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.

Something Old and Something New: Meal Prep Week 2

Today C was out hiking, so I tackled our meal prep solo during Baby A's nap time. The whole thing took a bit over an hour on my own.

 I did some of the same chicken that we did last week. It and the rice held up pretty well. Nothing tasted funky or was soggy by the end of the week, so that was pretty nice. I also tried out this recipe from Damn Delicious here. I've done several of her recipes before and they all turn out well.

 After everything finished cooking, I added butternut squash since I bought it in a microwavable bag.

A lot of chopping later and everything is packaged and ready to go for another week. I didn't buy green beans or yellow squash this week, but I didn't get enough to replace them so we were short a few vegetables.

Meal prepping saves me a lot of time during the week. I don't have to take time each day to make our lunches, so I can have something healthy (or somewhat healthy) to eat without putting too much thought into it. This is really helpful with my one year old, since when she is hungry she does not like to wait.

What are some of your favorite meal prepping recipes?

How will keeping a personal journal bless me and my family? Come Follow Me August Lesson

For tomorrow, I've been asked to sub in the youth Sunday School class. I figured since this is mainly a teaching blog and since I couldn't find the bookmark that I wanted, I would post it here for others to use as well!

I don't really have much experience with Dropbox, but here is the link to the file in Dropbox. If that doesn't work, save the images and print from there.

The main lesson materials can be found here.