Math Expressions Art Connection

Math Expressions unit 2 lesson 1 has an art connection with it. The students used 2 shapes to make a math man. They then added their shapes together.  5 rectangles + 1 circle = 6 shapes. 6 rectangles + 1 circle= 7 shapes. Some students used triangles and squares in their pictures. This was a good way for students to use some creativity and still do math.

Math Expressions

Finally got my hands on the new Math Expressions manual for next year. The new version is aligned to the Common Core! It saves me a lot of work trying to align my lessons. Each day for math I have my students do 4 station rotations. These stations give the kids time to explore manipulatives and practice their skills. I try to work on  art projects, whole body kinesthetics activities, and lit connects when I can during station time. Some of the math stations I package up into a gallon ziplock (we call them math buckets) and put in a tote. In the past I have given my kids an occasional Free Friday and let them work in pairs and pick their own "math bucket" or fast finishers sometimes get some extra math bucket time. I have also sent home a math bucket and instruction card with a child who needed some extra practice.

Math expressions comes with 3 activities (intervention, on level, and challenge) for each unit. I have found that they can get repetitive. Some days I include one or two of the Math Expressions activities and a workbook page when available in my station rotation. Some of the stations also get repeated throughout the unit so my kids don't get hit with 4 news games everyday. There is usually one repeat or a slight variation on an old station each day. There is also the occasion "explore" station which is when I just give them time to play with a new manipulative. It is usually a manipulative that we are going to use as a whole group the following day and I want them to be able to get to play with it before we need to use it the next day.

I put together a document with the lesson title (I used to reference the CCS but now i don't have to because it's in the new teacher manual!!!), a few whole group ideas, some of the Math Expressions daily routine (the 100s chart counting part of the Math Expression routine I generally include as part of our morning meeting and calendar time), and 4 station ideas for the day.

Clearly some of the stations may change. Sometimes we combine two easy lessons or we might need to spend more than one day on a difficult lesson and do a station  two days in a row if it is a difficult concept but this at least provides me with a daily outline and stations ideas to pull from.

This document is still a work in progress but I hope to be done with Unit 3 this week which will at least get me a good jump start on the year!

Math Expressions Unit Breakdown and Station Activities

Math Bowling

My first graders love to play this. I used it as a math station. I used foam pins and a foam ball (borrowed from PE)  but you could also use something smaller like plastic cups and make it a table top game. I liked that it was large motor. The more i can keep my kids moving and involved the better they do. I taped 10 X's on the floor so they would know where to reset up the pins after they knocked them down.  Students had to bowl once and then do the math and complete the picture on their "score card" For example if they knocked down 3 pins they would color in 3 of the circles and write 10-3=7. I provided the 10 to get them started but later on the sheet I had them write the whole equation.

Score Card TpT






* Addition- You could also use the back side,
change the minus to plus and also play this as
addition.

 __+ __ = __

Money Book Bags

There are 19 Money book bags- I only used 10 of them as part of my lesson however the extras were available to students during math stations or for fast finishers.

We completed a Math Expressions unit a few days early so we took some time to do a mini social studies unit on Money. Math Expressions uses coins A LOT in first grade. The book bags were a way to continue to explore money from a social studies point of view. We all began with a venn diagram comparing pennies, nickels and dimes. We looked at color, value, president, the year the coin was minted, shape and size. Students then worked in pairs to complete the book bags. After reading we regrouped and brain stormed a list of money vocabulary - value, cost, mint, coin, dollar, penny, nickel, dime, quarter, spend, save, buy, cash, bill, sell, bank and price.

Students also had the opportunity to create their own coins or dollars. Originally this was only for specific books but I ended up having all students do this during a Math Station. We talked about what we see on coins and dollars- a year, a president, a building or other symbol.

Book Bags TpT

Book List 
A Dollar for Penny - Julie Glass
A Dollar = $1.00 - Carey Molter
A Penny= 1¢ -  Carey Molter
A Nickel = 5¢ -  Carey Molter
A Dime = 10¢ -  Carey Molter
A Quarter = 25¢ -  Carey Molter
The Penny Pot - Stuart Murphy
Benny's Pennies - Pat Brisson
All About Coins-Pennies
All About Coins- Nickels
All About Coins- Dimes
All About Coins -Quarters
Ice Cream Money-Sharon L. Young
The Class Store- Sharon L. Young
Twenty-Five Cents- Sharon L. Young
The Shopping Trip-Sharon L. Young
Dollars- Mary Hill
Quarter- Mary Hill
Making Money- Sharon Holm

Making Numbers

Math expressions Unit 4 is about making numbers, place value, 10 and extra ones. One of the activities I did for Unit 4.1 and 4.2 was having my students use all the manipulatives in our room to make a number they drew out of a hat. They had to make the number with 10 sticks and ones as well as with actual numbers. They made the numbers and then took a picture of them using the i-Pads. This was a good intro for my kiddos to really get used to all the different manipulatives they could use: 100 chart, number cards, magnetic numbers, white boards, unifix cubes, cuisenaire rods, colored counting chips, calculators, money. 

Maps and Globes Unit

Me on a Map- I live in City, State, Country, World

Paper Plate Globes and Writing

Cardinal Directions NSEW Compasses

3D Cardboard Map of a City

Just completed our maps and globes unit. I took two weeks to teach about cardinal directions, the difference between a map and a globe and how and why we might use a map. If we had the time my class would have loved to just lay on the rug and play with maps and globes all day. They were incredibly interested in where things were and how long it might to take to get there.
Activity List:
Paper plate globes (photo)
3D cardboard city map (photo)
Me On A Map
There's A Map In My Lap
Treasure hunt
Daddy Are We There Yet? (Math connection- use Cuisenaire rods for subtracting 10)
Compass roses (Math connection- symmetry) (photo)
Scout Letters- I received 2 scouts (similar to Flat Stanley)from a 3rd grade class in MPLS. My class was curious about how they got to us, how far they had to travel etc. Each child wrote a letter back to the third graders about our town and community and drew a map showing how the scout got to us.

TPT resource
I originally got this for free but now it is listed for a dollar... http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Map-Skills-Powerpoint

10 frames

Ten Frame Game and Materials Resource!

Class Book- "10 in a row and some below" take photos of your class in a large 10 frame taped out on the floor. Students create story problems using the pictures.

Resources-
10 frame resource

St. Patrick's Day Maze

Students color the alphabet from A-Z to connect the leprechaun to the gold. Have students try coloring in more than one color to make it look like a rainbow.

A-Z St. Patrick's Day Maze

Students color the numbers from 1-100 to connect the leprechaun to the gold. Have students try coloring in more than one color to make it look like a rainbow.

1-100 St. Patrick's Day Maze

Stamp Math

Students will cut out and glue on 2 stamps to "mail" their letter. The sum of the 2 stamps must equal the amount in the stamp box on each envelop. Students can also write the number sentence in the address lines.

Stamp Math Worksheet

Source: docs.google.com via Sydney on Pinterest

Ten Partners Rainbow

Students place the numbers 0-10 in the box at the bottom of each color of the rainbow (5 will be doubled). When they follow the arch across the corresponding number should be its 10 pair.

0+10 purple

1+9 blue

2+8 green

3+7 yellow

4+6 orange

5+5 red

Ten Partners Rainbow

Source: docs.google.com via Sydney on Pinterest