Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts

Monday, November 25, 2019

Cutting the holiday pie

A good opportunity for exploration and problem-solving for your students.

With one straight cut, you can cut a pie into two pieces. Cutting it again and having the second cut cross the first cut gives you four pieces. With three cuts, you might get up to seven pieces.  What is the maximum number of pieces you can get with 6 straight cuts?

Your cuts do not need to produce equal pieces.  Once students identify the solution, can they keep going with more cuts?  Is there a pattern that begins to emerge?


Photo by Alex Loup on Unsplash

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Countdown to the Holidays!

You know how I love nrich.maths.org for rich problems to solve.  Well--today I saw that they have an advent calendar for elementary students.  Each day has a rich task that accompanies it.  The problems are not holiday based; only the design of the calendar is.

You might just refer to it as a holiday countdown calendar, but no matter what you call it, it should lead to some good student thinking!



Monday, November 19, 2018

Would You Rather? -- Holiday Edition



If you are looking for some problem solving to get your students thinking and proving themselves while mixing in some holiday cheer, maybe these Would You Rather problems will work for you!

Would You Rathers are something that students are very familiar with, and these just include a mathematical twist.  Students can choose whichever option they want, but they need to have a mathematical explanation of why that is what they chose or didn't choose.  They can be used with students of all ages and offer great opportunities for collaboration.

If you like these, you can find more like them at this site, but I am betting you can come up with some good ones of your own!

Holiday Would You Rather 1

Holiday Would You Rather 2

Holiday Would You Rather 3

Holiday Would You Rather 4

Holiday Would You Rather 5

Saturday, November 10, 2018

Building Collaborative Thinkers


Are you giving your students enough time to work with each other to solve problems?  This is an area of growth for many of us.  Consider the following problem.  How could you build it into your math workshop?  In what ways would you anticipate that your students would be able to prove their answer?

Thanksgiving in the US has been declared to be the fourth Thursday in November.  This year, Thanksgiving is the earliest date it can possibly be.  What is the latest date Thanksgiving can possibly be? Be prepared to prove your answer.

I'd love to hear your results!


Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Valentines Would You Rather

I have shared with many of you the website wouldyourathermath.  It offers great opportunities for your students to reason with real math problems.  It also offers them opportunities to explain their reasoning--something that we know is difficult for students. We need to be sure to offer these opportunities to all of our students so they can begin to practice more math thinking.

You might want to offer these to your students and ask them to give verbal explanations for a while before you begin asking them to write their reasoning. Be sure to encourage the use math vocabulary as much as you can, and to explain to them that they need to use math reasoning.  (They might tell you they would buy the M & Ms instead of the Butterfinger because they don't like peanut butter, but they need to acknowledge which one is the better math deal.)

Here is a simple Valentines Would you Rather? that you might want to try with your class.  I have scaffolded the writing portion of it by offering sentence stems at the bottom.  

Would You Rather? Valentines Candy (easier version)
Would You Rather? Valentines Candy

I recommend you take the time to check out the website!  It has a lot of prepared problems that you can use, or it might spark an idea for one of your own!  If you make some and would be willing to share, send me a link or share below.  Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Holiday Math Online Games

Here some holiday/winter based online math games you might want to try:



Christmas Math:  (K-2)  This site works on identification of numbers, counting, as well as facts within 20.




Math Mosaics: (K-2)  Children solve problems under 10 to color in the squares of the winter mosaic.




Holiday Fun:  (3-5) A multiplication practice game.  Students can choose fact family they want to practice.  Correct answers create a holiday scene.





Blocky Christmas:  (3-5) Logic puzzle from ABCya


Christmas Lights:  (K-5)--Students select the difficulty of basic facts to practice.  They are rewarded at the end with lights to decorate the holiday scene. Students love ABCya!


Super Santa Kicker: (K-5) Students use their knowledge of angles and simple machines to help the reindeer kick the stuffed Santas into the goal.




Winter Math MunchMan: (K-5) Students can choose what level of problems that they want to solve.  Then they move through the Pacman maze to capture the answers and beat the ghosts.


Create your Own Snowflake:  (K-5) Students use digital scissors and paper to create a symmetrical snowflake.

Snowline:  (K-5) Students use angles to direct Santa to the finish line.



Winter Jigsaw Puzzles:  Students put together digital jigsaw puzzles.






Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Holiday Goodies

Every year the holidays seem to approach more quickly....it must be a sign of my age.  😏




I know how hectic the classroom can be as you prepare for the holidays...you are trying to finish up units, students are distracted, special events and assemblies get in the way, students leave for break a day or two early....

With that in mind, I prepared something for each grade level that I think can be used as independent work, partner work, or in another way that works best for you.  The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade activities involve story problems which mostly align with the spring PARCC testing.  You should find that some of the pages are things that your students have already studied this year.  Of course, you might decide to look through one of the other grade level's sets of problems--as some of those pages might better fit the needs of your students.









If you are looking for other activities that might be good for your classroom during December, you might check out these previous posts:







Monday, November 6, 2017

Building Thinkers through Open-Ended Tasks


Open-ended tasks offer great opportunities for our students to grow as problem solvers. They also offer students a non-threatening way to show their work, and develop good vocabulary and justification skills.  

These open-ended problems I created are perfect for December or early January because they are holiday-based.  There are 15 different problems in this document, and I think there is something for every grade level.  Please feel free to download and use whatever pages best fit the needs of your students.  


Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Halloween and Logic


Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.



This mathematical practice standard is one that needs to be practiced often with our students.  However, some of them get so flustered by the math that they can't explain their reasoning to others let alone listen to other students' ideas.

Consider trying these logic puzzles with your students.  Logic is a great way for students to practice their thinking, and it is often easier for some of our kiddos who struggle with some of our grade level content.

These logic puzzles are October/Halloween themed and vary in difficulty. They are good practice at thinking skills but also in relational words.  I have also created a document for you that has the images for the puzzles.  Often, it helps the students to have something to move around on their desk.  You can just give them a strip of pictures that matches the puzzle you are doing, they can cut the images apart, and then move them as necessary to solve the problem.

If your students like these, consider an activity where groups try to make up their own.  It is more challenging than it looks.

Please share with a colleague.  Comment below if you find other ways to use them in your classroom.




Thursday, January 26, 2017

Valentines Fact Game

I saw something like this online, and I decided to create a similar one.  It is a Powerpoint game that you can use to help your students practice their math facts. I have created a version for students to play independently and another one for them to play as teams.

Download the Powerpoint and the Bingo Cards.  The Powerpoint is set to advance to the next slide after 4 seconds.  The team version uses the same Bingo Cards but the slides are in a different order and there are slides inserted to tell the students when to change players.

I think it will be a fun way for them to practice their facts.  Students are expected to be fluent (efficient, flexible, accurate, automatic) in addition and subtraction facts up to 10 by the end of 1st grade. 3rd grade students should be fluent in multiplication and division facts within 100 by the end of the year.

VALENTINE BINGO CARDS Addition 1-10

VALENTINE BINGO POWERPOINT  Addition 1-10


VALENTINE TEAM BINGO POWERPOINT  Addition 1-10


VALENTINE BINGO CARDS  Subtraction 1-10

VALENTINE BINGO POWERPOINT Subtraction 1-10


VALENTINE TEAM BINGO POWERPOINT Subtraction 1-10

VALENTINE BINGO CARDS Multiplication within 100

VALENTINE MULTIPLICATION BINGO POWERPOINT  Multiplication within 100


VALENTINE TEAM MULTIPLICATION BINGO POWERPOINT Multiplication within 100


VALENTINE BINGO CARDS   Division within 100

VALENTINE BINGO POWERPOINT  Division within 100

VALENTINE TEAM BINGO POWERPOINT Division within 100

Please let me know if you have any problems accessing or using these Powerpoints.

Friday, December 2, 2016

For the Holidays

It's that time of year again....we are busy, our students are busy, and we still have a lot of work to do.  :)

Attached are two holiday SMART documents.  You are welcome to use them in your room as you wish.  Maybe you take a page or two a day...maybe there is only one page that interests you....maybe you want to save them for those final days before break....whatever you choose, I hope you find some use of them.

Each contains a couple logic puzzles.  I like to give kids little manipulatives to help them solve the puzzle, so I made a doc for you that you can print and use if you wish.

Have a great December!  I love being in the classrooms--let me know if you could use anything!

K-2 Holiday SMART

K-2 Logic puzzle images

3-5 Holiday SMART

3-5 Logic puzzle images


Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Only 8 Fridays 'til Christmas!

And only 7 of those are we in school!



I created these Christmas tree puzzles for practice on math fact fluency.  They could be used in lots of ways in the classroom.

Download the ones you want.  The directions are included.








Merry Christmas!  :)


Monday, October 3, 2016

October means Halloween




Check out these SMART Notebook docs for some fun review this month!  Because multiple grade skills are covered--use the pages that work for you!

Grades K-2

Grades 3-5

Please feel free to share with a friend.  I didn't make the really cute K-2 one; I found it and just made a few edits.  :)