My daughter came home one day with a rounding worksheet... she struggled through it. Creating number lines did not help, because she wasn't sure how to plot the numbers. So, I created these number charts to give her some extra help. We practiced for about 10 minutes, and she responded well to the activity. She said the activity was fun (dry erase markers always help) and feels like she's finally understanding how to round numbers. Yay!  You can download this free resource at the end of this blog post. An editable page is included! Here's how to use this free resource.  EXAMPLE 1:   Round 47 to the nearest 10. Discuss why we round numbers. (We don't need the exact number, and rounding helps us create friendly numbers which are easier to work with.) Review counting by 10s to 100. Those will be our benchmark numbers. Find 47 on the chart. Underline the tens digit (4). The value of 4 tens is 40. So we need to decide which benchmark numbe......

Math centers are a large component of guided math, but in order to differentiate and meet the needs of our students on a daily basis, creating and keeping up with math centers can be so time consuming.   So, how can you simplify math centers in order to make them realistically manageable?   Here’s my solution:   GO DIGITAL! Technically, what constitutes a math center?   Math centers provide opportunities for student to practice skills that have been previously taught.   That's it!   There are an abundance of printable math center available.   I love them, because I just love making things cute.   What I have noticed though, is that I can’t keep up with the demands of putting them together.   I have to print them, cut them out, laminate them (I don’t want to have to start the process over again), and then store them.   It’s all so time consuming, and I always feel that I’m behind.   I’ve discovered ......

tw When it comes to math, geometry seems to be in a whole different league. Some kids fall in love with it instantly, while it seems challenging for other kids. One of the great things about geometry is that there are so many hands-on activities we can provide for our students, which makes it lots of fun! Here are some of my favorite geometry activities: 1. Start With Shapes I like to have students start with shapes they've known since they were tiny, like triangles, squares, and circles. We draw these on whiteboards as a whole class. Next we draw the more advanced shapes like pentagons, hexagons, octagons, trapezoids, and even the rhombus! This brings us to a discussion of polygons and we can classify shapes that way. Besides whiteboards, there are lots of ways for kids to work with shapes, like Popsicle sticks (which are also great to use to illustrate lines like parallel, intersecting, and perpendicular), LEGOS, Geoboards, and even clothespins which can be clipped t......