Math Monday

It's my teaching license renewal crunch time so I've had math on the brain. Per request I thought I'd share some of our favorite math games.

I use three different types of flash cards (triangle fact family cards, 10 frame dot cards, and standard flash cards) to encourage flexible thinking, fact mastery, and number sense all at the same time. My kids love this game I call Treasure Trail. I pick around 5 facts to work on and pick them out of each set of flash cards. I lay the cards out in a long trail (using another card to cover up the answer on the triangle cards) and place an upside down bowl at the end of the trail, under which I hide a "treasure," like a piece of popcorn, sweet cereal, or a skittle. No peeking when I bury the treasure under the bowl. The kid chooses a small toy to walk down the path, saying the answer as the toy hops to each card. If they get a fact wrong, they have to go back to the beginning!! My kids usually want to do this over and over, giving them the repetition necessary to approach mastery.