I am thrilled to be back again this month sharing a bright idea! I love all the ideas each month!
This month I sharing some really simple and CHEAP ideas for math games!
Almost all of these items I had laying around the house, but they can also be purchased at a Dollar Store.
Some great manipulatives for math centers?
- egg cartons
- flash cards from the Dollar Store
- Mardi Gras beads from the Dollar Store
- dice from the Dollar Store
- Clear vase filler from the Dollar Store
- Muffin tin from the Dollar Store
You can use party beads or Mardi Gras beads for tons of things. Use them to create combinations of ten, repeated addition or multiplication centers, estimation (grab a handful and estimate), or use two colors for tens and ones and then add (or subtract). The ideas are endless!
I love those glass stones that can be used as vase filler. You can do a million things with them! You can get a ton of them for CHEAP.
Obviously you can use them as cover ups for bingo and counting on and such, but you can do so much more.
I got the muffin tin and dice at the Dollar Store. Students roll the dice. The first die tells students the number of groups. The second die tells the students the number in each group. Finally, students create the multiplication sentence with the stones. They can record their work on white boards!
In this activity I printed a hundreds chart. I already had the dice in my stash! One die tells the tens place (the big dice)- love them. The smaller, dot die, tells the ones place. Students can roll the die to create an addition problem. Then, students use the hundreds chart and the stones to solve the addition problem. The same activity could be used for subtraction!
This is another great, SUPER cheap game! I took an empty egg carton. Then, I numbered the bottom. I chose to number the bottom of each spaces (0-11). Put in two clear stones (or even beans!). Students shake the carton. Then, when the students open the egg carton they can add or multiply the numbers the stones (or beans) landed on. This can be used for addition, subtraction, or multiplication. You can use higher numbers than single digits- you could number the bottoms with two or three digit numbers!
If writing big numbers in the itty-bitty egg crate is a bit daunting, you could always write the numbers on the small, garage sale stickers and stick them in!
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Mandy Gregory is a 2007 and 2012 Teacher of the Year. She has taught Kindergarten- 4th grades in both the general education and inclusion settings. She is currently a 1st grade Special Education teacher. She is the owner and creator of Mandy’s Tips for Teachers website (www.mandystipsforteachers.com) and has over 13 years of teaching experience. She is married with two beautiful children.
