The One with the Snowball Fight

I have been ready for a snow day for quite a while now.   You know... a day of sleeping in and staying in PJs all day.  Plus snow is beautiful.

But it just doesn't seem to be happening around here.  It has definitely been cold enough for a snow day, but no snow.

Friday when my students walked in I shared this desire for a snow day with them.  They were quick to agree with me.  I let them know that while I couldn't make it snow outside, I could certainly make it snow in my classroom.

Their eyes lit up with excitement.

They began wondering what I was thinking.

You see I had found this fun review activity by Brooke Eagerton.

What could be better than an indoor order of operations snowball fight?

64 problems - 1 problem per page.

The problems varied in difficulty which I appreciated.

Simply print the problems, wad them up into snowballs, and let the fun begin.

I divided my students into two teams.  We pushed our six tables to the center of the room to serve as a divider.  The students were not allowed to cross the tables.

They had 60 seconds to throw snowballs.  The rules state that students cannot run and cannot aim at someone's face.

Needless to say my students LOVED this.

At the end of 60 seconds they picked up three snowballs, retreated to their corner and worked the three problems.  They had to get with a partner and check each other's work.

Then we started over with another 60 second fight.  After each round they had to work more problems.  They worked four problems after round two, five problems after round three, and so on.

I wish I had pictures for you, but I deleted them.

Ugh!

You'll just have to trust me when I say this review activity was a hit.

My 6th graders have been challenging this year and I debated letting them "play" this game.  I had to make a believer out of a few in the first round.  As soon as they realized I was serious and they wouldn't get to participate in the "fighting" they followed the rules.

The One with Bottle Caps

I have been saving the bottle caps off my water for awhile now. 

 Last week I finally sat down and created a game with them.

Thank you Pinterest!

I used these bright colored labels that I had on hand.  They fit perfectly onto the bottle caps.

I put multiplication facts on the outside.

And products on the inside.

I still need to create a cute container to put them all in.

The idea for this game is that students can practice their multiplication facts whenever they finish an assignment early or as a center. 

I'm going to put a timer in the container with the bottle caps.  The challenge will be to correctly answer as many as you can in one minute.

I also plan to make a set of addition and subtraction for a few of my lower level students.

I've seen lots of ideas on Pinterest for ways to use bottle caps for both literacy and math.  I will probably be making more games as I collect more bottle caps.

The One with the Long Class

I received my schedule last week for the upcoming year.  I will be teaching two sections of 5th grade math and two sections of 6th grade math.  With the current schedule no two classes are the same length of time.

Class One: 1 hour 40 minutes

Class Two: 1 hour 15 minutes

Class Three: 1 hour 20 minutes

Class Four: 1 hour 35 minutes

Because of the way students rotate I will have 6th grade during Class One and Class Four.  I will have 5th grade during Class Two and Class Three.  That will make my planning a little easier because at least my 6th grade classes are almost the same length.  Other teachers won't be so lucky.  Can you imagine having one 5th grade class for 1 hour 40 minutes and your other 5th grade class for 1 hour 15 minutes.

How do you plan for that?

Speaking of planning...1 hour 40 minutes.  That is completely overwhelming to me.  How do you plan for that much time.

I'm sure some of you would love to have that much time to teach math.

I came up with an idea this week that I'm pretty excited about it.

The 6th grade students that I will have next year have room for growth when it comes to Math.  I have gotten really excited to have them again and help them become better mathematicians.  We are going to track data and improve test scores and reach the stars.

I have pretty high expectations for this group of kiddos.

Because of that my current plan is to take the first thirty minutes of class to "play" games that will help improve their basic math skills.  I spent today looking for games online.  I found a several good ones on this site that I printed and laminated today.

And then I made one of my own and have plans for a few more.  This one is multiplication match.  It's now available in my TPT store.  The next one of my to do list is a division match.

I'm going to need a lot more games and activities to make it through the year.  What are your  favorite math games that you use in your classroom?  Any TPT sellers that have some great resources for this?