Many teachers have asked me about good beginning of the year math activities.
We talk a lot about “building community” in our classrooms with establishing relationships. We also talk a lot about “building a reading/writing community” in our classrooms with getting our literacy block started. But what about math? What are some ways we can establish a math community?
This post is a little different, because it’s going to be a list of suggestions rather than in-depth explanations. Just like my other posts about building community, think about your own situation, your own students, and pick and choose the activities that will work best for you. You do NOT have to do all these things!
Another suggestion would be to come back to this post a few times a year (maybe every quarter) and see if some of the suggestions and activities might be options for you to incorporate into your math community at a later time.
Here are the categories I am including in this post:
*blog posts about establishing math workshop
*engaging beginning of year activities that reinforce content
*great read-aloud books for math
*go-to websites for instruction/activities/games
*go-to websites for student practice
Let’s get started!
BLOG POSTS ABOUT GETTING MATH WORKSHOP STARTED IN YOUR CLASSROOM
Math Survey of Student Attitudes & Beliefs
How to Organize Elementary Math Block
Getting Your Math Block Started
Some teachers like to give their students a math folder with resources that will be helpful all year. Just Two Teachers has some great options for folders.
Math folder – grade 3 version
Math folder – grade 4 version
Math folder – grade 5 version
ENGAGING BEGINNING OF YEAR ACTIVITIES THAT REINFORCE CONTENT
~Donna at Math Coach’s Corner has a great “Me by the Numbers” activity that I have used for several years. Here’s the link.
If students have a hard time thinking of ideas, here are some suggestions: age, shoe size, birth month, birth date, how many pets they own, how many letters are in their name, how many people are in their family, their favorite number.
~I love this 100 Numbers activity from Sara Van Der Werf that gets students talking and thinking about numbers. Here’s how to do it.
~Place value is a great place to start with content (and good for reinforcing throughout the year). Here is a link to a site with some of my favorite games for all topics. The game “I am the Greatest” is a personal and class favorite!
~Digit Place game from Team J’s Classroom Fun is a great game to teach and play as a whole group at the beginning of the year. Later, students can play it in small groups or with a partner.
~We Are Teachers has some great suggestions here for reinforcing math fact fluency in fun ways.
~I love using Jo Boaler’s YouCubed “Week of Inspirational Math” activities to start the year.
~Here is a fun collaborative math and art activity that is free on TPT.
~The Four 4’s activity from Just Two Teachers is a fun way to incorporate equations. It also makes a great collaborative activity.
~31-derful game might be a great option for fourth and fifth graders.
~The 13 Game is a great time-filler for any time of year. My students have loved this game.
~The Greedy Pig game can be used for teaching probabilty, but I think it works great for addition practice. Kids enjoy this game.
~YouCubed has some great suggestions for changing up math formative assessment HERE.
MATH READ-ALOUD BOOKS
~Some fun books to reinforce place value are: Place Value, Zero the Hero, and Sir Circumference and All the King’s Tens.
~One Hundred Hungry Ants – a great introduction to multiplication arrays
~Amanda Bean’s Amazing Dream: A Mathematical Story – this is a good introduction to the concept of multiplication.
~Each Orange Had Eight Slices— this book helps model the associative property of multiplication. A good follow-up would be for students to write their own multiplication stories.
~Six Dinner Sid — a cute story about a cat who visits six homes, eats six meals a day, and has six different owners. A twist in the plot causes a change in Sid’s life! Kids enjoy this book and it can be used for multiplication stories as well.
~One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale– this is a great story that illustrates of the concept of doubling.
~Snowflake Bentley – another great option for multiplication stories using multiples of three and six. It’s also great for teaching symmetry.
~365 Penguins – another fun book with lots of possibilities for problem solving.
~Sea Squares – introduces the concept of square numbers
~The Doorbell Rang – my all-time favorite book for introducing (or reminding) students of what is happening when we divide numbers.
~A Remainder of One – a good book for showing division with arrays.
~The Great Divide: A Mathematical Marathon – another book with great possibilities for division stories and using halving as a strategy.
~The Warlord’s Puzzle – introduces tangram puzzles and can also be used for fractional parts.
~Grandfather Tang’s Story – another great option for teaching tangrams.
~Full House: An Introduction to Fractions – a fun story that introduces fraction concepts.
~The Wishing Club – in this book, four children wish upon a star but are granted wishes in fractional parts that follow a pattern. Several extension activities are listed at the end of the book.
~The Lion’s Share – a great story with a message and lots of fraction concepts, along with multiplication and division. If you ever read the Aesop fable of the lion and the mouse, you will want to use this book during math.
~The Greedy Triangle – a great review or introduction to various geometric shapes. Plus, if Marilyn Burns wrote it, you can count on it being a great math resource!
~Perimeter, Area & Volume: A Monster Book of Dimensions– this book is new to me, but it looks like a great resource to review area and perimeter and then introduce volume.
~Sir Cumference Math Adventure stories – kids love these! There are a variety of concepts covered in different books. (THIS is a link to the complete book set, but titles can be purchased individually)
~The Librarian Who Measured the Earth – a wonderful biography of Greek philosopher Eratosthenes who did accurately measure the globe’s circumference.
~G is for Googol – a Math Alphabet Book – a variety of math concepts are introduced in this fun alphabet book.
~any books by Greg Tang – these are fun and engaging.
~Round Trip – kids LOVE this book. I always use it during a geometry unit. It is illustrated in black and white. You basically read the story all the way through, then turn the book upside down and read the rest of the story. I know that’s confusing!
Here’s the blurb from Publisher’s Weekly:
“A visual stunner….The format is wonderfully inventive–once the traveler arrives in the city, the book is flipped over and read back to the beginning, with the black-and-white pictures taking on new meanings….Sure to delight and fascinate.”–Publishers Weekly.
Reading biographies of inspiring mathematicians is a great way to get kids thinking about math and noticing the characteristics they share with mathematicians. Here are some suggestions:
~The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos
~Computer Decoder: Dorothy Vaughan, Computer Scientist
~Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain
~One Step Further: My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission
~The Brilliant Calculator: How Mathematician Edith Clarke Helped Electrify America
~Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13
~Human Computer: Mary Jackson, Engineer
GO-TO WEBSITES FOR INSTRUCTION/ACTIVITIES/GAMES
~Mathigon is an awesome website for all math topics; I especially love the virtual manipulatives and the multiplication fact practice “Multiplication by Heart”
~YouCubed is a great site for tasks, activities, and developing a growth mindset
~Mashup Math has lots of free resources and activities organized by grade level
~Math for Love site has several great lessons, tasks, math openers, and games
~HERE is a great list of math task resources
~Open Up Resources includes teacher materials, student materials, family resources, assessments, and center activities
~Mathkind – if you’ve ever wondered how to make global connections with math, this is the site for you! Various aspects of different countries’ cultures are explained in a story. Then resources are provided for math activities related to that story. Many stories also have a social justice question to explore.
~Steve Wyborney resources are awesome! I especially appreciate that he is creating everything for Google slides.
~Open middle problems are awesome problems to incorporate into your curriculum at any time of year. The term “open middle” means that there are multiple ways to approach and ultimately solve the problem.
~Which One Doesn’t Belong? Is a great math warmup activity that also has multiple solutions. It gets kids talking and thinking about math.
~“My Favorite No” is an “oldie but goodie” formative assessment activity that reinforces the importance of learning from mistakes.
~Estimation 180 is another great warmup activity and gets kids actually excited about estimating before solving problems.
~“____ is the answer – what’s the question?” is great for helping students generate multiple paths to solutions.
~Illustrative Math talking math activities make great warmup activities
~Morning meeting math questions could be used during morning meeting or at the start of math class
~Numberless word problems are my favorite tasks for teaching problem-solving
~Slow reveal graphs are terrific for showing a small amount of information at a time, helping students make sense of data
~Khan Academy videos are great for explaining math topics. (They’re also great for teacher background knowledge, but also work well for reteaching or extension.)
~Numberock has math videos that are entertaining and useful for teaching/reinforcing math concepts
~Math is Fun is a good site for explaining math topics. It also includes games and activities.
~THIS site has great math games!
~Other awesome game sites include: Quizizz, Kahoot, Quizlet (especially good for reviewing math vocabulary), Gimkit, Blooket, 99 Math, and Funbrain.
~Henry Anker’s website includes activities for all subject areas and math topics.
~We Are Teachers is an excellent go-to website for all kinds of resources. Here are some of my favorites: 4th grade math games, 3rd grade game websites, and other game sites.
~Math Geek Mama has great resources. I like these card games for centers or partner work.
~I have to put in a plug for my very own North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The math games on their site are excellent. I print the gameboards, copy them, and either laminate them or put them in dry erase pockets. The directions are simple enough for kids to figure out on their own in centers.
Here are links to third grade games, fourth grade games, and fifth grade games.
USEFUL RESOURCES FOR MATH GAMES
Dice
Foam dice (saves your nerves!)
Playing cards
Dry erase pockets
Dry erase whiteboards
Dry erase markers
Laminating machine
Laminating pouches
SOME GO-TO WEBSITES FOR STUDENT PRACTICE
~Math Playground
~Freckle
~Xtramath
~Mathigon (their multiplication fact practice “Multiplication by Heart” is a favorite)
I hope this list has given you some inspiration for your math instruction. Let me know which resources you found to be especially useful!