Today I wanted to share a few of my go-to simple math stations for my second graders. They can be easily differentiated for your students and the best part is that they are low prep. That's right! I said, "low-prep" isn't that the best word for all of us tired teachers!
#1 - Velcro Number Line
I don't know what it is about number lines, but my students always seem to struggle with ordering numbers on an open number line. I wanted to create an easy to use, giant, number line for my students to work with. One day when I picked up my kiddos from music class, I noticed that the music teacher had a giant music staff on her carpet. I totally had to ask how she did it! To my surprise, she had just used two strips of sticky back velcro and stuck both of the strips together.
Then, she velcroed the clingy part to the carpet. It sticks to the carpet perfectly y'all ... and it's easily moved to another spot in the room! No sticky residue left behind either! Genius!!
Then, I wrote numbers on index cards and placed a small strip of velcro to the back of each card. The kids take the cards and order them as part of a station. I also have cards with question marks to have them identify the missing numbers on an open number line. To differentiate, I have a variety of numbers for the students to choose from. They can work with 1-digit, 2-digit, or 3-digit numbers.
#2 - UNO Cards for Greater Than and Less Than
I love using sentence strip stations because they are easily differentiated. My students can choose to also use 2-digit and 3-digit numbers by building them with the Uno Cards. They play with a partner and one partner draws the first card and then the second partner draws the second card. They record their work in their math workstation journal and I do random quick checks through the week, to make sure they are completing their work. I also have sentence strips with just the > and < symbols.
#3 - Roll and Show Place Value Game
Roll and Show is another math partner game that can be easily differentiated. I also have another dice in the station, so that the kids can build 3-digit numbers. The kids roll the dice and then build the number using the base ten blocks. They record the number in their journal in standard form, word form, and expanded form. Super simple but great practice for a hard math concept.
I hope you enjoyed these 3 super simple easy prep math stations! I would love to hear how they work in your class.
No comments