Back to School Math Task Cards and Ways to Get Your Students Talking About Math

I'm back today with a few more goodies that I'm sharing for Two for Tuesday at 50% off!

Both of these products I love to introduce at the beginning of the year to get my students thinking and talking MATH again.

Product #1:  Multiple Choice Task Cards for Whole Numbers.

I like to use this product a few times throughout the year.  When we go back to school I use these as one of my first math centers.  Each task card contains a word problem using whole numbers.  These skills should be a review for Grades 5 & 6 students, so it is a great way to give a quick formative assessment and see what your students know or do not know.  You can use these task cards in a center or project them onto your white board and use them in whole group.  Usually I do a few of these problems with my class as a whole, and then they can use them as a math center independently. When I have to pull students to review basic skills, I print multiple cards to a page and have them put them in their interactive notebooks.  I do a few problems with them, then have them complete a few independently so I can take a formative assessment.
You can see examples of how I use task cards in my Interactive Notebook {HERE}

The reason I start out in whole group is so that I can get my students having a Math Conversation. Since the questions are multiple choice students can discuss answers.  This is one way that I introduce my Conversation Cards.

You can pick up this Freebie {HERE}.  Students learn to talk about wrong answers, and hello.. I begin to teach error analysis the first few days of school!  I give prompts and ask my students why some students may chose B for example, and then we dialogue about how a student may have come up with that specific answer.  I also bring the cards back out again when we review for state assessments.  I mix them in with other multiple choice style task cards that I have created to review Algebra, Ratios and Rates, and Integers.

Product #2 Hundreds Chart Hop

I also introduce this product very early in the year, first as a whole group warm up or 5 minute filler activity, and then as a center.  Students use a hundreds chart and follow a series of 4-5 steps to find the correct number on the board.  There are a series of 3 levels of cards each getting progressively more difficult.  I love to use these cards to get into operations vocabulary.  They start thinking and discussing shortcuts for using a hundreds board.  By the end of the year, most of my students can do these puzzles using mental math.  I love them! I mean teaching your students to follow 4-5 step directions quickly, and do mental math?  Winners in my book!

In the picture above students are using a hundreds chart on my Smartboard to work through the directions cards.  They also have a hundreds chart in their interactive notebooks so they can use the Task cards at their seats as well.

I do have several different sets of Hundreds Chart Hops each with different sets of problems.  I pull them out and use them as centers, or as quick Friday Fun Day games.  The original set is on sale today, but you can also check out the other sets.  (Free FALL-IN Round the Hundreds Board, Jingle Jangle Round the Hundreds Board, and Mardi Gras Marching Round the Hundreds Board)

Thank you to Chalk One Up for the Teacher for hosting the linky!  Have a great day everyone!