Practicing Math Skills with a Deck of Cards

One of my very favorite way to practice math is with a deck of cards! Students LOVE when you bring out the cards. It's such a fun and non-monotonous way to practice math. There's so many ways to change it up, with all the different skills!

You can practice place value a multitude of ways.

This is from my Deck of Cards pack 

This is one where we were learning how to represent the numbers in First Grade.

Food makes everything better :) 

You can use giant cards, too! This version was a "place value war" game.

This is a version of the game "Heads Up." Here, they were trying to make a ten. The person NOT holding the card would say what number you would add to the card on their head to make a ten, so the person holding the card would have to guess the OTHER number to make a ten.

You can even do multiplication with it - here they were doing times two... so person B would say "four" and then person A would have to guess what times two would equal four.

Here's another game you can play - set out 5 cards, and the goal is to make a ten. You can use anywhere from two to all five cards. 

So this one used three cards to make a ten. 

I use cards to make a "Random Number Generator" for all kinds of different math activities, too! I've done them for both First and Second grade.

And to do addition and subtraction skills

In addition to the giant deck of cards, I've also used an online version to flip over cards for the whole class to see. 

Oh - and I've used them in small group for intervention.

There's so many ways to use a deck of cards!

Check out my Math with a Deck of Cards packs - HERE

Check out my Amazon Math Manipulatives List to see what other goodies I like to use in math!

End of Year - The Last Few Days

Wow - what a year! When I started at my new school this past year, after having resigned from my school district last year, I didn't know. I didn't know anything. If I was going to stick with it, like it, hate, love it, or anything, really. I just kind of went in with an open mind. It was a WORLD different than what I had been doing for the last 18 years, but I really LIKED it. 

Now that I won't be a first year teacher (after 18 years lol) and my kids won't be first year students with a new curriculum and expectations, I really do plan to blog about more, and create more to go with what our curriculum is. 

If you want to see my last post, which I did before school even started, it's HERE on my personal blog. I never even GOT to my teacher blog. ha!

The last three days were early release so I just used those days as our theme days. 

1. Summer Time

2. Game Day

3. Hollywood Stars

One of my favorite things we do is these Party Pineapples! Gosh, I love them every year. I put them on black paper to frame them, and then give them a "plaque" and make an art gallery out of our front walls. If I had a hallway where people walk through, I'd hang them, but I don't, it's just us 2 teachers upstairs, so, we hung them for us to be happy looking at them. These take ALL day almost, so it's a great early release day activity. 

On this same day, since it's "summer themed," we celebrate the summer birthdays (including mine!). I got this idea from another blogger, Stephanie, but you use ice cream sandwiches instead of scooping ice cream! It's magical. lol. We do alllll the toppings, but the ice cream sandwiches are a game changer. 

The next day is Game Day. Basically, I just do a bunch of Minute to Win It Games. I have a few parent volunteers to man the stations, and they rotate after a minute. Here are some ideas we did this time.

• Fruit Loop Stack (on a popsicle stick)
• Cookie Face
• Tic-Tac Chopstick pick up
• M & M straw (pick up an M & M by sucking through a straw and place it into another bowl)

They also did paper airplanes this day and bubbles during recess. 

Here are some ideas on THIS post. 

Other seasonal Minute to Win Game Posts HERE

After the games, we came back and did a directed drawing from Art Hub - pineapples, of course.

Another thing we spend a few days doing is their Memory Book. I have stored their pages from the beginning of the year, and after they finish their end of the year ones, I staple the books together. I LOVE being able to see how much they've grown in the school year. 

Look at the difference in their drawings and writing from the BOY 👆to the EOY 👇!

You can find these memory books HERE. 

And on the last day, we do our classroom awards. I got the red carpet idea from a blogger, Reagan, MANY years ago. I get the red rolly paper for them to walk on and then a red tablecloth from the dollar store and put yellow stars on it as the backdrop. It such a POP for the pictures!

This year, I got smart and just made a template in PPT with a star and typed in their names and printed them on yellow paper. Then I had my daughter cut them out. ha! 

And we ended with movie day - popcorn with M & Ms in it.

Click the link to find some other END OF YEAR IDEAS 

Check out my post on End of the Year Books. to see which books I like to read. I always plan to read them all, but of course, time runs out, like always. 

End of Year Books

Anyone who knows me and has seen my classroom, knows that I have a little obsession with books. So naturally, I have a few suggestions for the End of the Year.

Honestly, if you're anything like me, make sure you have a box of tissues ready when you read any of these books!

Our Class is a Family - I don't know about you, but after a year together, you really do feel like a family. You have gone through a lot and and spent A  LOT of time together lol. I love this one for the beginning of the year and the end. 

A Letter from your Teacher - This is from the same author of Our Class is a Family, and is the "sequel" to the beginning of the year version of A Letter to from my Teacher.  

A Letter to my Teacher - This one is written as a thank-you note to a special teacher from the student who never forgot her. Ugh, the last page got me really good. 

Dear Teacher - This book is a compilations of letters written from various "kids" explaining what they are thankful for. It's for teachers, and other mentors alike. This lends itself well to having the kids write their own thank you letters. 

Last Day Blues - another "sequel" book. This one is the end of the year version to First Day Jitters, always a fan favorite! 

Thank You, Mr. Falker - oh, man. I saved this one for last because it's one of my all-time favorites for end of the year...or beginning of the year. A story about a girl who is dyslexic and struggles to read, and one of her teachers helps her to get passed it. As if that isn't enough to make you cry, it turns out that the girl in the story is actually Patricia Polacco, herself - the author. Makes me ugly cry every time I read it.  I actually don't read it anymore, because Storyline Online has a great rendition of it. So I let them read it, but I have the book out for the kids to read it, because they're always obsessed with it afterwards. 

So, there are some of my books I like to read the last week of school. Hope this list helps you!

Space Saving Tip - Hanging Chart Paper for the Year

One of my favorite things to talk about is organization. I might be a LITTLE obsessed with being neat and organized... ha!

In my new room this year, I don't have a lot of space... so I've had to get a little creative on some things.  One of the things I don't have is a place to keep is a chart stand, other or an easel. And I really like hanging our poems and anchor charts for the year in one place, so the kids can flip through them every once in a while.  (You can see my post on what I do with our poems HERE)

I have a door with a window in my room that goes to my "closet."  So, I've started just hanging my chart paper there! I just use two butterfly clips and some command strips, and voila! I can hang my chart paper up. 

I also use this to hang up my posters for the year... you know the mailbox posters and such? Or the laminated anchor charts you make and reuse each year? I have those hanging on the other side of the door! It makes it really easy to go looking through them really quickly!

Hope this gives you some sort of idea for organizing and using every inch of your space.

Math with a Deck of Cards

One of my favorite tools to use in math is a deck of cards.

Yep. 

They are SO versatile! I can pretty much teach/review any skill with a deck of cards by my side.

Here are few examples of what we use them for.

(my pictures are not perfect...because well, some are old. I've been at this a long time - ha!)

addition war

2-digit war

place value

subtracting across zeros

comparing numbers (this was a fun version during October)

breaking apart ones to add

more and less

sequencing numbers

missing addends - these magnetic 10 frame boards are so cool! I can't find these exact boards anymore, but HERE are a bunch of different kinds

I use them all the time as a random number generator! 

OH! And we love using GIANT cards too! Makes math so much more fun! lol Find them HERE

I have 2 different versions in my TpT STORE: 1st grade and 2nd grade (and 3rd/4th)