Making Your Math Block Full of Holiday Cheer

I love teaching around the holidays, as it adds something new and exciting in terms of themes. It is a fun way to keep them engaged, as we know they are all thinking about holiday treats, presents, and snow days! So why not include those items they want to discuss with you into something educational? This post is all about including holiday cheer into your math block, but if you're looking for literacy based activities, visit my holiday literacy post.

Perimeter and Area

In my math block, we were studying perimeter and area (now that we are finally learning our multiplication facts!) in December.  I decided that I didn't have time to do something too extreme, like wrap multiple shaped packages to them to find the actual perimeter and area. I love activities, but I did not have time for that!

I created an interactive worksheet where students can work with presents of all shapes and sizes to find the perimeter and area.  Now, we haven't worked too much with measurement this year, so I didn't have them use their own measurement tools, but you could do this (outside of my TPT product).

Find my "Wrappin' Up Perimeter and Area product...HERE!

Roll a Holiday Tree 

I also think it is fun for my students to have some holiday fun during centers/stations. Although the rest of my centers may include current skills, I like to include one engaging one where they can work in partners/small groups with dice to complete a task.  I also don't add a lot of coloring, drawing, unless it has a complete educational purpose...but this time, I don't mind!

Roll a Holiday Tree is where students take turns rolling the dice.  When it lands on a certain number they draw the item associated with the number.  For example, if 4 says to draw the ornaments, that's what they have to draw first. The pictures end up coming out great as they have to really think about the placement if they are not able to draw the tree first.  The product works on teamwork, following directions, number skills, and fine motor skills.

Go to my Teachers Pay Teachers store for other holiday activities or view the product here!

*Holiday Literacy Activities

If you are also wanting some literacy activities to complete around the holidays, I have a post on this as well.

Happy Holidays from 3L + 1T!!

 

 

Students Tracking Math Fact Data

You may have already read my post about students keeping their own reading level data, but I also have my students track their math fact data.  This allows students to know where they are, and make goals on where they need/want to be. Now, teaching 3rd grade, it is my goal to get them to learn the basics of their multiplication facts. My personal goal for them was to get as far as they can through the multiplication facts...all of them! Crazy, right?!  I tracked their data with my bulletin board outside of my classroom. This was an added bonus on pushing them further to reach mastery of their facts.

Now onto their tracking...

Students were given a folder with multiple sheets to graph their math fact tests (100 problems). They should come into 3rd grade already having mastered addition and subtraction.  Life isn't always so perfect, so I started their data folders with Addition and Subtraction.  The rest of the folder was filled with pages for multiplication. (0-12 & Mixed Multiplication, each having their own page). Update: I've now added Division sheets to this product!

This is great for students to see the progression of that particular level they were on.  The space below the coloring is for the date. I ask students to put the date of each test at the bottom so we can see progression or understand why they had a certain "off week".

I would give 2 math fact tests every other Friday, so it took 10 minutes total (5 min/test).  This allowed students enough time to practice to reach their next goal.  This would also give me time to teach other things as I can't do math fact tests all the time and still get the standards taught.  I would grade ('A' paper allowed them to move on) the tests over the weekend and put the students' tests on their desk with the scores.  After modeling how to graph them they would graph their own on Monday morning.  I would have them draw a line and write the score on top before they were allowed to color. Once it was checked by me, they were able to color. I would also come around to congratulate those people who mastered a level and put a sticker on their data sheet.

It also helped putting a sticker at the bottom or top of the page to help me quickly glance at which page I needed to check or what level they were on. 

Click HERE to get the product in my TPT Store!

Now, keeping track as a teacher on where students were...YIKES! I played around with these for a while, but ended up getting a student chart (just a general chart) I created and would keep checking off when students mastered that number.  I eventually got the hang of it, and I just always had a lot of copies ran to be prepared.
*Note: When copying, you will need to play with the order a little if you are wanting them to be double-sided. This method will all depend on how your copy machine at school runs. My advice is test it before running 30 sets. 

Also, this is a great piece of data to show parents at conferences.  This proved to parents the inconsistencies or even the lack of mastery.  It definitely helped me share my concern, especially with addition and subtraction as they should have been mastered before 3rd grade.  I would highly recommend doing this in your classroom as well. Although it seems like a daunting task, it eventually runs itself.

One thing I love about this is that they take them home at the end of the year. Their parents can see where they ended up and practice before Fourth Grade. Am I right, Fourth Grade Teachers?!

Speaking of Fourth Grade Teachers...

Have no fear! I have adding division tracking sheets onto this product as well. Third grade teachers could benefit from this as well if their students are high achievers! 

Primary Teachers...

Look back soon, I'll add a simpler version for Addition & Subtraction individual sheets. 

Multiplication is LOADS of Fun!

I needed some sort of motivation for my students to not only master their addition/subtraction facts (which should have been mastered last year), but to master most of their multiplication facts before they leave me this year! I decided to make a giant bulletin board outside of my classroom in which students will put their name on a sticker once they master that number (i.e. passed all x1's, x2's...). The sticker then goes on the coordinating shirt of the fact family they mastered. It was really exciting and I started to see some REAL growth in the first few weeks I did the tests. Students were excited to get their name on the t-shirt in the hallway. By the time winter break rolled around (so a month into the motivational board), I had students who had passed: 0,1,2,5,10,11. That's great for my group of third graders.

Update as of Nov. 26: To have students keep track of their own math data as well, you can have students create data tracking folders where they graph how many correct math facts depending on which number they are on, i.e. multiplication 6's. Read more about how I use these in my own classroom by clicking the "Data Tracking Folders" link.

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