Are you smarter than a chicken?

As elementary math teachers, one of our primary goals is to create a classroom environment where students are actively engaged in learning and exploring mathematical concepts. One of the best ways to achieve this is by setting up math stations—a dynamic, hands-on approach that allows students to rotate between different …

The Unseen World of Non-Repeating, Non-Terminating Decimals Irrational numbers are one of the most fascinating concepts in mathematics. They are numbers that cannot be expressed as a simple fraction of two integers. Unlike rational numbers (which can be written as fractions like 1/2, 3/4, etc.), irrational numbers have infinite decimal …

Pi (π) is one of the most famous numbers in mathematics, appearing in formulas across geometry, physics, engineering, and even nature. But why does this seemingly simple ratio—approximately 3.14159—hold such immense importance, and where did it come from? The History of Pi The concept of pi has been known for …

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year, and I love to use all kinds of Halloween-themed math games, puzzles, and other practice activities in the classroom. Today I would like to share some more games and activities ideas with a Halloween theme to practice arrays and multiplication …

As promised, new Escape Rooms Adventures are being created. My students love Escape Room adventures and they keep on asking for more. After the success of the Fractions Review Escape Room Adventures 1 and 2, I decided to create two new Escape room adventures for younger students to practice the …

Halloween is a great time for some playful, fun math activities like games, puzzles, and more. Puzzles are a great way to add some excitement to math class and when you can turn them into math talks a lot of interesting discussions happen as the students make connections, see the …

Math talks are short activities (around 10-15 minutes) designed to provide opportunities for the students to make connections in mathematics and explain their thinking to their peers. There are questions/problems/pictures that encourage students to think of different strategies and realize that there is no one way to solve a problem. …

Combining letters with numbers and mathematical operations is new and exciting for students starting with basic operations. I find that many students see these equations as puzzles and love to solve them. As the equations get more complicated, however, including fractions, exponents, and more, many students start getting frustrated. Algebra …

Since the multi-digit addition and subtraction and Multi-Digit Multiplication games were a great success in my classroom and from what I heard in yours as well, I have decided to create a few for long division as well. The idea of these games is to motivate the students to practice …

Fractions operations are usually a challenging concept for students to grasp. The multiplication of fractions seems to be “easier” than adding and subtracting fractions since the algorithm is more straightforward in the sense that we do not need to find the LCM and turn the fractions into like ones. However, …

For your convenience here are all our Halloween games and activities together to explore. Halloween games Addition/Subtraction Numbers 1-100 Halloween Games – Multiplication/Division facts Halloween Puzzles and Math Talks Halloween Games-Memory Match-Arrays Halloween Activities -Multiplication Properties, Arrays, Facts Halloween Activities-Addition/Subtraction, 2-digit numbers Halloween Digital Activities- Forming numbers, Quantities, Number Sense …

Adding and subtracting fractions, especially heterogeneous ones (with unlike denominators), is often a challenging concept for students since there is a lot of prerequisite knowledge involved like fluency with multiplication and division facts, LCM, equivalent fractions, and more. Before students start with adding and subtracting fractions they need to have …

Learning time is often confusing for students as the concept of time is still abstract for many of them as it doesn’t connect to the other concepts of measurement. The students cannot see, touch, or weigh time. It is hard to visualize and compare time. Time does not use the …

Multi-digit multiplication is considered one of the most “challenging” concepts to teach students. The reason for this view is, in my opinion, the fact that understanding multi-digit multiplication requires students to have gained a deep understanding of place value, and the multiplication properties. As the digits increase the process of …

Today we want to share our latest web game/activity”Missing Numbers”. “Missing Numbers” is a free interactive game on the multiplication table. The goal is to place all the missing numbers in the correct position on the table. It’s perfect for virtual learning and a great way to practice multiplication facts, …

Below you will find a collection of free games. Most of the games have a print and google slides version and some of them have a web version as well. The links will take you to a post where you will find the instructions, the print files to download, and …

Multiplication facts fluency is very important as it is the base for many concepts like multi-digit multiplication, equivalent fractions, division, and, much more. Multiplication facts practice deserves time and effort. Rushing into drills that promote meaningless memorization with endless repetition will not help in the long run. Allow students to …

By transforming any math activity into a “puzzle” you can instantly engage students and make a lesson so much more exciting. I often use puzzles to initiate number talks and to challenge my students. I love the Aha! moments they have once they solve a problem/puzzle. Why do students enjoy …

Activities on the 100 chart are a great way to build fluency with numbers in grades 1 and 2 and 3. Students can find patterns and relations, understand one more, one less, count by 2,3, and so on. Start with a 20 or 50 chart and gradually move on to …