This post shares about a recent activity I did with the three little ones. I never got it out of my drafts folder. I wanted to talk about something on my blog besides heart surgery today, so I hope you enjoy (and can maybe use) this neat idea for repurposing an egg carton while practicing math skills!

I am adding a couple of notes:

• I just used a sharpie to write random numbers 0-9 in each slot of the egg carton.

• I found that egg cartons are not all created equal. If you can find one where the egg holders go all the way up on the ends, it will work better. Hope this makes sense!

• I used pom poms because they are QUIET, which may be helpful in classrooms as well. You can certainly use other manipulatives as well!

My kids LOVED this lesson. I was so impressed with their sequencing skills, and truly there is no substitute for ENGAGING and ACTIVE learning. I can only imagine how this would have gone if I had given them a list of random numbers between 0 and 100 and asked them to sequence those numbers. Continue reading →

Fractions. Ahhhh. You either love them … or you don’t. Half of us do and half of us don’t love them. I’m too funny. Ahem.

After seeing what happens when a student is NOT taught fractions in a living math sort of way at a young age and how this has greatly affected his ability to SEE them—”This pizza has 8 pieces. If I eat half of it, how many pieces did I eat?”—I decided to make sure fractions are a part of our everyday language for our two firsties. They are picking it up so effortlessly.

I have been working on my fraction page protector-sized printables a LONG time. A labor of love you might call them!

I am happy to say our first graders have enjoyed them thus far. I plan to create some add-on sets that will be more useful in an upper elementary classroom, but these would work well for students who are working on whole, half, fourths, and thirds.

I use these in many ways. I play Candy*land a lot around here with a certain little someone, and her big brother and big sister often like to join in the fun. I can slip in some extra learning for them by having them draw a fraction card when they draw a candy*land card. It just makes learning fun!

In the photo above, S is working on matching cards with word problems to the correct answer. She used both the fraction picture cards and number cards for this. I let her choose. It is more fun that way! She LOVES these cards.

The word problem cards assume a certain level of reading, and you’ll notice a little number in the bottom right corner. This set also includes a recording sheet for students to write the answer to the task cards, which can be used separately as well.

She was very proud of herself! I really just let her go with this, and she soared! I need to get these back out again … maybe tomorrow would be a good day for that. If you have fraction manipulatives, they would be great to use alongside these or you could bake cookies or pizzas or whatever else sounds yummy at the moment!

This is quite the collection of interactive, learning fun with 60 task cards (with word problems), 120 flashcards including number fractions, fraction words in black and outline fonts, and fraction pictures, as well as 6 mini posters of 6 different fractions: 1 whole, 1/2, 1/4, 1/3, 2/3 and 3/4. If you’re interested in checking it out more, I have them for sale in my TpT store.

I’m sharing this on love2learn2day’s math Monday blog hop. Check it out for more great math learning fun!