Math Center Idea: Adding and Subtracting Within 20 and a Contest

Addition and Subtraction Within 20
My mother-in-law asked me to create materials for her to help her students master adding and subtracting within 20. Most likely the largest Teachers Pay Teachers project that I've undertaken, I'm almost finished and I am really excited to share the results.

It's been a long time since I've done task cards, so I decided to share those first. I've loved using task cards in several ways in the past. 

Math Centers

One way to use the task cards is in centers. Unfortunately, I can't find the blog post where I found the center organization method I used (it was called GIFT, I believe); however, there are several other organization methods out there that look fantastic. The key will be to find what works for you and your students. Math centers have been wonderful because they are something different than we normally do in class, they can be more interactive than regular lessons, and they are a great way to review subjects. I also loved using them when I had to get substitutes. The students knew them well enough that they could almost completely fly solo. 

Here are some links for ideas to organize your math centers. 

Sparkling in Second, The First Grade Parade, Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher, and Tara's Teaching Treasures

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Test Review

When it comes to test review, it can be hard to keep it interesting for students. This is where task cards come in handy. One of my students' favorite games has been musical task cards. For this game, you scatter the task cards around the room and have students ready with pencils and response sheets. Then have them wander the room as music plays. Once you stop the music, everyone must go to a task card and work on solving it. When the music starts again, they need to go back to moving around and wait until the music stops again. After the given amount of time has passed, have everyone sit down and go over the answers as a class.

Some of the other favorite task card games of my students are: "trashketball," Bazinga, and Scoot. I'll go into those games in a future post. 

Fast Finishers

When students finish work fast, these task cards are great for giving them some extra practice with the topics that you are studying in class. These can also be great for students that need either an extra challenge or just need extra practice. Having the answer keys with each set of cards also helps with management, since students can check their work as they go. 

The different decks can be found here:

Addition Within 20 Task Cards

Subtraction Within 20 Task Cards

Addition and Subtraction Within 20 Task Cards

Each set of task cards also has a printer friendly version! These are great if you want to save on ink.

When using these with your students, I would recommend laminating the cards before you use them (especially if you do musical task cards). Laminating them will help them last and survive the damage that will probably happen during reviews and centers. 

These cards are also CC aligned. They fit with 1.OA.1, 1.OA.6, 2.OA.2, and 2.NBT.5!

What are some of your favorite ways to use task cards in the classroom?

 Blog Contest
In honor of bringing this project to a close (soon I hope), I am holding a contest. The first reader to complete any of the following will win a free packet of worksheets that will be featured in my upcoming bundle for Addition and Subtraction within 20.

1. Answer the question I left at the end of the blog in the comments.

• What are some of your favorite ways to use task cards in the classroom?

2. Complete this survey here.

3. Or both one and two

However, if you are an upper-grade teacher, I will send you a grade-specific freebie instead. 

After I get 5 people to do any of the above tasks, I will post a special freebie to the blog.

Three Things Thursday-New Products!

This year, we went to Illinois to visit my parents for Christmas. Since we were on vacation, I took a break from actively keeping up with Teachers Pay Teachers products and blogging. Now that we're back, I have some more products to introduce. 

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 There were times where prepping for guided reading was a real pain. During my first year of teaching, I would be up until 2:00 am several nights in a row trying to get the lessons done for each of my groups. I created this product to save myself and other teachers the headache of working on guided reading plans for The Sign of the Beaver. Just print the packet and you can be on your way. Each chapter has comprehension questions for students to answer, chapter summaries for teacher use, end of book activities, plus more! This product can be used for individual student study, small group instruction, or even whole class instruction.

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This next product is a continuation of my math task card series. The task cards here are specifically for 4th grade, but can be used as a review for upper grades. There are 28 task cards that have problems that help students practice reading, writing, rounding, and comparing multi-digit numbers. Perfect for fast finishers, centers, or games!

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Finally, I created another Spanish product. This product is based off of the popular card game, Spoons. During play, students are looking for an AR verb, its correct definition, the correct conjugation, as well as a picture that matches the definition of the verb. Great for beginning students or those that just need a review!

Adding Decimals Task Cards and A Sale

I have a new product up in time for the cyber sale on Teachers Pay Teachers. Help your 5th graders practice and review adding decimals with these task cards.

There is a sale going on at Teachers Pay Teachers, so be sure to hit it up!

Thanksgiving
We went up to Idaho for Thanksgiving and my grandpa's birthday. We had a great time! I'd post pictures, but my family may one day see this blog and it will be a nightmare if I post a picture that one of my siblings doesn't like.
At Thanksgiving, we mainly just ate a bunch and then hung out at grandpa's. One of the cousins brought the best yams I've ever had. It tasted like I was eating candy.
My mom set up an activity where the great-grand-kids learned more about grandpa and the time when he was growing up. She even had a snippet from an old radio show called The Shadow. When she has a project, she really throws herself into it and comes up with some pretty cool things.

What's your favorite way to celebrate Thanksgiving?

Christmas Vocabulary-Spanish Edition

Meeting Update
The church meeting I went to was pretty good! It was mainly a Broadcast where they talked and answered questions about teaching. It reminded me of this talk by Elder Bednar that was given back in 2007 that one of my college professors had us read.

New Product

I really liked all of the Spanish classes that I took in high school and college. My last year of teaching, I ran the Spanish club for the 4 h program. This inspired my latest bundle for vocabulary practice and this freebie. 

Perfect for upper elementary or secondary education, it contains a word search with an answer key, a crossword with an answer key, Taboo cards, a Flyswatter PowerPoint, and a vocabulary matching game. 

Exercise and Racing

My family is going to Idaho for Thanksgiving and my grandpa's 88th birthday. Instead of the usual football game, we're going to participate in a 5k charity race. I have never been one for running, so this will be a challenge. I didn't do too bad for my first day. Hopefully I can keep it up!

Multiplication and Division Dominoes

Finally finished!
I've been working on a dominoes game that incorporates all of the multiplication and division fact families and I finally posted it last night. To balance out my product availability, I removed a freebie and I'm going to share it here! That way, I don't have too much of the same thing on Teachers Pay Teachers and I can keep a freebie I like available for people to use.

If I goofed up, please leave a comment so that I can fix it. The link is to the dominoes bundle, however, there are separate files for facts 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12. I also have a game up that has a mix of multiplication and division problems. 

More to come....

I wanted to a complete set of multiplication and division dominoes out before I set out on my next project. I'm hoping to get out my Christmas Spanish Vocabulary set out in the next few days. I've done a bit of research and this edition will have more than my Halloween things. 

Meetings

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I have to go to a meeting. on. a. Saturday. Too many meetings could have just been an email. It's not a school/work meeting either.

Reading, Writing, Comparing, and Rounding Decimals Task Cards

New Product!

A few days ago, I added this product to my store. When it comes to math, as well as many other things in life, practice makes perfect. These are similar to the addition and subtraction task cards I made a few weeks ago here. My students liked using these cards before a test to practice. Another good game to use these for is SCOOT.
To play:
1. Place a task card on each student's desk. Have everyone solve the problem on their desk.
2. When the teacher says "scoot," all students move to the next desk and solve the next problem.
3. Repeat until everyone makes it back to their desks.

Teething
Poor Baby A is teething like crazy! Her bottom teeth are still working their way through, but now the top teeth are starting to work their way through. Any recommendations? We're going through teething rings, Orajel, cold wash clothes, and more.

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Coming Soon

I've been slacking on this blog, so there is a lot more coming up. Look for Halloween Spanish vocabulary activities, multiplication and division dominoes, and more!

Addition and Subtraction Dominoes

Another Teachers Pay Teachers Update
I finally posted my last stock item: Addition and Subtraction Fact Family Dominoes

I made the game for facts 0-10, 11-15, and 16-20 as well as a bundle selling all of the games together. This would be great for centers or fast finishers!

Before starting on Teachers Pay Teachers, I spent several weeks making the products to start off and now I can go back to my ideas for posts. The trouble is, where to start now?

Baby A
I'll have to see if I can find a picture later, but my little girl just turned 8 months and is teething up a storm! Hopefully soon she will be a bit more mobile.

Multiplication and Division Dominoes

Dominoes!
I used to love this game growing up. We would play for Family Home Evening a lot. It got pretty competitive. I saw a version of this for homophones and got the idea to make them for math facts.

The Fact Family Dominoes are my free sample with just a few of the multiplication facts. The Multiplication and Division Fact Family Dominoes include both multiplication and division facts for students to practice. These games would be great for centers, fast finishers, or anything else you may think of!

Coming Soon:

I have three sets of these coming: Facts 1-10, Facts 11-15, and Facts 16-20. I have some editing to finish and then over to my husband for the quality review!