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With summer ending and back to school starting, we’re encouraging you to Shake Up September with fun classroom activities that are easy to incorporate into your lessons. Keep your students engaged while also learning key concepts and improving math confidence with these easy to use shake break activities.
Using games to teach math is proven to improve retention rates, encourage problem-solving, and help bridge learning gaps. In addition, games allow your students to learn without getting frustrated. Each of the activities outlined in this post can be used in regular classrooms and afterschool programs.
Without further ado, here are 5 classroom activities your students will love!
Use our bestselling Math Shakers to play 7-Up Add Up! This math game is easy to implement in your classroom. Start by playing some catchy music, encourage your students to shake it out, then have them add up the dice in their shakers!
This game is great for teaching doubles, make 10’s, commutative and associative properties, basic facts, and more! It can also be customized to fit the grade and skill level of your students!
7-Up Shake Up is also one of our favorite games for our Family Games Night. Learn more about the workshop by clicking here!
Get your shake on with our subitizing shake-up activity. This game is easy, fun, and engaging. Start with a 30-second shake break with some shake music to get your students (and you!) moving. In fact, we have a whole playlist of shake music on our Youtube channel!
Have your students read the numbers they see after shaking their math shakers. To change it up, also have your students find any matching numbers. If you don’t have one of our math shakers, you can always shake by hand!
Sum Fraction Action is a great math game for upper elementary students. It uses their understanding of fraction equivalents as one of the main strategies for adding fractions.
Don’t forget to take a Shake Break, and encourage your students to verbalize their answers! You can order your Math Shakers classroom kit here.
Make 10 is one of our all-time favorite games for our math shakers, and it’s one of the best classroom activities for teaching number sense, ten frames, operational fluency, and number combinations that make 10.
If you don’t have a shaker, you can always use a handful of dice.
Make sure you download our gameboard here!
Powerful tens is an engaging and productive math game for grades 3 through 5. It places emphasis on concepts like numbers up to millions, multiplying by 10’s, 100’s, and 1000’s etc., and expanded notation. It also helps students gain confidence in mental math.
Don’t forget to download your recording sheet!
With the school year fast approaching, now is the time to plan out your lessons. Math games should always be used as a daily teaching strategy for practice, rather than as an add-on. Studies show students undergo learning loss during the summer break, and using math games and interactive classroom activities can help reinforce key concepts and put them on the path to learning success.
Most of the classroom activities in this post used our Math Shakers. Students and teachers absolutely love our shakers, but they are not necessary to bring fun into your math lessons. Try using other manipulatives that you have on hand if you are not able to order our shakers.
Are you looking for other math games to use in your classroom? Follow us on Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook, so you never miss new content! And don’t forget to check out our workshops page if you’re interested in learning new ways to increase engagement and retention amongst your students!
