Jelly Bean Fact Families

Here is a math activity my firsties completed today as part of our Easter centers, this was a great activity to reinforce fact families.

My kiddos completed eight fact families.  I put two different, colored groups of jelly beans in a numbered egg {times eight}.  My firsties drew and colored the jelly beans in the egg and then completed the fact family in the box to represent the jelly beans.   If you would like a copy, CLICK HERE!

Math Activities in the Morning

We have been learning how to tell time in math, I have a few little firsties that really needed to have some extra one-on-one time, so in order to find that "extra" time I decided to set up three 10-minute centers in my classroom this morning.  I arranged my students into three groups and each group traveled to a center for ten minutes.  One game that I have been using in my classroom that last few years in Stop the Clock {if you haven't come across this game, your kids are going to love it!}  I introduced how to play using the SMARTBoard and we typically start our math session with a few rounds before we start our lesson for the day.  Kiddos love trying to beat the winner from the previous day.  So again, one center was playing Stop the Clock using our laptops. 

The second center was playing Time Flies {love this game} created by What the Teacher Wants.  My kiddos really enjoy this game and ask to play it at recess {ummm, of course you can practice telling time during your recess!}

{I told you they love it!}

{My kiddos like playing boys against girls.}

Lastly, the third center was an independent worksheet to show me what they know.  Using these three quick centers allowed me the time to work with my kiddos that needed some extra one-on-one.  What math centers do you use in your classroom?

Fractions with Conversation Hearts

I know that many of you use conversation hearts for graphing activities, which I also do this activity with my firsties...but, I wanted to make good use of the conversation hearts, so I thought I would reinforce a math concept that we were learning...fractions.  I gave each of my students one box of conversation hearts and had them represent fractions of a set {1/2, 1/3, or 1/4} and also non-unit fractions {2/3, 3/4, ...}  I was so tickled that they really "got" fractions.  Here are a few pictures of my kiddos and our sixth grade buddies showing their knowledge.  Oh, I also found some great additional activities for conversation hearts at The First Grade Parade...I wish I would have come across these earlier...there is always next year!