SamizdatMath

This is the last of this series of task cards using the theme of a "piggy bank" (remember those) to develop understanding and skills using pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. (Sorry fans of the half-dollar and silver dollar...) This is a sorting activity: students take a set of cards, look at the amount stated in the piggy bank and the coins outside and if they match, put it in the "correct" part of the sorting mat (included!) - if it's not a match, put it in the "incorrect" section of the so

Howdy you all! You know, one of the things I love about people who don't know much about math is that they think that there's always one right answer to a math question. Well, there isn't: the reality is that most math questions (even seemingly simple ones like "how much is 2 + 2?") have answers like "well, it depends." In the case of "how much is 2 + 2, it depends on the base system you're working in: if it was base 3, then the answer would be 11 (1 group of 3 and 1 remainder), or it it was bas

This is a collection of 24 different puzzles that challenges your students to find the coin combinations in a piggy bank. There are 8 pages of cards, with 3 puzzles on each card, in both glorious black/grey/white and pastel colors (pink and chartreuse.) Cut out the 24 different cards, laminate and then put out for your kiddos to solve. Lower number cards are easier, higher number cards are tougher. They can solve by putting the coins into the circles printed on the cards. You can check students

This is a collection of task cards where students are given two clues about what coins are inside the piggy bank: the first is the value of the coins, but since there could be many different combinations, there is a second clue, which specifies how many coins the student has to use. Fun! There are two sets of cards: one is in easy-peasy to print black & white, the other is in cutesy colors (pink and light blue.) You can print out the cards, cut and laminate them and have them for the rest of

And we're back! This is the first of a set of "coin card" activities that I designed for our first grade teachers and which received universal "thumbs up, Robert!" from the students who used them. I even tried it out on a 2nd grader who needed some remediation and she went to town on it as well. So what's so good about these? Let me count the ways: 1) Quantity: there are 30 different cards, which means that its not so many that your kids will get lost, but not so few that they'll finish them

Note: There is now a video tutorial that goes with this activity: Division With Remainders: Just Do It (RIGHT!) Your students are "learning" about division, and if you're using a really, really cruddy curriculum, then they probably all sound like this: "I have 24 blah blah blahs which I'm packing into cases of (choose some divisor of 24.) How many cases will I be able to make. This, my friends, is a lackadaisical and churlish approach to teaching students about solving problems with division.

As you know, one of the things I have always advocated is giving children math problems that are interesting and challenging. I know, I know, this flies directly in the face of “well, if we give them hard things to do, then they’ll get discouraged and think math is hard.” Well, the truth is this: math is hard! And let me say another thing: anybody, young or old, experienced or not, is either lying or has never done “real math” if they think it is “easy.” In this activity, I’m pushing you to cha

How much Cash is in that Stash? If you've ever struggled with finding a fun and effective way to teach the distributive property of multiplication over addition and subtraction, this is the activity for you. Using the example of a suitcase full of dollar bills, students will learn how to effectively count the cash in groups by dividing up the cash into smaller rectangular arrays, whose products can be combined to find a solution. This activity includes a sample problem, specific teaching instru

What goes better with equivalent fractions than ZOMBIES! And what goes better with zombies than Valentine's Day? Each of these ghouls represents a fraction; surrounding them are equivalent fractions with heart-shaped zombie brains that are missing a numerator or denominator. Alas, one of them is a ZOMBIE and cannot be completed! For example, if there is a fraction 1/3 and ?/5 is one of the choices, it can't be completed, because 3rds can't be turned into 5ths. SO MUCH FUN your kids will love i

This packet is my way of serving all masters concerning the implications of summer math work: it has a limited number of activities that are not high stress - in fact, it’s five different games, some classic (Picos, Fermis and Bagels, Salute! & PIG!) and others that will be “new to you” (By the Digits, Close to 100), as well as a geometry puzzle featuring the Sphinx puzzle pieces.  Here’s what you get: • Picos, Fermis and Bagels: This is based on the board game “Mastermind,” which challenges

This activity was developed for a teacher whose students were having trouble distinguishing between "divide into groups of 5" and "divide into 5 groups...." To help with this, I designed these task cards for her students; working in pairs, they selected a card from a bowl, which could say things like "use 15 pennies: divide them into groups of 3" or "use 15 pennies; divide them into 3 groups." On their "record sheet," the students have a space to draw their solution and then write the equation w

This has been very successful for me both as an assessment and an activity that students can do at centers or at home. There are 10 different story problems, and a board with 10 spots to place them: each one states the operation you would use to solve it. Your students cut out the cards, they read the problems and then tape or glue the correct problem with the operation or operations that would be used to solve it. Most are single step problems, but some require two steps. A fun thing to do in c

For your enjoyment & edification. Solutions coming soon.....

Yes, you saw it with rats, turkeys and reindeers; fact it, you're eventually going to buy one of these, so why not snowmen and snowballs? NO JOKES PLEASE! Okay, the concept is simple: take the snowballs numbered from 1 - 6 and arrange them on the three sides so that each side adds up to 9. Rearrange them and they add up to 10. Do it again, and they add up to 11. Then do it one more time and they add up to 12. Record your results and see for the patterns that emerge in the corner numbers. Want

Equivalent Fractions! Equivalent Fractions? Equivalent Fractions ---- Equivalent Fraction Practice / Equivalent Fraction Problems..... Okay, I know this appears to be a shameless attempt to cash in on the Christmas Holiday, but I am deeply concerned that many of you loved the idea of your students knowing when they can and when they cannot make an equivalent fraction. Why you need this activity: many of our students do something peculiar when they learn a new skill - they apply it to every case

Our hero Samantha Sagacious: Number Detective, returns with 10 new mysteries, but this time she has a new tool at her disposal: the 1 - 100 chart. Your students will love solving each of these mysteries one at a time, either solo or in pairs at learning centers. Comes complete with answer key, and a set of "Do It Yourself" riddles that your students can create (and send to me!) for publication. Samantha Sagacious Rocks!

What goes better with equivalent fractions than ZOMBIES! Each of these ghouls represents a fraction; surrounding them are equivalent fractions that are missing a numerator or denominator. Alas, one of them is a ZOMBIE and cannot be completed! For example, if there is a fraction 1/3 and ?/5 is one of the choices, it can't be completed, because 3rds can't be turned into 5ths. SO MUCH FUN your kids will love it finding zombie fractions! Customer Tips: How to get TPT credit to use on future purch

Tired of the old "make a flat" game? Do you want your kids to enjoy learning about and using place value? Close to a Flat challenges children to think about place value when planning strategy to win a game: in 5 rounds a student chooses between cubes and rods to get as close to making a flat as possible, or in 6 rounds, choosing cubes, rods and flats to make a thousand cube. This game includes puzzles for kids to take home, as well as mats to keep track of cubes, rods and flats. There is also a

Do you have pattern blocks? Traditionally, we know the triangles as sixths, rhombi as thirds and trapezoids as halves. But what if we changed this a bit? Suppose the trapezoid was not 1/2, but 1/4? What would that make the green triangles? What would "1" look like? If you want to deepen your students' understanding of fractions using manipulatives and having children work together on a very engaging and challenging set of tasks, then you'll want to buy this. This unit, complete with lesson pla

Students practice finding equivalent fractions using clues on each star; beware, one of the points cannot be completed! Includes template to make your own Fraction Star puzzles