Resources to mark the 100th day of school with math activities. Challenge students to generate 100 different ways to represent the number 100. Students will easily generate 99 + 1 and 50 + 50, but encourage them to think out of the box. Challenge them to include examples from all of the NCTM Standards strands: number sense, numerical operations, geometry, measurement, algebra, patterns, data analysis, probability, discrete math, Create a class list to record the best entries. Some teachers write 100 in big bubble numeral style and then record the entries inside the numerals.

Using math templates during instruction keeps each student actively involved and allows the teacher to informally assess each student's proficiency with the skills and concepts addressed in the day's lesson. Many teachers regularly use whiteboards to have students record answers, write terms, draw pictures, etc. The use of templates in sheet protectors extends this practice and eliminates the time spent drawing diagrams, etc., allowing students more time to demonstrate mathematical proficiency. Teachers who regularly use math templates include planned task items that assess student proficiency. Careful observation of student responses allows teachers to form flexible small groups for additional instruction or enrichment and also better plan for instruction.

Students place markers on the numbers 2-12. Students toss two 6-sided dice, find the sum and remove a marker from that number, if there is still one. The first player to remove all markers wins the game. This game can be used as addition practice or as an introduction to the probability of the different outcomes of rolling two dice. This game was developed by a Monmouth University student for the Probability Fair. These games help students acquire proficiency in addition and subtraction facts.

Introduce elementary students to the concept of functions by investigating growing patterns. Visual patterns formed with manipulatives are especially effective for elementary students and allow them to concretely build understanding as they first reproduce, then extend the pattern to the next couple of stages.

Students today develop proficiency with many different algorithms for multiplication. This approach insures that each student will find a method that works effectively for him/her. Teachers model the different algorithms and encourage students to use and practice each method before selecting a favorite.

September is a great time for data collection activities as students are naturally curious about their new classmates. Ask questions that require students to analyze data and support their conclusions.

Every math teacher struggles to find ways to encourage students to master their basic facts. Whether for addition and subtraction facts or for multiplication and division facts, teachers collect many ideas from which they can draw activities to meet the varied needs of learners in their classes. Games and Who Has? activities are especially motivational and continual play can help students develop fact fluency in an effort to master the games and capture the most points.

These games support student development of the concept of ordered pairs as they play to win each game.

These games support student development of number sense and the concept of mathematical operations

Using two different coins and recording the results of both coins helps students dispel this initial misconception as they analyze the graph results. Class discussion should focus on analyzing the data to determine if the game is fair or not. Directions and gameboard are included in the download.

These activities support students as they conceptually develop a sense of how probability affects the outcome of games. Students will find that applying their knowledge of probability will help them win some of the games

There are resources for two activities 1. Cryptograms: These puzzles are familiar sayings that have been encrypted. Use letter frequencies, letter patterns and your best analytical skills to decode these familiar puzzles that can be found in many puzzle magazines or online. 2. Crypto-lists: These lists were designed to introduce students to code-breaking. Each list contains words that relate to the topic. Use letter frequency and your best analytical skills to decode these lists. Remember that each list uses a different code to encrypt all of the words in that list. Hint: use tally marks to record frequency of each letter in the coded list, then use letter frequency information to break the code. Each activity includes an answer key.

These activities help students use organized lists and systematic counting to solve combination problems. Map coloring and networks are also discrete math problems that students can relate to real-world applications.

Students must think about the factors of each number as they play this game. Students quickly learn the value of selecting prime numbers as a strategy. The beauty of the game design is that students will review the factors of many numbers and mentally add the sum of these factors together in search of the "best move."

These games support student development of spatial sense and foster familiarity with the mathematical vocabulary of geometry.

Gingerbread men and gingerbread houses enjoy special popularity around the holidays, but many of these gingerbread activities are timeless and complement literature titles that teachers use at the beginning of school or after the holidays. It's very easy to incorporate mathematics into a study of gingerbread men, and students will enjoy the data collection activities and games while learning math skills and deepening their understanding of important mathematical concepts. Look through these math activities and add some to your repertoire. Consider broadening the gingerbread math to include measurement, games and problem solving this year.

Students learn the patterns in the hundred board by assembling puzzles. Teachers are able to assess student use of patterns in rows and columns by observing the student at work. This task is easily differentiated to accommodate the varied levels in a first grade class by changing the number of pieces and the shape of the pieces. Puzzle bags should be sequentially lettered so that students progress through harder versions of the task. Finally, students are asked to create their own puzzles for classmates to solve.

Students use "magic" to navigate around the hundred board. This activity introduces horizontal arrows which mean move one square in the direction the arrow points and vertical arrows which mean move up or down one row in the direction the arrow points. These activities support students as they develop understanding of powerful number patterns in the hundred board: (1) moving across or back one space means adding or subtracting one from the starting number; (2) moving up or down one row means adding or subtracting ten from the starting number; (3) combining a series of arrows is the same as adding or subtracting a two-digit number. These activities build upon the understanding of counting on and counting back by one. The arrow magic routines challenge students to develop strategies for counting on and back by ten.

These strategies support active student participation in math lessons and allow teachers to assess the developing proficiency levels of all students in the class by walking around to monitor student responses. These strategies are especially effective during the Mental Math part of an Everyday Mathematics lesson.

Dominoes have become a staple in most primary classrooms. They build upon dice patterns and are often used to model decomposition of numbers, building student knowledge of addition facts. They are an excellent manipulative for primary students to use and these are some examples of how students might use dominoes in the math center. Try these domino games with students to improve math skills and number recognition. Encourage students to play these games at home with their families, using real dominoes or paper copies.