Differentiated Instruction Math Game: Superhero Flash Freebie

Last night before bed, my daughter asked me to play a game her teacher sent home.  At first I thought it is way to late to start a game tonight, but then I changed my mind.  She pulled out a baggie with a set of index cards.  Each card had a math fact on it that my daughter was going to have a test on.  Also in the stack were cards labeled BANG! The game was to put all the cards face up in a pile on the table.  On our turn, we had to say the answer to the fact on the top card.  If we answered correctly, we kept the card. If we answered incorrectly, we put the card on the bottom of the pile.  If the card up on our turn was a BANG card we had to put all of our collected cards back in the pile and start over collecting cards.  I thought this was a great idea of a game!! It has so many possibilities.  I created a Superhero version of this game.  Instead of BANG cards, there are WHAM and POW cards.  The instructions work the same though.  I also thought this game could be used to practice any skill the child needed to work on.  Every child's game would be set up for his/her skill needs.  Included in this freebie is the set of WHAM and POW cards as well as one sheet of blank cards that can be copied for use as needed.  Thank you Mrs. Carey for the great inspiration! (As usual!)  Click on the first picture to grab your freebie!

Geometry: Shapes, lines, rays

Recently I posted an activity to help students with the concepts of lines, rays, and angles.  You can visit that post here.  The students and I read together the book The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns shortly after our activity and my students began to wonder about creating a circle.  If you aren't familiar with The Greedy Triangle, this book is about a triangle who decides he doesn't like being a triangle anymore.  He goes to see the shapeshifter who keeps giving him one more side and one more angle until he can barely walk since he is almost round.  He finally decides that being a triangle isn't so bad afterall.  It is a great story that the kids LOVE!   Some of my students began putting their lines they made (see the first post again) together to create different shapes.  I am almost ashamed to admit it but I've never thought to do this before during this activity. I was elated.  Here are the shapes we made:

So much fun!  They learned alot!  Visit my TpT store for some great math, reading, and writing resources!

Area and Perimeter using Pentominoes

I began using math stations today.  One of my kids favorite stations was the area and perimeter station.  I filled a black tub with one inch square tiles and pentominoes.  Pentominoes have five squares hooked together on a flat plane in 12 different variations.  Students can do so many activities with them in relation to shapes, rotations, reflections, translations, area, and perimeter.  I created a set of pentominoes which you can download for free. Click here for your free download. Ideas for using the pentominoes includes:

1. finding the area and perimeter of each pentomino
2. using the pentominoes to cover a given shape (like a puzzle)
3. combine the pentominoes together to create a shape with a given area
4. combine the pentominoes together to create a shape with a given perimeter
5. using the pentominoes to cover a given shape and then find the area and perimeter

Do you use pentominoes in your classroom? If so, do you have an idea you can share? I would love for you to leave a comment and let us know.