My students are now Jedi-Masters when it comes to long division, and here’s a fun activity we culminated with that is easy to prepare and fun to carry out.

What You Need:

1) Strips of butcher paper roughly 2 x 3 ft in size (Luckily, my husband owns a Hispanic newspaper and was able to get his hands on some free newsprint that was being thrown out.)

2) Washable markers, highlighters, or Sharpie Flip Chart markers (anything that won’t bleed through the paper and onto the carpet if students decide to work on the floor)

3) Optional: One computer, iPod, iPad, etc. to check answers using CalculatorSoup.com.

What To Do:

1) Group students in pairs (preferably mixed-ability)

2) Tell students to create and write their own Division Challenge problem using the following criteria (I wrote these instructions on the board for them to refer to.)

•  There must be exactly 9 digits in the dividend and do not repeat any numbers (That way they won’t write an easy problem like 777,777,777 divided by 7. Obviously I’m explaining this because it already happened and I learned by experience. #crazykids :P)
• Tell them to choose a specific number for the divisor. I chose seven. That will prevent them from choosing an easy divisor like 2 or 3 that would end up being simpler to solve. Or you can allow them to choose a number greater than 5 but less than 10 to keep the challenge fair.   

3) Once finished students should OF COURSE check their answer by multiplying the quotient with the divisor. How many times do we have to say that, right??

4) Here’s the optional part – If they have a “match,” they should go to a computer, iPad, iPod, etc. and check their answer using the Long Division Calculator with Remainders at CalculatorSoup.com.  Unless you don’t want them to know this site exists – it could be a real temptation when doing homework. But since this is a culminating activity, you should be fine.

5) Once my kids had finished all these steps, I gave them 3 ClassDojo points because I’m a sucker for extrinsic motivation and probably use it too much.

6) You could then tell your early finishers to create an even bigger Division Challenge on the opposite side while waiting on the rest of the pairs to finish.  Mine really came through on this and solved some ridiculously large problems that were too big for the calculator website!

7) Bonus Points: We use the SeeSaw app which is a digital learning porfolio app, so I created a special Long Division Posters folder and students uploaded their masterpieces to SeeSaw to share with parents and peers.

(For extra EXTRA bonus points, you can have students create long division tutorials and upload them to SeeSaw, too. I assigned that last week as a homework assignment and then shared a few of them on our Smart Board when we had a few spare minutes.) Here’s an actual example sped up and “GIFed.”

And that’s it! Super easy to prep and the students loved it. I also like that although it was a challenge, it wasn’t competitive. Pairs worked at their own pace and the goal was simply to solve their own problem, not to finish first. They were very proud of their posters, and in the past I have placed them on the walls of the classroom.

So that’s a wrap! What’s your favorite activity/trick for teaching long division?

The post Fun Long Division Challenge Activity – Low Prep appeared first on FlapJack.

Hey, ya’ll! I love spring and it’s a great time to add in some fun activities to get students moving. Here is what my students are doing to review fractions before spring break.

Fractions of Whole Numbers Easter Egg Hunt

Of course, you can do this with any type of review questions, but for my students, I made up fractions of whole number problems.

Here’s What I Did:

1) I wrote problems on strips of index cards and numbered them.

2) I numbered 24 eggs with a Sharpie marker and covered that with tape so it won’t wipe off.
3) I created an answer key (fun! :P).
4) I hid the eggs in easy-to-spot places around the classroom (outside would be much more fun).

Here’s What Students Did:

1) Students wrote 1-24 in their recording notebooks. If you are a recording sheet type of teacher, you can download a free copy of this bunny recording sheet that will work with any set of 24 problems. (Spanish version included!)

2) Then of course they went around searching for eggs and solving them in their notebooks.

Afterwards, they checked with a friend and went back and looked at any problems that they had different answers to.
3) Then we checked the problems as a whole group.

If you’d liked an even easier, no-prep way of doing this math egg hunt, check out the following post.

Next up…

What I Did:

1) I bought 6 baskets, some grass, and two packets of plastic eggs that each had 6 pairs of differently-colored eggs (giving me 4 eggs of each color in total with six different colors of eggs).
2) Then I wrote fractions on each of the eggs with a Sharpie.

I made sure to do different types of fractions. Some had denominators of 10 and 100 to compare. Some all had the same numerator. Some all had the same denominator, and so on.

3) I hid the eggs in visible places.

What Students Did:

1) Students were divided up into six teams and given a specific color look for along with a basket.
2) Once I gave them the signal, they searched for their four eggs and then placed them in order from least to greatest.

3) I checked to see if they were correct.
4) Students then hid their eggs in easy-to-find spots and waited for the next round.
5) Students were assigned a new color and began the hunt again.

Last up…

What I Did:

1) I found these fun rabbit headbands last year at Dollar General, but they only had 12. So I bought these foam glitter shapes and some headbands and made 12 more.

We’ll see how long this lasts, right?? I’ll be adding hot glue next year.

2) On the rabbit headbands, I wrote fractions that needed to be simplified on each ear.

2) On the spring headbands, I wrote a simplified fraction.

3) You only need enough for each student in your class.

What Students Did:

1) Students placed a headband on their head.
2) They wrote 1-20 (for the number of students in the class) in their recording journals. This is when the bunny sheet would come in handy again.
3) They found a friend. If the friend was wearing a bunny headband, they simplified all 4 fractions. If the friend was wearing a flower headband, they wrote 4 equivalent friends.
4) They continued finding other friends and solving problems until they had completed all 20 simplifying and equivalent fraction problems.

We had a lot of fun, and I hope these ideas inspire you to have a little spring fun, too, in your classroom. These are all great activities for bringing the classroom outside, also. And you can cover many different skills with these ideas, not just fractions.

What easy and fun ideas do you have to share with me for fun spring learning? I love to add new ones to my list!

Happy Spring!

The post Spring Fraction Ideas appeared first on FlapJack.

This game is self-checking, fun for girls AND boys, and comes complete with some cool sound effects. As stated earlier, this game is part of a pack of 15 first grade Smart Board games that review the majority of the common core standards in math.

If you’d like more of these games, you can find them here!

Be sure to check my Smart Board resources page for more freebies and games for all elementary grades!

The post Ten More or Less Smart Board Game FREEBIE appeared first on FlapJack.

We’ve been having some major fun with factor rainbows this past week! I love using factor rainbows because they really help students not miss any of the factors for a number which often happens if they only try to list factor pairs for a number.

Here’s a worksheet freebie in English and Spanish for students to practice making factor rainbows. They can scan the QR code if you would like for them to self-check their answers.

We also created a factor rainbow craftivity, played a Smart Board game, solved QR code task cards, and completed a self-checking mini book. You can all of this in my most recent YouTube video.

Here is a link to the complete Factor Rainbow Activity Bundle.

We’re just making math more fun, one QR code at a time! Hope you enjoy the freebie!

The post Factor Rainbows FREEBIE & Bundle appeared first on FlapJack.

 Hey, ya’ll! It’s Bright Ideas Blog Hop time! I’m going to share with you a fun and easy-to-make center that your students will love.

It all started with my obsession a few years back with “going green.” Unfortunately, I have lost a lot of steam with this issue, but for awhile there, I tried to reuse anything and everything in my classroom. One way I did that was with bottle cap lids.

If you’d like to see how it works in action, please watch my latest Youtube video:

If you’ve already got the gist of it, ask students to bring in caps so you can go ahead and get started on your own bottle cap learning center. It’s a perfect idea to reinforce being green and to celebrate Earth Day in April!

*************************************************************************

Thank you so much for being here! If you enjoyed this Bright Idea, please connect with me at my TpT store, Facebook, and YouTube for more.

For more Bright Ideas from a ton of teacher bloggers, please browse
through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade that interests you.
Thanks for your visit! Have a great year!

The post Self-Checking Bottle Cap Centers appeared first on FlapJack.

Hey, ya’ll! We’ve been working on long division, so we decided to incorporate a little bit of technology and creativity with it. I actually did this last year with multiplication, and you can check that post out here.

Rough Draft

1) To start off with, I placed students in groups of three. I then assigned them either a “How many can you…?” or “How many do you need?” question format problem for division word problems. Basically, I was trying to have students think about what to do with remainders in division word problems. This is not easy for my students, and it was even harder for them to invent problems with these type of questions. But we managed.

2) They wrote in both languages (English and Spanish), and then I edited them. Amazingly, despite my edits, some of them still managed to have some major errors in both languages! And that is why I am not a language teacher, I guess!

QR Code Answer

* Last year I had students use my computer to create QR codes. You can see the instructions here. However, this year we used the four iPads I have in my classroom. It takes about two seconds to create QR codes, so even with one device, you can make it work.

* Before students used the iPads, I went to Safari and searched for this website called QR Code Generator.

 * I saved it to the home screen.

 * Students then went to that icon on the home screen.

* They typed their answer in the text box.

* They clicked on the orange Save button which opened it in another tab.

* They pressed on the QR code image until a Save Image option appeared. (If this way of creating a QR code seems too complicated, you can try an actual app, such as Qrafter or QR Code Maker. I just like this method because I don’t have to worry about downloading anything from iTunes.)

* Once in the camera roll, they used WebDav to upload it to a folder on one of my drives at school. However, you can use an app such as Dropbox, Drive (Gmail), or Transfer. You can also email the images, but that is more of a pain.

* And when they saved it to my folder, they made sure to put their names. This is very important for identifying the QR codes.

Posters

* Students then created their posters based on the theme of their word problems. I gave them very little to work with but pieces of construction paper and magazines. Kids are crazy creative (which of course you already know), so it worked fine. The typos, though! (I’d better hush. I’m sure you’ve spotted 10 typos in this post already!)

 * The only work I had to do was drag the QR codes into PowerPoint and make sure to write the names of the students under their QR codes in text boxes. Since they worked in groups of three, there were only about 13 QR codes I had to insert.

* I printed them out, cut them, and gave them to their owners who then pasted them in a special place they created on their posters. (Make sure they use glue and don’t tape on top of the QR code. It most likely won’t scan.)  

Now what?

For now, I’ve stapled them around the walls of our classroom. During morning work, students are “working the room” and solving their peers’ problems. This is great because students love to find the mistakes of others. So far, it appears all the answers are correct (much to their disappointment)!

I may do a bulletin board display like I did with the multiplication posters last year. I haven’t decided. But it’s nice for the kids to see other’s work in the classroom for now.

Now that my kids are QR code creating pros, I’m sure we will do this again on another math skill before the end of the year.

Thanks for stopping by the FlapJack blog! If you’d like to read more about QR codes in the classroom, please check out my QR Code Classroom Craze page!

The post Student-Created QR Code Math Posters Tutorial appeared first on FlapJack.

Poke cards are a tool my students have been using for awhile now in math centers, and if you haven’t tried them, you should! Their self-checking format kind of reminds me of Hot Dots cards if you’re familiar with those. It’s engaging, works great with partners, and students can be completely independent (while having fun!).

How Poke Cards Work

Students choose a poke card and solve the problem. They “poke” the right answer with a pencil, coffer stirrer, cupcake pick, magic wand, ect. In this image we are using a cupcake pick, I believe, that has snow inside that you can shake!

Then, if alone, students check the back of the card to see if their poker went through the right hole. If they’re with a partner, the partner will check for them.

This week we have been practicing multi-digit multiplication, so I made some winter multiplication poke cards for them to practice that.

Students worked out the problem on the card with white boards (although I have included recording sheets, too).

They poked the right answer.

They showed their card to a friend to check for them.

If they were correct, they got a chance to try to make a basket with our mini basketball hoop. (Which they love and have broken. But they fixed it themselves, so I guess I’ll forgive them. :P)

So if you’d like to give poke cards a try or even if you have already, I just uploaded a new freebie called Snail Patterns. It’s aligned with common core standard 4.OA.C.5, and I think it should be a lot of fun for upper elementary kiddos.

I also just recently bundled up ALL of my upper elementary poke resources. You’ll find review on fractions, math facts, multiplication, elapsed time, angles, coordinate graphing, and a lot more! With over 1,500 cards, your students will be poking all year! (Just hopefully not each other! Dull points, teachers, dull points.) Check it out here.

So I hope you enjoy the poke freebie! Let me know what you think! Happy teaching!

The post Having Fun with Poke Cards (Freebie Included!) appeared first on FlapJack.

P.S. If you’re new to QR codes, check out my tutorials page here.

The post Holiday Cupcakes Long Division QR Code Task Card Freebie appeared first on FlapJack.

Just wanted to share with you my latest QR code resource called Party Penguins Multiplication QR Code Task Cards Scavenger Hunt. This is a great activity to do before the holidays, especially when
students may have already packed up and the day is nearly done.

Here’s how it works:

After cutting and laminating the cards, place them around the walls of your classroom, preferably in number order. I use StikkiClips from Amazon to hang my cards for quick placement and removal, but I was home when I prepped this post, so you’ll see I stapled the card onto one of our walls……..that my husband had painted……that he got a little bit upset about…..that I’m just like, Oh well, you doesn’t understand my passion!

Hand students a recording sheet (I’ve provided one in English and Spanish), a clipboard and a pencil. I usually divide my students into partner groups since we don’t have enough devices. If you are very limited on scanning devices, this could be an activity early finishers choose to do.

What students do:

1) Choose any card. I know scavenger hunt cards usually have a start and an end, but if all my students are starting at the same time, that’s a recipe for claustrophobic chaos.
2) Scan the QR code first to see the multiplication problem.

3) Write the problem from the QR code onto the recording sheet in the box that has the same number as the card they picked.

4) Solve the problem. Once they have the answer, they search around the room for the remaining cards to find the one that has the answer from their sheet.

5) Once they find the right card, they scan the QR code on the new card and begin solving that problem in the appropriate box. They continue until they’ve found all of the answers.

My students have had lots of fun with this. Some kids get way too excited like they are searching for Easter eggs. I guess that’s okay, but I’m seriously thinking of sticking these cards to the outside of my portable. That way they’ll get more exercise, sunshine, and volume won’t matter as much. But of course I’ll wait until spring. I can’t stand this cold!

So, to grab a copy, click here or on the image below. And if you’d like some tips on using QR codes in the classroom, check out my QR Code Classroom Craze post.

The post Party Penguins Multiplication QR Code Scavenger Hunt appeared first on FlapJack.

For those who are in a hurry, here’s the freebie link for your Place Value Partners: Rounding Rodeo PowerPoint Math Game based on common core standard 4.NBT.3.

For those who are not in a hurry…

We’re having fun with PowerPoint math games now!

I love making Smart Board games, but I found out that my school or district or whoever was not paying what Smarttech wants for the latest update. So I was told it was best to stay away from creating files in Smart Notebook. And since I’ve had a lot of interest in my Smart Board games from teachers with other types of interactive whiteboards, I decided to try my hand at making PowerPoint games. What I love about my PowerPoint games is that they open so much quicker than Smart Notebook for whatever reason.

Of course I really wanted to laugh when I tried to put my games on some Mac laptops I have, and I was told that we’re going all Mac now without Microsoft Office, so I might want to stay away from creating PowerPoint files and actually switch over to Keynote now.

Oh. my. goodness. Please, Lord, help me with this ever-changing technology.

So, how do they work?

If you’re a video demo kind of person, watch the following video:

If not, it goes like this:

I usually first introduce the game in a whole group setting. They sit around the carpet with a recording sheet and a clipboard (each game comes with a recording sheet).

In Slideshow mode, one student touches a random object from the start page.

That page takes the student to a random problem page.

Students follow the instructions and solve the problem in the appropriate box (determined by the number in the left-hand upper corner).

Every problem has a self-checking feature whether it is an audio sound, a linked correct or incorrect page, or an animation box with the answer.

If students are correct, they color in the object in the box. If not, they leave it blank. Now I have an easy way to spot who’s got the skill and who needs more work.

If I don’t have recording sheets on hand, we also use individual white boards.

After the game is introduced in a whole group, I then place it in a folder on the desktop for students to play during group time. I’ve also found a nifty app called SlideShark that students can use to play the games on a tablet.

What games have I created?

Here’s the title pages of the games I’ve created so far.

The post Rounding Rodeo PowerPoint Game Freebie for 4th Grade appeared first on FlapJack.