade Challenge of the Week Problems are FREE in my TpT store. Enjoy! (4) Teacher Book Shelf My teacher book shelf took on some major changes recently. I started with this new way of organizing all of my math workshop materials. I decided to organize them more by the type of game, rather than by the topic like I had done in the past. I cleared these shelves off and organized them in these containers that I had ordered a few years ago. If you are looking for the materials and resources that I use for math workshop, be sure to check out my Math Mega Bundle (Upper Elementary/Middle School) and my Math Mega Bundle (8th Grade Math). Below these containers, I have two shelves with labels for Monday through Friday. This is where I put all of my plans and resources that I will be using for the coming week. This has been a useful way to stay organized and prepared throughout the week! As you can see, I am not quite ready for the first week of school... On the bottom of these shelves are my task cards, which very well could be the hardest resource when it comes to organization! I found these containers at Michaels. They have worked out pretty well. I have two sets of task cards that I use throughout each school year for each grade level. I have a regular set of task cards and then a set of enrichment task cards. Each set takes up two of these containers. Teaching two different grades means I end up with 8 of these containers, which is pretty manageable! Check out the links below if you are interested in the task cards for each grade level! 6th Grade Math Task Cards Bundle 6th Grade Math Enrichment Task Cards Bundle 7th Grade Math Task Cards Bundle 7th Grade Math Enrichment Task Cards Bundle 8th Grade Math Task Cards Bundle 8th Grade Math Enrichment Task Cards Bundle (5) Bulletin Board (Number 2) My second bulletin board is filled with some routine-oriented and expectation posters. I made these the last few years. The colored math workshop poster shows where students of each group should be at any given time. The homework data chart is where we record our homework data. As a class, we figure out what percentage of homework we turn in on time each day. Over the course of the year, we graph these and look at trends. It also becomes a fun competition between classes! (6) Bobblehead Collection I started my bobblehead collection a while ago and it has just grown ever since! Students enjoy seeing them and it is a fun way for students to get to know me and my interest in baseball! My wife and I are trying to get to all 30 MLB stadiums, and recently made it to Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Luckily it was a bobblehead giveaway, so the Kevin Appier Royals bobblehead is the most recent addition to the collection!
Planning the first day of school can be stressful! Learn my 3 favorite activities that will allow you to have the perfect first day of middle school math!
Engage students with exciting trashketball games! Discover fun back to school games for icebreakers, reviews, and learning classroom rules.
Are you looking for a way to work on first grade math skills? This free packet is for you! It could be used for learning in the classroom or at home! This packet works on
If you need STEM projects ideas, this is THE place to go! This is a collection of over 200 STEM projects and activities that kids love!
Friends~I finally figured it out-2 for 1 composition books! I have been loving the composition books that have been cut in half recently. I have seen them on several blogs and I have gone to Lowes and Home Depot as suggested to have my 12 books cut in half so that I had 24 smaller books. Doubling my lot! (The kiddos never use a whole page anyway:) Here's my journey for the 2 for 1! I first made several trips to Lowes and Home Depot but they left me defeated. Don't get me wrong the guys that helped me and tried to cut the books were super kind but their saws ate, destroyed, tore, and mangled my books. After the loss of my 2nd book the man at Home Depot suggested that I try Office Max. Look-ie, Look-ie! It was less than $3 to have these 2 for 1 babies cut! Office Max can cut around 8 at a time. I am so super excited about it! Check out my labels below for the front of the books. I am using one for my calendar journals and one for spelling. You can download the labels that I plan to use on the covers for My Calendar Journals next school year by clicking the images below. If you do so, I would love for you to leave a comment and follow my blog so you don't miss any Back to School Freebies!
Practice grade 4 math with these FREE 4th Grade Math Worksheets and print as many as you need. Fourth grade math answer key included!!
FREE printable Symmetry drawing activity for preschool and kindergarten kids. A fun art and math activity in one! Kids will complete the symmetrical pictures by drawing the other half.
Here’s a few classroom procedures that have worked well for me – and a couple awesome ideas I’ve run across since I’ve stepped out of the classroom...
