Play to Learn: Quick and Fun Games to Spark Learning
International Games Month is the perfect time to celebrate how games can transform learning into an engaging and meaningful experience. Whether you’re looking for a quick classroom activity or a fun family game night, these short, educational games deliver big on fun and skill-building. I recently brought these games to the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State Annual Conference, where they were placed around the room during the opening night cocktail hour. They were a HIT! Here’s a roundup of some fantastic options: 1. Tsuro In this beautiful tile-laying game, players guide their markers along paths, aiming…
Unlocking Student Success: Integrating Literacy Skills to Master Next-Gen Science Standards
Are your students struggling to meet the Next Generation Science Standards? One of the biggest obstacles isn’t just content knowledge—it’s the ability to make inferences. This essential skill is often overlooked, yet it’s a game changer when it comes to understanding complex scientific concepts. By integrating literacy strategies, like inferencing, into your science instruction, you can help students connect their background knowledge with evidence and build the reasoning needed for deep comprehension. Ready to empower your students to think critically and ace those performance expectations? Dive into our latest post for practical tips and tools to make it happen!
Is AI the New Napster?
Curious about the wild frontier of AI and how it echoes the early, chaotic days of Napster and torrent sites? Imagine a world where AI, fueled by endless data—including copyrighted content—generates art, music, and stories without clear rules or permissions. From lawsuits against AI companies to concerns about deep fakes and content creators’ rights, we’re at a tipping point that could reshape the future of creativity and information. Dive into this article to explore the ethical questions and the urgent need for regulation that could either harness AI’s potential—or let it run wild.
The Evolution of Mathematics: What is a Ten Frame?
Continuing our series on The Evolution of Mathematics, let’s dive deeper into understanding why the math we’ve always done—and the algorithms behind it—work the way they do. In our initial post, we explored the idea that while math itself hasn’t changed, our approach to teaching it has shifted to emphasize understanding why algorithms work, rather than just how to perform them. In this post, we’ll focus on some effective strategies teachers are using to help students grasp these concepts on a deeper, more conceptual level. Let’s start by exploring the foundational tool of the ten frame. What is a ten…
Math Books That Inspire: My Current Reads and Future Picks
As a passionate math educator, I find inspiration not only in the classroom but also within the pages of thought-provoking books. Whether it’s deepening my understanding of complex concepts or discovering new teaching strategies, math books have a special way of expanding both my knowledge and approach. In this post, I’m excited to share with you the math books currently on my nightstand, as well as a few that are next on my reading list. From insightful explorations of mathematical theory to practical guides for classroom instruction, these reads offer something for every math enthusiast or educator looking to spark…
Embracing the Fidget: Fidget Deals for the New School Year!
It is great to be back to the blog, after our end of summer break! I hope you all had a wonderful rest of your summer and were able to recharge before the beginning of the school year. The beginning of the school year is all about setting expectations within the school building and classrooms or teaching areas. In my last post, I explored how incorporating fidgets into professional development sessions can help educators better understand the potential of fidgets in the classroom. I also shared some favorite fidgets, offering practical options to enhance focus and engagement for both students…
Play to Learn: Guess Who
Guess Who– one of the games we all grew up playing and that we probably have in our game closets, if we have kids. The classic game is a fun way to practice deduction, observation, and strategic questioning skills. Just a quick review of the simple rules of the game Each player randomly selects one character from a separate pile of cards. The goal is to guess the opponent’s chosen character by asking yes-or-no questions about their character’s features. Players take turns asking yes or no questions. Players eliminate characters on their board who don’t match the given features. The…
Play to Learn: Tenzi and More!
Today in the Play to Learn series, we are deep diving into the TENZI family of games! We will begin with the original TENZI game, that began this collection of games. TENZI is an exciting and quick-paced dice game that promotes fast reactions and is very easy to learn. To play TENZI, you roll your 10 dice as quickly as possible. The game comes with instructions for eight additional variations, including SPLITZI, MEGA TENZI, and TENZI TOWER. Playing TENZI helps children develop rapid and confident number recognition while being highly enjoyable and straightforward to play. It’s ideal for early finishers…
New TPT Store and Resources
Introducing My New Teachers Pay Teachers Store and Resources FREE ITEM : Back to School and Fall Themed Ten Frames! Hello, fellow educators and math enthusiasts! I am thrilled to announce the launch of my brand-new Teachers Pay Teachers store, and I couldn’t be more excited to share my latest resources with you: FREE: Back to School and Fall Themed Ten Frames- Roll and Cover Ten Frame Mats- Roll and Cover (Full School Year) As we gear up for a new school year, it’s essential to have engaging, effective, and versatile teaching tools at our fingertips. That’s why I’ve created…
Play to Learn: Dice of Fury
The first three games we have looked at in our Play to Learn series have been games that take longer to play. Settlers of Catan, 60-90 minutes Carcassonne, 30-90 minutes Ticket to Ride, 30-60 minutes There are ways that teachers can be creative with how the games are played, saved, collaboratively played across different classes of the day, but sometimes we need quick games. Quick games can still connect to content in the classroom, but are time savers! Here is one of my FAVORITE short games to use in the classroom! Dice of Fury Think Yahtzee, with more…
