Place value can be tricky in first grade. I feel like they go from learning to count to 20 to fully understanding base 10 in a matter of weeks. It flies and can be a difficult concept for my students to understand. When teaching place value I am ALL ABOUT it being hands on. Students […]

I love teaching all about 2D and 3D shapes in the classroom. It is a unit of study that my first graders always seemed to just “get.” It was tactile and to the point.  I am always on the hunt for fun and new shape activities, so I thought I would share one of my […]

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 […]

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 […]