"Egg"cellent Math Activities

I am "egg"cited (insert nerd alert here) to share with you my recent egg-themed math freebie I whipped up for the month of April. 

This activity is a festive way for your students to review basic addition or multiplication facts. 

Students will role two dice to fill in the numbers to complete the 5 problems. They will then solve the problems to determine how they will need to decorate their eggs.

Grab your free copy for addition or multiplication in English or Spanish by clicking the activity image.

If you are brave enough to use real eggs, you may want to check out my "Egg Measurements" freebie that I have shared in the past as well! This activity was an authentic way for my students to put the measurement skills we had been learning about into practice and includes everything from measuring the length of the egg to its weight and its area! Click here to read more about how we did the activity in my classroom or click on the image to grab a copy for yourself.

Multiplication Mania!

We have been knee deep in the beginnings of multiplication these past few days. Thought I'd share a few quick freebies with you all that I have created and/or enjoyed from other teachers that you may be able to use to do the multiplication basics with your kiddos!

First things first, a quick anchor chart....(We have been referring to this all week long to help us remember not only the different ways we can represent a multiplication story, but also how the addition and multiplication number models are interconnected!)

On Valentine's Day...(because the kids were not already on enough of a sugar high), we worked to create arrays for the first time using Nerds candies!

Just a quick note - we found that a dab of liquid glue worked the best, although my kids did have some success if they lathered on the glue stick! Also, my freebie does not include the dot grid that is included on this photo, because I cut and pasted one of the grids from our Everyday Math Journals to make it a little easier for my students to glue in neat rows and thus, could not claim them as my own! I encourage you to do the same, and/or your kids could also work to put the nerds into equal groups instead of creating the array. There are many ways it could be used! Grab this freebie in both English and Spanish here.

We have also been working on solving multiplication number stories. I was inspired by a freebie from Smiles from Second Grade to create this quick number story activity page for my students to complete during group today with me to review not only the two ways to represent a multiplication story, but also how to write the different number models effectively.

Here is a student who decided to use arrays...

and another who preferred equal groups/pictures..

Grab a copy of this in Spanish here. 

Grab a copy in English (by Smiles from Second Grade) here.

Borders for both freebies by Creative Clips.

Multiplication Monsters and Persuasive Paragraphs

This week I was just looking for some activities to do with my class for fun to continue to prep them for multiplication in 3rd grade! They rocked all of our second grade review these past couple weeks- and were so excited to hear that this week we would be focusing on improving our multiplication skills. Since it is the end of the year and our focus is well...nill...I wanted to find something fun to help them practice their facts. I found an adorable activity from Katie @ Third Grade Teacher Files called "Multiplication Monster". 

I translated it for my kiddos and voila:

Click on the image to snag a copy in Spanish. If you would like it in English, click on the link above to go to Katie's blog. So here is the deal: the students roll a die two times to determine their mulitplication problem and then solve it to determine how many eyes, horns, teeth, and so on their monster will have. Then, they roll it one time to determine what their body will look like. Finally, they draw! Here are some examples from my littles:

So much fun!

We also finished up our persuasive writing pieces today. At the end of the year we always finish up with a piece in which the students have to "persuade" me that they are ready to go to third grade! They were quite convincing. I think they are ready ;)!

Here are a few of our finished products:

In English...

...and Spanish

We wrote in both languages- depending on the student's home language. As tomorrow we have our annual "Second Grade Super Graduation" in my classroom and the students read their writing to their parents! Thus, I like to have them do it in their home language so all parents can understand :)

For some reason, I forgot to save the writing paper we used for this activity on my jump drive. I must have saved it at school. If you'd like a copy, let me know and I would be happy to send it to ya!

Stay tuned for some photos from our super "hurrah" tomorrow! It is one of the highlights of my year!

Arrays, Leaves, and a Special Card!

This popped up in my mailbox yesterday!

A thank you card from our dear friends in West Liberty, KY! My kids were serious jumpin' in their jeans. They were so excited to see that the books they had donated had found their new home and that we have some newfound friends! Such a wonderful surprise, and I am so happy we could be a part of this opportunity to extend a hand!

In other news, we are in review mode in math! And I am trying to make this reviewing thing as exciting as possible! I downloaded this great multiplication array activity from Amy Lemons awhile back, and thought this was just the perfect time to use it!

So while my students were at lunch, I taped these fun little arrays in different places all around our room.

Now I am going to preface this by saying don't judge my awful white out job- but it was a quick fix and I wanted the activity in Spanish for my kiddos. But here is the activity sheet the kiddos were presented with to record their responses. They had to share how many rows of squares there are, and then write the number model and solve to match. (Amy's original looks way better, I promise!)

After explaining the activity- they were off. Seriously- for a lovely sunny day right after lunch- they have never been so engaged! Such a hit!

I will say it took awhile since the cards go from A-R and they had to hunt for them- but it was totally worth it, and it was great repeated practice with arrays. To snag a copy of "I Spy Arrays" for yourself, click here. And thank Amy Lemons for the great idea!

During the afternoon we also did a little leaf investigation as we continue through our plant unit. I asked all of my students to bring a leaf from home. To start our lesson they did an "open" leaf sort. Classifying them as they saw fit. Then we took some time to learn about the two types of leaves "simple"(hoja sencilla) and "compound" (hoja compuesta). After this, the students reclassified their leaves into these two groups. 

Finally, they each had to select a leaf from each group to complete a rubbing as a resource for them to remember the two types of leaves! Here are some examples of our rubbings:

(This one decided to use the most humongous leaf on the planet on her little paper :))

Happy Hump Day!

Nothing like a little math art...

This week we have been reviewing a variety of the concepts covered in our latest math chapter (for those of you who use Everyday Math- we just finished Ch. 7). As part of our review we have been having a little fun and doing some art and math combo projects.

The first, I found in this Math Art Projects and Activities book, that I borrowed from one of my colleagues. We have been studying basic multiplication using arrays, and I found this really cute constellation project to reinforce this. I gave each student a different multiplication problem, a piece of black paper, and a star shaped sponge and they went to town. They look perfect hanging from our ceiling- like a little starry night :)

We have also been working on measurement- specifically using inches and centimeters as well as a ruler as a tool for drawing a straight line. I have done this "Elastic Man" project in the past. The students must follow the number of inches listed on the activity sheet to create their bendable friend. However this year, I took it a step further, and had my students write stories during our Writer's Workshop time about their "Elastic Man/Woman" as well. They got quite creative with them. Check out a few below!

What types of math and art combo creations do you do in your classroom? I would love to hear your ideas!