Flipping over Dominoes!

First, I LOVE Debbie Diller and her books! I’m no where close to being done with Chapter 4 and already have so many brilliant ideas! I can’t even make it through a paragraph without getting an idea for a fun game!

So here is the next game, “Flipping Over Dominoes”- it really is what it says- the partners flip over the dominoes. Best used if you have a set of dominoes up to 6, not the 9. Students flip over all the dominoes so they are unable to see the dots. They each get a domino mat to place in front of them. Each partner flips over a domino. The person with the greatest number on their domino gets both dominoes and gets to place them on their domino mat! When all dominoes are flipped over, the game is over! Great for number recognition and the first steps of adding!

How do you use dominos?

Up until now, I have used dominos mainly as a indoor recess center. Students love to play with them, stack them and make them fall. Why didn’t I use them in math? Well, because I had not seen all these awesome blogs! So, here is how I will be using Dominos as a math workstation.

I created “Domino Dock Up” which is a math mat where students can count- or add the domino dots up! What number they will get is where they will “dock” their dominos! Students can turn all the dominos over- and flip one over. Add it up and place it into their space. Later in the year, students can write the actual equation for an assessment-accountability piece. I plan on using this center for number recognition 1-12, which is in the first two weeks of school.

Where can you find it- TPT store- but PLEASE rate if you take it! Thanks!

We don’t use fancy glasses for shapes

My students thought we would get “those fancy glasses” when we were discussing 3D shapes. I laughed but in fact, it was a great use of their schema! We teach both 2D and 3D shapes but pretty far apart in the school year. I made these in word, they are just the shapes with names. In my classroom, I have a long radiator with lots of empty space. I am going to take these, print them and laminate them. Then I am going to stick magnets to the pack of these so we have an interactive shape wall. I also plan on having math workstations for geometry that will be near the radiator. You gotta use the space you have!

Number Recognition vocabulary

Technorati Tags: math

I know that I always use my word wall and play lots of games with it. This year, I have decided that I will really use my math word wall and let students see it and know the words. I have made them in the past but they were never really used. My curriculum, the first part we will teach is number recognition and being able to understand basic vocabulary. I have made these vocabulary cards for the math word wall. They are all the same size so they can be printed on card stock and cut out for the wall! Check them out at the TPT store! The numbers are Hawaiian numbers and I think they are super cute! :)

Mrs. Tabb says “Your a shoe in”

If you have not visited Mrs. Tabb at Just another day in first grade, you should! I love all of her ideas and she is currently doing a really cool give away! She made the comment first graders are obsessed with shoes and they are! They always want to show you their really cool shoes or ask if you have noticed them! She made a really neat unit on shoes! Go visit and look at for you yourself!!!

Roll and Build continued

Why not continue the last post and use it with graphing like Debbie Miller suggest? Exactly, I couldn’t come up with a reason either! I made a  graph for students to graph the colors they roll. You can put it in the same workstation later in the year and give them colored pencils/markers or crayons to color it. I know that first grade we aren’t responsible for bar graphs but it will never hurt them! It’s a simple sheet- I made it in black and white for easy copies! Check it out on my TPT and download it with the other game- but don’t forget to rate!

Roll and Build

This is for a math center for number recognition. It’s a quick activity that partners can play. The materials are two different cubes, one number and one with colors, unifix cubes and a mat to roll the cubes on. I was thinking about making paper cubes instead of actual hard cubes, then I can change it and it won’t make a loud noise.

The directions are pretty simple: Students roll both cubes and build the corresponding unifix cubes. If the students already have that number built, they lose a turn. The first person to build all 6 numbers off the dice wins!

Think this will be a great beginning of the year math workstation!