We are HUNGRY for some Math!

So it was my first week back after being off for 2 months on maternity leave.  Can we say TIRED??  Yeah - 22 month old twins, a 2 month old, a dog, a husband, a full time job, and blogging/tpting....  Whew!  I can't believe I survived.  Oh - and I had a school wide event to plan and get ready for.  THAT was bad timing.  But my first week has come to an end.  It was a good one too.  The kids were happy to see me and I was happy to get all of those daily hugs and smiles.

Being my first week back, I had to make it fun.  And since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, we focused on that!  We integrated multiplication and the yummy turkey day all week long!  We've learned so far about using repeated addition, arrays, and equal groups to solve multiplication facts.  Each day we focused on one strategy and gave each lesson a fun, little Thanksgiving twist!

Day One:  Repeated Addition

For this activity, we created multiplication problems by using fun Thanksgiving illustrations and dice.  We practiced writing both ways to write the addition number sentence and of course, found the product!  Then we ended the lesson by playing a fun Turkey Trot partner game!  

Day Two:  Arrays

On day two, we practiced creating and solving problems using arrays.  I'm SUPER sad I didn't take pictures of the first activity we did.  It was called 'Fill the Tray".  There were food trays filled with arrays of Thanksgiving food and they had to write the number sentence that matched the array as well as draw food on trays to match the sentence they were given!  It was so cute.  After that, they got to make their own number sentence and array with adorable turkey stickers!  Who doesn't love stickers!?

Day Three:  Equal Groups

So this one was my favorite.  We practiced equal groups by drawing feathers and making them polka-dotted!!  Can you say ADORABLE!?  Needless to say, all of my students understood equal groups after doing this fun activity!

Day Four:  ALL Strategies

Day 4 consisted of practicing all three strategies with a fun "Fill Your Plate" matching game.  Groups were made and each group was given Thanksgiving foods (on cards) and Thanksgiving paper plates.  Each paper plate (4 of them) had a multiplication fact written on it.  The cards had the strategies on them.  They had to match the strategy to the paper plate.  But what it looked like they were doing was putting delicious food on a plate to eat!  I wish I had better pictures of this, but we were so into playing I couldn't stop so I had someone else take them...  Oh well!  They recorded their answers as well!  

So today (Friday) is Day Five..  I'm planning on pulling small groups to do some interventions with these strategies while my other groups play a multiplication roll & solve game.  And then of course..its time for an assessment.  I have a free assessment on my TPT store that I made a few years ago that will work perfect for this week's lessons.  It's not Thanksgiving themed, but that's okay!  Click the photo below to download!  

So speaking of all of this amazing math instruction... how would you like to buy over $125 of math products for just $25!?!?  11 math TPT teachers got together and are brining you Volume TWO of Math Teachers of TPT bundle CD.  This is a LIMITED time offer and it ends on Nov. 9th so if you're interested, make sure you check it out by clicking the pic below.  

And if you thought the Thanksgiving multiplication activities were cute - you can check them out too!

I hope your November has gotten off to a great start as well.  Make sure to leave a comment and let me know what you're up to!  

-Ciera