Friday Game Day... I love Maths!

Happy Friday! I can't believe we're nearly half way through the year... only two more weeks until end of term!

 

For today's game, I wanted to share a game that a colleague told me about just the other day, and I thought it sounded really great!

 

It's called 'I love maths' and is a really simple game for practicing fluency in a fun and active way.

 

The game is played in pairs, and it's similar to Rock, Paper Scissors. Each player makes a fist with a hand and shakes their hand three times, as they say 'I....love....Maths!' On the third shake, each player holds out some fingers. The players then have to find the total number of fingers and say the answer out loud as quickly as they can.

 

Here's an example of me playing with my daughter :)

 



Both players shake their fist and say 'I....

....(shake fist again) love.....

.....Maths!' (and hold out some fingers)

For the example above, we called out '3!'.

The game can easily be adjusted to practice other number facts.... you could subtract the smaller number from the larger number, multiply the numbers together, make the smallest fraction possible with the two numbers, make the biggest two digit number... and I'm sure there's many more alternatives!

 

 

Awesome teacher resource... Scootle!

 

Well, I know its winter for sure now.... everyone in our family has been sick for the past week... no fun at all! Finally, everyone is on the mend and I have time to a) catch up on all my favourite blogs (Which I've really missed!) and b) do a bit of blogging myself!

 

It's a crazy, busy time at school too... I'm not in the class so I don't have all the sick kids (except mine at home) or the reports to write so I'm considering myself pretty lucky! Last week I spent a bit of time trying to get some Interactive Whiteboard resources together for Maths and spent quite a bit of time on Scootle.... such an awesome resource!

 

Scootle is jam packed full of digital resources... bets of all, they're all designed to use with the Australian curriculum! At the moment, nearly all Australian teachers can use the site, I think NSW teachers can't yet, but they'll be able to later in the year. If you haven't had a chance to have a good look through, I really recommend it!

 

I use it mainly for the Learning Objects, which are great to use on your Interactive Whiteboard, but it has a ton of other resources - videos, audio clips, teacher lesson plans and assessments as well.

 

 

I've taken a few screen shots of Learning Objects that I use.....

Number Trains- for ordering, recognising amount and numerals, skip counting, place value

Pirate Treasure Hunt.... great for Problem Solving

Garden Symmetry.... finding objects with one line of symmetry (there's also a Learning object for 2+ lines of symmetry)

Do you use Scootle? I'd love to hear about any Learning Objects that you find useful :)

Play dough Maths Monsters

 

Wow.... Winter has finally hit with a vengeance... We had such beautiful weather on the weekend, but now I'm snuggled up next to the heater - it only reached 15 today!

My four and a half year old is obsessed with play dough at the moment, so we have been doing a lot of playdough making/playing. A LOT. Maybe too much (well, for my liking anyway!). The other day we were making some play dough monsters which gave me an idea for a little maths activity for practicing measurement and number concepts.

Basically, they're little task cards that you can give your students - they need to make a maths monster by following the directions on the card. I'm thinking they'll be really handy for those tactile learners who enjoy using play dough.

 

Here's some examples of the ones I've made.....

 

 

 

....and a pic of my little girl making the 5 eye/3 feet monster :)

 

 

Feel free to download a copy if you'd like :)
 

(Just click here to download)

 

Have a great week :)

 

 

 

 

Clipart Challenge!

Several fabulous clipartists and bloggers have come together for an amazing Clipart Challenge hosted by Primary Possibilities!  Each blogger is featuring a clipartist and a product they made using that artist's images!  This is a great way to discover new clipart creators for your summer creations.   So keep reading and following the linky at the bottom to head on to the next post!  You may even pick up some freebies along the way!

Today I'm linking up with Primary Possibilities for the Clipart Challenge! When I heard about this Linky I was so keen to join.... it seemed like such a fun way to find new clip artists!

I teamed up with Heather and Traci from The Meek Moose... I was so excited when I headed to their store - their graphics are amazing... detailed and colourful (which I love!)

You can find the Meek Moose blog here

I had a hard time choosing which set I wanted to use... I LOVE the seasonal sets... there's one for all four seasons and they include grapics and papers.
The Continents and Oceans pack is amazing too!

In the end, I chose their adorable Aquarium clip art, you can download a sample of this pack here.
 

I decided to use these gorgeous graphics to make a Maths Centre pack... it's free if you'd like to download it here
 

It has three maths centres for K/1...

.....a Write the Room Activity for practicing doubles....

 ...a Roll and Trace....

and a Patterning activity (my favourite because of the beautiful bright graphics!)

You can check out a ton of other fabulous products and clipartists by clicking on the links below :)

Loading InLinkz ...