SamizdatMath

FACT: Students need more practice solving subtraction problems. FACT: This collection has lots of subtraction problems. FACT: Not all subtraction problems are the same: some are "take away," some are "let's compare one with another," some are "I have something and took away this, now I have this...." This is a collection of over 200 different "BIG Busy Bee Hive" puzzles where students practice subtraction in a context that is fun and thoughtful. That is, yes, they get lots of opportunities to do

FACT: Students need more practice solving subtraction problems. FACT: This collection has lots of subtraction problems. FACT: Not all subtraction problems are the same: some are "take away," some are "let's compare one with another," some are "I have something and took away this, now I have this...." This is a collection of over 200 different "Busy Bee Hive" puzzles where students practice subtraction in a context that is fun and thoughtful. That is, yes, they get lots of opportunities to do "ta

79 89 99 119? 129? Take 2: 134 124 114 84? 74? Do your students struggle to count by 10s across 100? If they're doing mental math, then they probably will at one time or another. So why not help them practice this so they don't say things like "75, 85, 95, uh, uh, 105?" This is a "three-fer" - you get the group game "roller coaster" where a group of students compete cooperatively to count up and down by tens between a bottom and top number. For example, the first students says 78, the next one

There is no cutesy kids or animals in this activity; it focuses on the math without distraction. This is an activity where children practicing using the "count up" and "count down" activity to make change from whole dollar amounts ($1, $2, $3, and in denominations up to $20.) It is designed to replicate the "real life" experience of giving change when the buyer has a non-whole dollar total. It also gives students practice in making change using coins, or combinations of bills and coins. The goa

I KNOW this is going to come up on every search of the novel "The Outsiders," but don't blame me - it was Peggy Kaye who came up with this simple and easy division partitioning game where pairs of kids draw between 10 and 25 Xs on a piece of paper, then throw out anywhere from 1 to 5 fingers, add them (the fingers) together and use that as a divisor to partition the Xs into groups by circling them. The player with the fewest "outsiders" is declared the winner. Easy peasy, fun game, right? WRONG!

This is a collection of hands on activities where students fill an outline of a rod with smaller rods to determine the length of a unit fraction. It develops the idea of the "flexible unit" by using different rods as the "unit" and then having students try to find rods that are 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 etc. of that unit. They then record their solutions by tracing the correct rod and shading it in. There is also an activity where they also find common fractions once they find the unit fraction. For example

This is a set of activities that focus on helping first and second graders memorize the doubles from 1 - 10, with special focus on the "hard doubles" of 7, 8 and 9. There are two different games, and 20 different puzzles involving "number searches" where students find a number and its double nearby. Students also practice writing doubling and halving equations. There is also a set of "locate and calculate" assessments where students locate a doubling equation and then record it.

This is a collection of 34 different hexagonal subtraction/additional/logic puzzle cards (hence, the title above) which uses 5 rows containing clues that have to be figured out by moving around the puzzle in different directions. Very simply, each pair of hexagons add up to the hexagon above that connects them. However, in many cases you can't add the two hexagons together, because there is missing information that won't show up until you solve other parts of the puzzle. It's great because not o

Howdy Phrens! This is a set of phecking great activities that your 2nd - 4th graders are going to love! The first is a game called "Take 2, Make 4" which involves taking 2 digit cards and making a 2 digit number and then adding or subtracting 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 to make a new number, where a chip is placed on that spot. The second phecking game is called "99," where students select a digit and use it as ones or tens to decide how many spaces to move on the hundreds chart. Except my hundreds ch

Subtraction is a much more complex operation to understand, because it can be used to solve problems involving three different situations. Whereas addition is the joining of two or more quantities, subtraction could be removal, comparison or finding a missing piece. This is a single lesson where students learn about the three types of subtraction problems: removal (also known as "take away"), comparison ("the difference") and "find a missing piece (also known as "missing addend.") There are two

This is an activity I tried out on my second graders and it was dope: the idea is that while students know "how" to subtract, they don't know all the cool properties of subtraction that make it unique and distinct from addition. In this activity, there are 30 different subtraction challenges that are open ended Here's what you do; introduce the lesson, get the kids going and then watch the magic happen! Here's the thing; the subtraction challenges are designed so that there some of them will y

This is a fun little booklet that your students can put together in about 3 minutes and we’ll really give them some fun working logically - and because this is something you purchased from me, your kids will also have a chance to make their own puzzles to share with one another. Ain’t that cool? Comes in b//w and color booklets - the color booklets have been formatted to give you a jolt of color without using up all your ink! There are also single page and double page formats to save enough more

This is a collection of 8 different Thanksgiving Themed "matrix addition" puzzles which use funky symbols as clues to figure out the answers. They were designed for 2nd graders, but you could use them with advanced first graders, or just throw them at some third and fourth graders to see how they react. They're sort of algebraic puzzles that you can have a lot of fun with and who doesn't like fun? Comes in color and b/w for your printing pleasure! What makes this really cool is that I also in

Greetings teacher phrens, Here's the activity you've been waiting for if you want your students to become more flexible and fluent with non-routine number facts and combinations using MENTAL MATH STRATEGIES; Schools o' Fish challenges students to take 15 different numbers and arrange them in groups so that they add up to the same number (at least, in this version.) Features: • EZ Cut n' Paste Technology: the pieces have been arranged in such a way that your students can cut out all 15 in abo

This is a set of 99 different activity cards that covers all the possibilities of making change for $1 (that is, from 1¢ to 99¢.) Print up the cards, laminate & cut them out and you can use them for the rest of your teaching days, the teaching days of the teacher you leave them to, the students you tutor or for your children, grandchildren and great grand-chillun.... The focus is on "mental math" strategies including counting up, counting down, finding composites, and whatever mental mouth stra

This is a collection of 10 different algebra puzzles that use 3 different variables which are represented as rectangles, triangles and hexagons. Yes, we know that "adult" algebra uses X, Y and Z, but since this is designed to be appealing for our younger students (and because abstraction is still tough for them) I've used these geometric shapes instead. I've also limited the kinds of numbers students use by focusing on using 0 - 9 digit cards. This is so your students will not get frustrated wh

Here’s something that I tried out on my 3rd through 6th graders and which was pretty successful: the idea was to have my students practice division facts, while making sure that they got practice in multiple formats. So this game is kind of a “twofer” - practice the facts AND practice different formats at the same time! Actually, it’s more like a “6-fer” because there are 5 different division formats: two of them use the steifel (the division house) using both a missing quotient but also a mis

Greetings TpT Phrens, Yeah, I know I dropped a massive number of coin activities a few weeks back, and you’re probably wondering, why am I doing this again? Well, because a teacher at my school was using these pocket activities at school and they were old and ragged, so I decided to clean them up and add a few twists to them. Here be the twists: Coin Variety: I think it panders to kids to just see one type of coin. There are lots of different types of quarters, nickels and pennies, so I decide

This is a puzzle that I found on the wall of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. It is a "cryptograma," a 4 x 4 matrix of seemingly random numbers that add up to 33 in over 300 different ways by choosing 4 numbers, which often create distinctive and unusual patterns. Great for developing strategies for mental math, as well as divergent problem solving and just plain fun! Perfect for 2nd graders and up, and "advanced" 1st graders. The emphasis here is on MENTAL MATH. DO NOT USE THIS AS "

This is a fun and easy multiplication activity that you can do with your 3rd or 4th graders. Here's why my version is THE BEST: • It's differentiated: it starts with some basic 2 x 2 grids with different sections missing, then moves on to 3 x 3s, a 4 x 4 and then hits them right in the gut with a 7 x 7. • It omits all the easy facts: you know, the x 0, x 1 and x 10 facts are not included because, well, they're really not facts at all. • It has really good graphics - little children holding ca