Games for multiplication facts practice are always a winner in the classroom. If a child is given the option of: A. practicing their multiplication facts with a worksheet - columns of times tables to answer or; B. using games to practice their multiplication facts; what are they going to choose? It's a rhetorical question really. We all know the answer. Practice the multiplication facts separately Give your students time to ... read more
21 Centers for Motivating Sight Word Practice
You can't expect all children to have the same sight word list. Some children can read a new word after seeing it once or twice. They're the kids who zoom through their words. For others, successful sight word practice can mean needing twenty or more exposure before they recognize a word. The best way to meet the needs of our students is by having our sight word activities differentiated. As time-consuming as that sounds, organizing the ... read more
Use Games to Make Learning About Fractions Fun
Games are fun. Few children grab a worksheet and say, "Great, I love worksheets!" With a game, you know you have their instant attention. It's the perfect teaching and revision tool. When I'm teaching fractions I'll always put more fraction based games in my math stations. Even when I've finished the unit I include fraction games every couple of weeks to keep the concept fresh. Three Key Concepts for Teaching Fractions There are three ... read more
A Sight Word Program That Will Save You Time
Every teacher wants a quick and easy way to gear their sight word activities to the level and interests of their group. One year, I thought I had the answer. I bought a whole heap of sight word centers and printed them off. Trying to organize them for my different reading groups wasn't easy. I discovered, a little too late, that the sight words my students needed to focus on didn't match the premade sight word activities. Kids are not all ... read more
Six things to Consider when choosing a Math Center
Everyone looks for different things in a math center. Some teachers don't mind cutting out bits and pieces. Others love to have activities that match their theme or the season perfectly. Me, I hate cutting out cards and game pieces. Plus I like to use my games any time of the year. After all, I may need that cute Halloween themed game to help revise a tricky concept with some students in December. So when choosing math centers ... read more
How to improve math fact fluency with bump games
Kids love bump games! I confess. I'd never heard of 'Bump' until a few years ago. My teaching partner said, "You HAVE to try this with the kids!" I didn't think my class would like the idea of their answer being stolen away from them. But surprise, they did! It's a game style they now ask for over and over. If you're looking for a fun way to develop fact fluency. Cleverly disguised in the form of a partner game. That happens to be a twist on ... read more
Setting up your Math Centers for Success
We've all had them. We think we have everything planned our math centers perfectly. We've spent ages prepping the resources we want to use - board games, card games, worksheets, technology. We have our lesson ready for our guided math group. We've differentiated the activities. It's perfect .... but somewhere along the way, it all falls apart. I'm talking about math center failures. So how can we avoid it? To have our math centers ... read more
Engage your students with motivating sight word activities
We've all heard the story of the child who goes to school and comes home disappointed after his first day. Why? He didn't learn to read. Teaching reading is a long process which begins with children understanding that letters form sounds and these sounds go together to form words. This phonemic awareness is a crucial step in teaching children to read. But not all words can be 'sounded out' or decoded using their phonemes. Have you ever heard a ... read more
How to create a positive classroom community
Can you imagine how difficult it is to run centers or do paired work when you constantly hear “but I don’t want to work with him/her.” Or when the day to day running of your classroom is filled with, "he's/she's looking at me, copying my work, breathes too heavily, keeps sniffing..." It's exhausting! And not just for the teacher but also for the students. When children don't like each other, school isn't a nice place to be. There's less ... read more
How to make multiplication homework fun for kids
Do you look for fun multiplication homework ideas? We know that homework is most effective when it's clearly related to class work. It should consolidate or revise concepts taught in class. It should be within the child's ability level and definitely shouldn't overwhelm them. Reading each night is a part of many teacher's homework activities as is learning spelling words but what do you work do you set for math? Learning the multiplication ... read more
