Morning Meetings for Upper Elementary Students

Who loves a Monday Morning Meeting?

I am not talking about a staff meeting or another round of PD. This meeting is completely kid-centered and exciting for everyone involved. My team and I arrange for bi-monthy team meetings. Twice a month our grade level - 3 classes - reserves our auditorium for the meeting that kids constantly ask for.

It does take some planning and teamwork between the teachers. But as each month (and year) has gone by we have gotten faster at planning and better at execution each time. We have happily reached a point where we can throw a Monday Morning Meeting together quickly. Here is how we do it...

What You Need to Host a Monday Morning Meeting:

• Meeting Space (large enough for your group)
• Posted Agenda (I use a set of Google Slides that I edit each month and they are projected onto a large screen in our auditorium)
• Materials for Planned Activities

You can hold Monday Morning Meetings with just your class, but these meetings become even more powerful when you have multiple classrooms participating. Students get an opportunity to work with other students they may not see except for a few minutes during lunch, recess, or on the bus.

If you don't have any grade level teachers willing to participate, grab a class from above or below your grade level. There must be someone willing to spend quality time with you and your students! An added bonus of multi-grade levels is the connections being made at a building level; that's pretty special.

When planning and organizing your first few team meetings, think of a structure that you will use over and over again. It helps the students understand the expectations and keeps the meeting organized and focused.

This is the structure my team and I use:

• Students get off the buses and walk straight to the auditorium (We love to see all of their faces light up as they start their day in the auditorium!) 
• Sit by homeroom in your assigned section
• Opening (announcements, pledge)
• Team Chant (sung to "We Will Rock You")
• Go over the agenda
• Complete an activity/team-builder
• Close with an inspirational message

Team Activity Ideas

When planning for team activities, we like to really mix up. We never do the same activity twice. That keeps it fresh and exciting for the students. It also helps them develop following directions (we project the directions so students can reference their task as needed). We also like to plan for seasonal fun whenever possible. And, we love it when the team activity relects back on content learned in the classroom. Here are some team activities we have done in the past:

Who's In Your Circles?: Students get a response sheet with concentric circles labeled with things such as "food", "subject", "hobby" on the inner most circle. The circles moving outward are labled with "I love this.", "I like this.", "I don't like this." They complete the response by filling in their favorites. We then break students into small groups (3-4). They get together and take turns talking about their response. Students jot down the names of students who love, like, or don't like their given response.

This activity is great for establishing norms of group work and giving the students a chance to get to know one another. This activity is done in the opening month of school. More than likely, students will be grouped with students they do not know. It's a perfect ice breaker for upper elementary and middle school.

Index Card Favorites: Each student gets an index card. In the center of the card they write their name. In each corner they write 3 answers to given topics. For instance: 3 Hobbies, 3 Favorite Foods, 3 Favorite Movies, 3 Adjectives to Describe You, 3 Placed You Would Like to Visit, 3 Favorite Animals.

Once the index card is filled in, students mix and mingle sharing their answers with different students. This is another great team-builder where students are practicing their speaking and listening skills.

Candy Corn Bottle Flipping: The loudest (and most fun!) STEM project we bring to morning meeting is our candy corn bottle flipping. The teams predict which of their 4 bottles is easiest to flip based on the amount of candy corn in them. Students take turns one at a time flipping and record results. Preparing the bottles took time, but once they were done they are easy to store until the following year. We use the candy corn section in October STEM Activities from Lisa Taylor Teaching the Stars.

Pumpkin Glyphs: This one is SO MUCH FUN! We took the directions designed for an individual glyph and had the students create a team glyph. The results were outstanding and made for an eye-catching holiday hallway display!

Read all about them here: Best Collaborative Actvities for Hallway Displays

Human Christmas Lights: In groups of 7-8, students link hands with a person not next to them and untangle themselves without letting go of each other’s hands. They should hold the hands of two different people. It can be tricky and some students release their partner's hand in desperation to untangle. But that's ok, just have them start again! Students like to do this activity over and over again because, once they understand the strategies used to untangle, they like to explore them repeatedly with different entanglements.

Holiday Book Exchange: We like to have a Morning Meeting before the break where students do a book exchange. We send home communication to families asking them to send their child to school with a new book (no more than $5) wrapped and labeled with a to/from tag indicating if it's for a "boy", "girl" or "either" and their child's name.

The teachers collect books all week long before the meeting. We do keep some extras on hand and wrap them if a student is unable to bring a book in for the exchange. You can also add a few extra in so the last handful of students that pick have more than 1-2 options.

The entire grade level sits in a large circle on the stage. We sort the books in the middle of the circle into 3 piles by category (boy, girl, either). We then randomly draw names to determine the order that students go into the middle to pick their book. Students are instructed to sit with their book and wait until every student has chosen a book. Once everyone has their books, we open! We remind students to read the label (so they know who to thank).

Once books are opened, we spend a few minutes cleaning up the space and remind students to find the student who gifted the book the received and thank them personally.

Digital Fun: We have had our students bring their Chromebooks to the auditorium. Once there we will have them complete (or compete) using digital platforms. One thing to consider is if your space can connect to a decent signal and handle the bandwidth. It's discouraging when some of the Chromebooks are functioning smoothly and others are unable to keep up.

Some platforms lend themselves to working in pairs or small groups on one device. Kahoot and Quizlet Live are a couple of our favorites.

Plickers is also fun. It's an excellent way to get students engaged while running a quick formative assessment! I have noticed that running the app does drain my phone battery a bit, but I think it is well worth it.

Other Activity Ideas

Positivity Project: Representing Positivity Project in our meetings is also a great way to start their week. The feel good quotes and videos provide opportunities to reflect on ways we are making a difference in our relationships with others. We have focus words and concepts that we infuse into our week, but this is a great place to discuss it as a grade level.

Invite an Expert: Guest speakers are an amazing way to create a community/school connection. We had a local military foundation come in and speak to the students. Her discussion on therapy dogs for veterans ignited a community project that went school wide. All of our students donated dog treats and supplies that we later donated to the military foundation. 

One time we has an expert in Tourette Syndrome come in and present to the grade level. Because we routinely met as a grade level, it was an easy to determine a date for her present. Another time we had a person give a lecture/slide show/demonstration about the battle of Bunker Hill during our Revolutionary War Unit. Again, it was easy to schedule because we already had the dates and space arranged.

Reward System

To build excitement at our meetings and to connect with what goes on in the classroom, we started a ticket system. The students love the ticket system! When our students get caught during the week doing something great academically or socially we reward them with a ticket. These tickets are placed in a grade level bin that grows throughout the month.

At the end of the last meeting of the month, we randomly choose winners. Students choose from small prizes and rewards. The favorite prize is a lunch bunch date in the classroom for them and 3 friends. You can stop at the dollar store and grab seasonally fun items. For instance, during Halloween time we bought small fidgets for prizes as well. We try and make these prizes easy and exciting for the kids.

Who would have thought such a simple addition to our schedule would make such an impact! The students know that the meetings are fun, but they have no idea how powerful they really are! Try and have a meeting with just your class to start off small. It really is an amazing way to connect to your kids!

Other Blog Posts You May Be Interested In:

Ways to Use Picture Books in an Upper Elementary Classroom

Easy Back to School with Picture Books

Best Collaborative Activities for Hallway Displays

Easy Lesson Plans

Questioning Techniques in an Elementary Classroom

STEM Roller Coasters During Our Energy Unit

How can elementary teachers bring ideas such as “centrifugal force” and “inertia” to life for their students? What can we incorporate into an energy unit that will engage our students while solidifying concepts such as potential and kinetic energy? How can we make it hands-on?

In the fall my teammate had some great ideas planned to kick off our energy unit. The students were excited to learn about why things move and how to label all the energy events happening around them. One day she was searching for more hands-on learning opportunities and saw a picture of a teacher creating roller coasters out of grey tubes! She researched a little further and brought the idea back to our team. She tried to sell it as an opportunity to support the science curriculum, STEM, collaboration, etc… and as soon as we saw the pictures we were sold! We just had to figure out if it was possible to pull it off.

STEM Roller Coaster Planning

My teammate found a great STEM project on Teacher Pay Teachers from Teachers Are Terrific called STEM Activity Roller Coasters Challenge. This resource is amazing and provided us with great background knowledge along with detailed teacher directions, editable work pages, and pictures to support us. We used this as a framework and it guided us through the exploration.

We knew time was going to be an issue. A challenge this size would need more time than the standard blocks of instruction in our daily routine. Even the set up and clean up would take more time than we had. As a team we decided that we were going to give up 2 full days of all of our teaching blocks and designate them as Roller Coaster-palooza!

Once the time issue worked out, we needed to find a place to be able to set up our roller coasters. We wanted a place large enough to accommodate the groups and safe enough for our roller coasters to stay overnight until our next work session. We decided on the auditorium.

In subsequent years we have done this challenge in a combined space (library/classroom). If you are planning for one class, a classroom will work. If you are planning for a larger more collaborative experience, you may need to find a space larger than a classroom to make it work. Plan according to the size of your group. We were more cramped in the library/classroom, but the learning was the same!

Materials were the next thing that we needed to troubleshoot. The tubes are around $1 a piece. Each group needs three halves. But we had 75 kids consisting of 15 groups (4-5 kids). I read that pool noodles can be used as well but they can’t be manipulated as easy as the insulation tubes. We needed a lot more than my classroom budget wanted to support. Many times we use Donor Choose to help with our STEM activities, but we didn’t have that kind of time. So my teammate put her feelers out to her classroom parents and found out that one of the fathers owns a HVAC business. They were more than happy to donate the insulation tubes for us! Ask around you never know who is listening!

We made groups that mixed all three homerooms so that our groups were heterogeneous. This allowed students to problem solve with students they wouldn’t choose on their own. Within the groups each student had a role that helped the group work as a successful unit. These roles helped maintain collaboration and allowed everyone to play a role in their success.

All of the tubing needed to be cut into halves so we had enough pieces for each group to have 3. We made sure we had at least 1 roll of masking tape for each group and a variety of marbles to use/test. We had large and small glass marbles as well as a variety of steel marbles. This provided opportunities to test how size and mass affected their trials.

Materials Per Group (4-5 students):

• 3 Pieces of FoamTubing (to act as the track)
• Masking Tape
• Recording Forms
• Pencils
• Various Marbles (glass, steel, etc.)
• Index Card
• Plastic Cup (to catch the marble)
• A Chair or Stool

We created a slide presentation that would work as a guide for our two days of STEM. The guiding questions, steps, and informational videos would help us move through our plans in an organized manner. We kept the guiding slides projected so every student could look up and reference what their goals were for each part of the day. We included a time frame and guiding questions.

We also made copies of the record sheets that came from Teachers are Terrific. It was great that we could edit these because we changed the schedule from 3 to 2 days due to our time constraints.

Prepping the Space!

Materials were all set. Now we had to prep the space. In the morning before the students came in, we divided the stage and floor into 15 sections that gave each group about a 3’x5’ area. We mapped out the floor with masking tape and we were ready for the materials to be brought in. We had one area in the front of the stage where all the materials were held. 

OUR 2 DAY SCHEDULE

DAY 1 AM:

• Whole Group Meeting with Slide Show and Videos
• One Tube and One Hill

DAY 1 PM:

• Whole Group Meeting and Debrief
• Two Tubes, One Hill, One Loop

DAY 2 AM:

• Whole Group Meeting and Debrief
• Three Tubes, Three Hills, One Loop

We divided the schedule into two days of roller coaster fun. In a nutshell we made day 1 the foundation learning and building of the basic coasters. This day started with only 1 tube to experiment with. We had the guiding questions scaffold the learning that was needed for adding a second tube for the afternoon. In the morning they only had hills; but in the afternoon, they were able to start experimenting with loops. This first day was magical to see how hard they worked together to make a working coaster.

On day 2 the groups were given their third tube to create 3 hills and a loop. They had to put all of their learning and trials to work. We saw more frustrations on day 2 because there were more expectations and constraints. But, we also started to see some unique thinking and engineering. Students started to look around for other materials they could use to get the correct amounts of potential and kinetic energy to get the marble in the cup.

Students were also tasked with naming their Roller Coaster! 

At the end of each day we had the students complete a Google Form that would give us immediate feedback for the project. We used the feedback to adjust for the next session. Of course, they learned more deeply about energy, but they gained a much better undertsanding of how to collaborate and problem solve. These kinds of lessons will forever be in their minds and be used as stepping stones for future collaborations. I can’t wait to do this again next year!

Other Blogs you Might Be Interested In:

Daffodil Disection in the Elementary Classroom

The Story of Snow: Upper Elementary Literature Study (nonfiction)

Best Collaborative Activities for Hallway Displays

 

Every once in a while, I will have a sort of epiphany and I end up with a stunning hallway display. The students work in small groups to create a masterpiece that demonstrates teamwork, artistry, and a particular set of skills. Keep reading to see some of my most favorite hallway displays the past few years.

PUMPKING GLYPHS

These came about during a team planning session. We get together as a grade level and plan once a week. We also get the fourth grade all together (as a whole group) bi-monthly. During these Morning Meetings we like to mix the students up and have them complete a task. Sometimes they work with just one partner and other times they work in a small group.

Each year my team and I have students complete a pumpkin glyph. This past fall we decided to go big…really big. We decided to have small groups complete just one glyph for their group!

Time:

• 45 Minutes

Materials:

• Chart Paper
• Glyph Key
• Pencils/Erasers
• Crayons/Colored Pencils

Procedure:

• Break students into small groups (3-5).
• Students vote/discuss the key.
• Students sketch and color their pumpkins.
• Display!

Tips for Success:

• Have students raise their hand for the parts of the glyph which apply to them, majority rules! If you keep the groups to an odd number, there won’t be any ties. Students should circle the symbol (on their glyph key) they will be drawing on their pumpkin.
• Set a timer for each section of the glyph (planning/voting, sketching, coloring) so students stay on pace.
• Use colored pencils and crayons for coloring. They aren’t as bright as markers, but they last longer and will blend better as more than one student colors in the same space. The orange for the pumpkin will be the most challenging area to cover.

 

CHRISTMAS TREE PUZZLES

These student-made puzzles make for an amazing holiday display! I recommend planning these lessons for the days just before or after Thanksgiving. They will be done and ready for the hallway just as the holiday season gets into full swing.

I love to make them BIG, BIG, BIG! In fact, I use butcher paper instead of chart paper so I can go even bigger! (Check with your art teacher for paper.) If you don’t have access to butcher paper, you can always tape chart paper together to create large sheets for the students to work on.

Time:

• 2 Hours

Materials for Students:

• Butcher/Chart Paper
• Pencils/Erasers
• Markers

Materials for Teachers:

• Scissors

Procedure Day 1:

• Break student into groups of 3-4.
• Students design and draw/color a Christmas Tree.
• Teacher collects trees. Cut out the tree while leaving a white border around the perimeter. Then, cut the trees into puzzle pieces.

Procedure Day 2:

• Students get with their group.
• Teacher gives the group a tree from a different group.
• The group works collaboratively to piece the tree together. (Students do not glue down pieces until the teacher checks the tree.)
• Students glue the pieces into place.

Tips for Success:

• When the teacher cuts the trees out (after Day 1), leave a white line around the perimeter of the tree.
• Do not allow groups to glue down the pieces until the placement and arrangement has been checked by you.
• Use markers for bold bright colors.
• Use black background paper to make the colors pop.

EARLY EXPLORERS UGLY SWEATERS

This idea came about from a few different things converging all at once. Basically, I wanted a way for my students to display what they learned about the Early Explorers while having some fun and working collaboratively; and a holiday theme was an added bonus!

This project is an excellent culminating activity. I assign it toward the end of our Early Explorers Unit (but it can be used for other topics and units). Students have had time to learn about the explorers and can now channel their energies into displaying what they have learned. The cognitive load shifts from learning the material to presenting the material.

Time:

• One Week

Materials:

• Research Notes
• Chart Paper
• Pencils/Erasers
• Markers

Procedure:

• Break students into small groups (3-4).
• Students research their assigned explorer.
• Students plan their sweater.
• Students color their sweater.
• Students present their sweaters to the class.

Tips for Success:

• Do not give the groups the chart paper until they have a completed notes packet and have sketched a draft of the full-sized sweater.
• Prep the chart paper with an outline of the sweater- this will ensure the sweaters are a consistent size when they are done and that the students will use the whole page to display their knowledge.
• If you have completed a unit of instruction that included note-taking, have the students use those notes to organize and plan their sweater. Encourage students to avoid using Google search. Google search is very broad and may not lead them to the answers they seek. Students can become stuck into a worm-hole of clicking and will quickly lose track of time.
• Offer students a model. For Early Explorers I will model using Christopher Columbus. Some students need to see an example and can use that as a springboard for their own ideas.

 

ART WITH JENNY K COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITIES

Jenny K is the Queen of Collaborative Posters. You can find all her amazing-ness HERE. Collaborative posters are only one part of what she offers. I use other creations as well and have been using her stuff in my class for years.

Her collaboratve posters are always a hit. The students love to create them and the building loves to see them displayed. Some of my favorites:

Black History Month Collaborative Poster

Women of History Collaborative Poster

I love to print this one on pink paper. It gives a pop of color and switches out the background of the poster. 

"BEE KIND" Collaborative Tessellation Project

This is a great beginning of the year activity. I love the variety of choices. If you’re looking for an activity that offers collaboration and differentiation- this is it! Students can complete a section that involves writing, or choose a section that only requires coloring. Many of my students chose to complete more than one section.

Infinity Kindness Coloring Pages/Collaborative Poster

This is a perfect activity around Valentine's Day or Kindness Day. Grab it here for free! 

We did this one at the end of each day. It was a great way to wind down the day while waiting for the bus. As students completed more than one block, they would ask for another, and they were getting more and more creative. For instance, students would use only the primary colors, or be completely monochromatic. The results were stunning. At first, we did prepare the perimeter pieces, but once we had them up, we decided against them.

Collaboration posters and activities are a great way to get students working together, engage a different part of the brain, and create some beautiful hallway displays. They are well-worth the time it takes to create them and they will have your students (and staff) taking about them for years to come!

Daffodil Dissection in the Elementary Classroom

Spring is here! And, what could be described as the longest winter ever experienced (figuratively), it is time for some color and life. I invite you to grab some daffodils and give you and your students a much needed hands-on experience that celebrates the spring, new life, and is content-driven too!

It seems like students have been learning about plants since they started school. But you can only grow bean plants or complete plant parts on a worksheet so many times. One year, I took the plunge and dissected real flowers! It was a simple and inexpensive way for the students to learn about the plant parts and their important roles.

I did this activity with my class working in pairs; so that cut down the amount of flowers I needed by half. Our school grounds are covered with perennial flowers that we were allowed to use for FREE! If you don’t have flowers at your disposal, then a local flower shop might provide flowers at a discount or as a donation. You could even plant some daffodil bulbs to be ready for next year!

We made a very simple chart that provided places for each of the dissected flower specimens and some notes. On each table I had a variety of tools for them to choose from. Their choices included tooth picks, tweezers, magnifying glasses, scissors, and clear tape.

Simple Note Sheet for Daffodil Dissection

This activity would be great as a teacher-led center but it ran smoothly working as a whole group too. We did this activity using an "I Do - You Do" format. This format gave students an opportunity to watch and listen before they attempted each step. The steps I used are outlined below.

Dissecting Daffodils

1. Discuss the Petals

    We discussed the role of the petals, counted and commented on the number of petals, and peeled off one of them. We carefully taped a petal to their dissection chart.

2. Discuss the Septal

    I asked studens to consider why the septal wasn't green. As I peeled off a piece I told them that this is the first part that forms. They then concluded why it was dried and I told them it helps the plant stay moist during its life. 

3. Examine the Stem

    Using the magnifying glass, I modeled where to examine the stem. I cut it at an angle and discussed the roles of the phloem and xylem.

4. Cut Around the Cup

    Once the first three parts were done and taped on the specimen chart, I had them cut around the cup (or corona) of the flower.

5. Remove the Stamen

    Now that the pistil and stamen were exposed, I had them take off the stamen specimens first. There was enough for each student to take a filament, an anther, and pollen grains for their chart.

6. Discuss the Role of Pollen

    We discussed the role of the pollen and the male parts of the plant. They noticed that the pollen is deep down into the flower parts.

7. Remove the Pistil

    The pistil was now ready to be taken off. Since there was only one, the student pairs split the style in half in order to have a portion for their chart. 

8. Cut the Ovary

    After the pistil was gone, they were very curious about what was inside the bump at the top of the stem. I had students cut the ovary in half so they could share and see the ovules inside. Many described it as looking inside a green pepper.

Once all of the specimens were taped, I had the student toss the rest of the flowers that remained. As we started taking notes on the important roles of each section of the plant, the students discussed what they noticed and still wondered. 

The students loved this hands-on learning! It made a huge impact on them but not on my wallet. In the days that followed we continued the daffodil fun with a directed drawing of our new favorite flower.

We followed the steps as described here: How to Draw a Daffodil

Instead of using just markers, crayons, or colored pencils to add color, the students had the option to go a step further and use watercolors. 

The results were beyond my expectations. I couldn't wait to get them up on the bulletin board for the whole building to enjoy. The students' work brought color and life to our hallway for quite some time. I eagerly await the opportunity to repeat this fun and hands-on classroom experience again!

Fun with Math in an Elementary Classroom

For some us, math isn’t the most exciting subject to teach. I have never been able to get excited about algorithms and numbers the way some of my coworkers do.

If your math instruction isn’t what you want it to be, sometimes you just need to put a little of yourself into the instruction to make it come alive. Many districts dictate exactly what program or lessons must be used. But why not try to incorporate some fun into your daily math routine? Break your whole group instruction into small group rotations and provide more opportunities for fun practice. It will help you and your students love math just a little bit more!

Here are 6 ways you can liven up your math instruction...

Number Talks

If you are looking to strengthen your students’ mental computation while simultaneously improving their mathematical reasoning, Number Talks are perfect! These 5-10 minute chats can be done whole group or with small groups. The best part of Number Talks is that the students drive the direction of the talk. As the teacher you design the skill or idea that will be the focus of the Number Talk. For example: subtraction across zeros, double-digit addition, etc. But based on the abilities and the interests of the students, these talks will differentiate themselves! Number Talks can be a way to introduce, practice, or review a concept. Most importantly these chats get your students looking at numbers differently and making connections beyond what the text book can do!

This 15-minute video explains Number Talks and gives excellent examples:

Stanford Number Talk Video

Fluency Sprints

When students have automaticity of math facts the students can work with more ease when applying the skills. Focusing on math fact mastery only takes a few minutes a day to make a big difference. Students can work on fluency with worksheets, computer games, timed tasks, or basic flash card practice. Is anyone having flashbacks to playing Around the World in elementary school? Any math lesson can take a few minutes of fact practice to build up those foundational skills. Giving an inventory test will give you the information needed to be able to differentiate the practice that is needed. Using less than 5 minutes of instruction to hone in on fluency will have long-term impacts on your overall math instruction.

Fluency Challenges

Each year we create a challenge to motivate the students to master their multiplication facts. We begin testing the 0, 1, and 2’s. Once the students master those, we have a pattern that we follow that seems to be helpful in their ability to master all the facts up to 12s. Every few days we re-inventory the progress so each student can test their mastery wherever they are in the sequence. This is a great job for a parent volunteer to do when they come in to help. We give the students goals and deadlines. Students who master all 12 earn a dance party celebration. For the kids that don’t quite make it we have a fact practice party in the classroom while the others are dancing in another room. We make sure to celebrate all student success.

You can find a complete system for learning the multiplication facts here:

Fourth and Fritcher Multiplication Superhero Challenge

Student Reward Tags Hanging Proudly on Display

Interactive Notebooks

Any skill can be broken down in order to be introduced or practiced using an interactive notebook page. It is a fun way to bring in some cutting, pasting, and colored paper into the equation. I have the students bring in composition notebooks at the beginning of the year so we can use them when I want to add an interactive element to my instruction. If you aren’t comfortable committing to a whole notebook, interactive pieces can be glued onto a piece of construction paper that the students take home at the end of the lesson. Additionally, these tasks can become a bulletin board that will brighten the room and provide a reference for learning.

Digital Fun

Our students love to play games on their iPads and Chromebooks. Many of the games infuse math practice and imaginative game play to motivate.

The popular site in my class right now is Prodigy. You can find it here: https://www.prodigygame.com/ They would play all day if we let them. But it has a nice sampling of skills that they need to work through in order to master the levels of the game.

A great app to work on fluency is Flash to Pass. There are different levels and a timer to help students track their own progress with particular facts or operations. I oftentimes recommend this app for parents who are looking for ideas to support their child at home. Available for iPad/iPhone only: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flashtopass-free-math-flash-cards/id330482882

Task Cards

I love putting task cards into my math instruction. When students feel like they are playing a game the work isn’t so painful! Students can complete the cards independently or in pairs. Most of my task cards have a work space sheet so answers can be checked for accuracy and accountability. These cards get the students out of their seats and working with others on the skills that need to be practiced. Task cards work well in a center or can be placed around the room to play a game of Scoot.

You can find task cards for every standard here:

Fourth and Fritcher Task Cards

Math can be a subject that many students and teachers shy away from. With a little bit of tweaking and some adjustments in your plans, practice and lessons can be fun and engaging. It’s a win-win for everyone!