Michael Recycle and Earth Day math!

Earth Day is almost here! I thought about this one day as I was recycling my milk jugs and water bottles. I thought these caps could be used as good math manipulatives! IDEA sparks shooting out everywhere....then dollar store trip. I made two math stations to use with my Michael Recycle lieracy unit.  I couldn't stop there so I made 5 math journal word problems....my students LOVED these! I really enjoy using literature as my hook....what do you use to get your students engaged?

First, I collect so many caps....whoa that's a lot! 

This  math station is using part part whole stragegy. I used, or should I say, reused water bottle caps as counters...amazing results with my struggling math students. 

 Here are the containers I purchased for these stations...which I will reuse for other stations too:)

I really like this station....because it looks like real recycling bins.  I put out more caps for counters.  This was a favorite! you can see this math unit and my other Earth Day unit at my tpt store...just click the button or brose my store right from this blog :)

Thank you for stopping by! Happy Earth Day!

math for St. Patrick`s Day!

Top o`the morning to you!  I love teaching children how to love math. I was recently at the Dollar store for some inspiration and didn't see much for St. Patrick`s Day...but I did find foam shamrocks....yay! So then I went on over to Party City....that is the place ya`ll! I grabbed some erasers and some coins, more paper shamrocks,  and leprechaun pots....what a fun trip!

Then, I thought about the needs of my students and how each one would love to learn that lesson. I created an addition/subtraction game (which by the way I am giving away free on my teachers pay teachers store) 

My students enjoyed this game so much....I really like hands on learning and I have found in my years as an educator....that is the best way to engage a 6 to 7 year old into loving and learning math!

Here are some more hands on math I made for my students....LOVE IT!! 

I hope you enjoyed these ideas! I would love to hear about your ideas too! What exciting lessons do you create for math?