Today, I wanted to pop on over to share two fun, classroom games I’ve used in my classroom: Buzz & Sparkle! Both games are whole group, circle games and only require about 5 minutes to play. I’ve used them for morning meeting games, warm ups, and even to calm students down after coming in from […]

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know my goal this year is to share a bunch of simple & effective games for you to take back and use in your classroom right away! This week, I am sharing a literacy or math game up I’ve used many times in my classroom. It’s called, Erase […]

Sometimes the simplest games are the most effective! This is what I have found with one of my favorite number sense games that I’ve used and adapted for my kinder and first grade students over the years. The game is called Find the Fish and it’s easy to prep and fun to play! I took a […]

I don’t know about you, but I am always on the hunt for new and engaging math centers! When my students are working independently on their math games/centers that means I am able to successfully meet with my small, guided math groups. It’s a win-win. Recently I went to an escape the room with some […]

After addition, we dive right into subtraction and learn how the two are related. Today, I wanted to share some of my favorite subtraction activities for first grade and a little about how I teach subtraction in my classroom. Strategies: I teach five main strategies when they are learning how to subtract. I introduce each […]

Hands-on math. I love it, I live for it, I believe in it. Nothing keeps my students engaged more than getting their hands on a piece of the action. I spent this past year focusing on math and trying to come up with tons of engaging activities, lessons, and games for first grade students. 

This post is also featured on the TpT blog. What is higher order thinking?  When I am talking about my students and higher order thinking, I am talking about the ability to use critical thinking skills to transfer their knowledge in order to solve a problem.   Well that wasn’t the most simple way to […]

Fractions in the first grade classroom can be a CHALLENGE for sure, but I like to use a lot of hands on manipulatives and real life situations for students to see the parts and the whole of each fraction. While CCSS only requires first graders to identify 1/2 and 1/4 of shapes, I like to […]

Playing math games in my first grade classroom is one of my favorite ways to reach my struggling learners.   Each year a new batch of students arrives and you can see pretty quickly which students excel with little help, which students are chugging right along at grade level, and which need a little more […]