Five of My Favorite Integer Activities

Teaching integers is one of my favorite topics.

Why?

Because in the beginning students act as if they will NEVER understand Integers.

Working with negative numbers is sooo hard and confusing.

And then they get it!!

Plus there are so many real life examples and activities that can be done with Integers.

I love that in most pacing guides out there, at least the ones I've come in contact with, integers is taught at the beginning of the year.  It is such a great way to build that math confidence early on.

Don't get me wrong, integers can be confusing and some students really struggle with the concept.  I just think there are so many great visuals and activities out there to help those struggling students.

Okay.

Enough of my ranting.

I have FIVE integer activities I want to share with you.

This Ordering Integers cut and paste activity is great for making a simple concept more hands-on.  What is it about cutting and pasting that just makes it more fun?  And when you print it on your favorite astrobright paper...you might as well be throwing a party!

Students get six sets of numbers that they must put in order from least to greatest.

And if cutting and pasting isn't your thing then you might appreciate the digital version of this activity.

Learning to add integers on a number line can be a bit tricky.  This digital activity is great practice and helps catch some common mistakes.  It comes with 20 different problems but you can easily cut that down if you feel like that is more than your students need or can handle.

As you can probably tell, I'm all about making simple activities more hands-on and interactive for my students.  This sort activity is a fun way to practice those adding and subtracting rules for integers.  I love to have my students do this with a partner because it produces some great math conversations among students.

If you follow me on Instagram you know how much I am loving my Integers Number Line.  I have been using this number line for a few years but this year I am using it in so many different ways.  It is individual pieces which allows you to create a horizontal or vertical number line.  In my experience students see horizontal number lines all the time, but they are not as familiar with vertical number lines.  This year I decided to hang mine up on my whiteboard with magnets so that I can create both a horizontal and vertical number line.

Then I decided I wanted to be able to use it to practice other types of problems so I created a math symbols set.

And then I thought we needed some fractions and decimals to throw in the mix so a new set was born.



I am looking forward to using these three sets all year long with my students.

And last but certainly not least, my newest activity that I am so stinkin' excited about it.

Students can practice all four operations with this digital color by number activity.  As they correctly answer questions parts of the picture began to appear.  Students will have fun guessing what they think the picture might be.

 Mario has me feeling a bit nostalgic



So there you have it!  Five of my favorite Integer Activities.  I have so many activities that I enjoy doing with Integers.  I could easily do a part two to this post if you are interested. 

Five Ways to Use QR Codes in the Classroom

I used to think elementary when I heard someone talking about math stations.  Four or five years ago a mentor of mine taught me that math stations are not only doable in middle school, but middle school students still love them.  

And y'all I haven't looked back since.

I love me some stations.

What does this have to do with  QR Codes?

When I first began implementing stations I was on the hunt for activities that students could work on without me holding their hand.  QR Codes was one of those activities.

By adding QR Codes to my task cards students are able to check their answers on their own.

No more, "Mrs. Weaver, is this the right answer for #2?"

QR Codes have freed me up to work with small groups.

I have found that this type of activity also encourages students to take ownership of their learning.  Could they just scan the code and have the answer?  Absolutely.  But what do they learn from that?  This is the type of conversation we have often when we first start doing task cards with QR Codes.  Students are encouraged to do the work before scanning and then if they make a mistake and come up with an incorrect answer they are encouraged to figure out their mistake on their own.

I love seeing the growth in my students over the year using these task cards.

Quiz and Test can be scary words for students.  If I can assess my students without using those two words or without making it feel like an assessment?  Well I'm here for that.

Plickers is a great formative assessment tool.  When I first started using Plickers a few years ago it was free.  Sadly you now have to pay for the full version.

But don't let that deter you.

You can ask up to five questions at a time using the free version.  This still works perfectly as a warm up or an exit ticket type activity.  

If you have never used plickers, here's a quick run down of how it works.

Students each have an unique qr code that they use to answer multiple choice questions.  You use your device to scan the qr codes to record answers.  It's immediate feedback for everyone.  You can read more about them in this post I wrote a few years ago.

Classroom Documentation...there's a fun topic.

You can use QR Codes to help you with documentation.  I love this idea from Preppy Zesty Teacherista.

Have students scan a QR code to document no homework, or leaving the classroom for the bathroom or nurse, or being tardy.  The options are endless.

Want to get students excited about a free pencil or a fun little eraser?  And I'm talking Middle School students.

Amp up the anticipation of rewards with QR Codes.  

Students love the anticipation of not knowing what little reward they will receive.  I find it fun to watch them act like they know or remember each QR code.  Most of these rewards cost me nothing and students seriously love it.  It's a game of chance.

Last but not least, use QR Codes to help your students study and prepare for an upcoming assessment.  When you make that study guide, add a QR code to it that links students to a helpful youtube video.  

You could even have your students find the videos for you.  

When they get home and need a little extra help on that one problem, they can scan the QR code and watch a video that explains how to solve the problem.

Do you use QR Codes in your classroom?

How do you use them?

HOW TO CREATE A QR CODE

The Best First Day Ever

This past Monday was our first day of school.  I woke up easily and filled with excitement to start the year.  

I never blogged about it, but last year was the worst first day ever.  I spilled my breakfast all over myself and forgot all of my stuff at home. 

This year was a complete turn around.  I dare say it was the best first day ever.

I feel like I stumbled across the secret to having a great first day that doesn't leave me feeling completely exhausted at the end of the day.

My husband has learned that I NEVER cook dinner on the first day of school. I basically come home and go to bed.  It may not have been a fancy five course meal, but I actually cooked dinner this year after the first day.  And I didn't immediately go to bed.  In fact I did a little shopping.

What's my secret?

Stations.

How have I never thought to do this before.  I know the gloriousness that is stations.

This year I decided instead of being one more teacher for the students to listen to about rules, procedures, and expectations I would have them do all the work through stations.

My coteacher and I set up five stations for the students to work through.  As they transitioned from station to station we were able to teach those transition procedures in real time.  It was great.

The Literary Maven's stations were our base for everything.  We tweaked it a bit to fit our math classroom and added a few different things.

STATION #1

Syllabus & Meet the Teachers Crossword puzzle.

We each made a page to introduce ourselves to the students.  We also had the class syllabus telling them what to expect and basic information such as supplies.  We used this Crossword Puzzle Maker to create a puzzle using the information from our Meet the Teacher pages and our syllabus.

STATION #2

Quiz Your Classmates

We created a few questions to help students get to know one another.  They had fun playing "two truths and a lie" and then discussing thing such as pets and books.

STATION #3

                   

 

We used this Student Survey to help us get to know our students a little better.  I loved their answers to the first question about who they look up to and why.

STATION #4

This activity from Lindsay Perro is designed to be six different stations.  The students color a different section of their paper based on their information at each station.  For example color the circles blue if you are the oldest child, green if you are the middle child, red if you are the youngest child, or orange if you are an only child.  We put it all together as one station.  Our students did not have time to finish it like this and we ended up telling them they could finish it however they wanted.  They are using their finished product as a cover for their Math binder.

STATION #5

In a Perfect World

In this station we asked our students to think about, write about, and discuss what our classroom would look like in a perfect world.  We used their answers and discussions on Tuesday to discuss as a whole group and create a class contract.  My coteacher is using their answers to create a wordle to hang in our classroom.

So there you go.  That's what we did on the first day of school.  The students did all the work and we didn't go home exhausted.  I will never do another first day of school without stations.

If you did stations on the first day of school I would love to hear about it.  Leave me a comment please. :)

Or if you have any questions about the stations we did, leave me a comment about that too.  

Hope you have a great year!

Usborne Learning Palettes

At the end of last year a fellow teachers posted about these learning palettes on Facebook.  She went on and on about how amazing they were.

I looked into them and thought they were pretty neat, but honestly didn't see what all the fuss was about.

But since I was moving toward implementing Math Workshop into my class this year, I decided to use some of my classroom money and purchase a few.  I thought they might work for a station.

I ordered 5 palettes and 5 sets of cards.

I chose Algebra Concepts Levels 3 and 4, Decimals and Percents, Fractions, and Geometry and Measurement.

Each set comes with 12 different cards.  

Y'all these truly are amazing learning tools.

And they have cards for reading and language too!

Here is how they work.

Students choose a card and place it on the palette.

The example of above is practicing input, output or patters.

Students would determine that the first missing number is 12.  They would take the purple disc and place it next to the 12.

(I purposely put it in the wrong place to show you what happens when a student makes a mistake.  I'll show you that in a minute).

Here the student sees that the number missing between 8 and 12 is 10 so they put the corresponding disc next to the ten.

A

Once students have answered all of the questions, they flip the card over.

They can then check their answers.  You can see that I got the red disc with the hole in it correct.

But we missed this one.  It should have been the orange disc.

Can you see the possibilities?

I have seriously fallen in love with these palettes.  They are amazing!!

So far I am using them for my SPED kids who are only in my math class for about 20 minutes.  It is a great way for them to practice different skills and check their work without my help.  They beg to "play" with these.

These palettes are made my Usborne.  I strongly encourage you to check them out.  They are well worth the money.

I love them so much I'm hosting a party to get some more.

If you would like to check them out, click on this link.