First Grade

Graphing and Data Analysis in first grade can seem daunting but it is actually a really fun math concept because it is so visual. Kids "get it" pretty easily and graphing activities allow them to share things about themselves so they love it.

Board games are a HUGE hit in my first grade classroom, and this Ten Frame Addition Board Game is no exception! My students loved solving addition problems as they raced to the finish line. It was the perfect addition to our math centers. Getting Ready To prep this fun math center, I printed out the game board and cards onto thick cardstock.  

In first grade, I like to teach everything HANDS ON. I want my students to build the numbers, feel the numbers, see the numbers. I find that a tricky concept like place value is just so abstract. I like for my students to be able to really get a feel for it through some basic place value games.

One of the most FUNdamental math skills we teach our kids...especially at the beginning of the year...is learning how to subitize. But what exactly is subitizing?! Subitizing is instantly seeing how many. It's getting to the cardinal number of a set without going through the ordinals to tell how many. Subitizing is an important skill for our students to learn and practice because it helps to set the foundation for skills like composing and decomposing numbers and more complex number ideas and concepts.

Fact fluency is a big part of math in first grade. You may be thinking, "How in the world am I going to teach these kiddos ALL these facts with fluency when I literally just taught them how to add?!" First graders are usually expected to master all facts to 10 with fluency by the end of first grade so I wanted to share a bunch of tips and activities to help you help them get there!

A fun counting game with "fries" (sponges) and McDonal's fry containers.

Teaching money is a lot of fun because there are so many money games for kids and, best of all, kids are so excited to learn how to count coins and make change so engagement is at an all-time high.

The Daily 3 and Guided Math are a small-group approach to learning mathematics, just like we meet with students daily during Guided Reading, we meet with students as mathematicians. It is a deviation from whole-group math instruction. As a team, we decided to take the Guided Math jump - modeling our math block after our...

I combined the sweet frog idea from makinglearningfun to create a container with the Kaboom addidition game from Teacher Tipsters to create my "Don't Get Zapped!" Game.

Making a 10 to Add is a great math strategy to help students mentally add bigger numbers. It's a skill I picked up somewhere along the way in elementary school and have used on a daily basis ever since. I never realized I was composing and decomposing numbers but I've done it all my life and it's so helpful!

These FREE Cootie Catchers are fun math games great for practicing addition, subtraction and doubling to ten plus number recognition! This free printable math activity is perfect for Preschool, PreK, Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade.

Popcorn Maths - Students can choose 2 pieces of white popcorn and one yellow piece. They write the equation and answer in their books.

Teaching math to my first graders at the beginning of the year involves a lot of  modeling routines, procedures, and new games/activities. We start off by focusing on numeration- identifying and counting numbers to 120, learning how to use different math tools (tens frames, number charts, and number lines), as well as how to make groups of ten when counting a large quanity of items.

A collection of dozens of the best math card games for Kindergarten through high school, organized by math topic to help you find what you need!

A first grade blog with original ideas and activities!