Don't Be A Turkey!

It's me, Sally from Elementary Matters!

One of the Common Core Standards for second grade math is:

CCSS.Math.2.OA.2 Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies.

Once they have a good understanding of the 9 more trick, they're ready to play Turkey Nines!  It works like "Old Maid", so they pair off all the addends and sums with nines, and one of your little turkeys will end up being the "Thanksgiving Turkey".  This is one of those games that "even the losers are winners" because there's something about cooking a turkey that makes the little ones giggle.  Plus, they're getting better at that mental math!

When they've mastered the plus nines up through 20, there's a more challenging version of the game to work this standard:

CCSS.Math.Content.2.NBT.B.8 Mentally add 10 or 100 to a given number 100–900, and mentally subtract 10 or 100 from a given number 100–900.

Have fun practicing mental math, and don't be a turkey!  (At least, don't be a cooked turkey!)

You can download these items at my blog, Elementary Matters!

Turkey Time and Math Stations

With Thanksgiving so early this year, I feel like Christmas is going to be sooner than I'd like.  I feel as if I've barely used my October math stations and now it is time to start pulling out everything turkey.  I use Debbie Dillar's Math Work Stations in my room.  We are going on year two.  I love the easiness of it all.  Once the stations are set up, I don't have to do a lot each week to prepare for math time.  During MWS I mill about the room interacting with each pair of students to make sure they are understanding the concepts of their particular station. 

For November I created math stations that are aligned with the common core and Thanksgiving themed of course.  Make sure you stop by my blog to get more ideas as to how I use math stations and grab some freebies to.  If you are n need of some new math centers for November stop by my TpT store.  While you are there, check out my turkey headband- you know you want one.