Thumbs Up for a Math Freebie!

Hello, Teaching Friends!

I've heard that federal agents are trained to recognize counterfeit currency by intensely studying the details of the real thing. The idea is that they'll know the real money so well that the counterfeit will be instantly recognizable to them. There are a million ways to counterfeit, but only one true way to make the actual bill.

Now, not being a federal agent :), I don't even know if this story is true. But being someone who's taught many years, I can tell you that the same principle applies in math. There are a million "counterfeit" answers that seem like the correct answer if you don't think hard about it, but there's only one correct answer. {Okay, that last bit is arguable, I suppose, but less frequently in math than in other areas, right? :) 5+5 will never be 11! }

That's the idea behind "Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?" math games. With lots of practice, it gets to be easy to tell the counterfeit from the true facts.  I've had this set of ten games for second grade at Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook for a few months ...

... and I've just completed the first grade version! Click here to see it at TN   or here for TPT.

Each grade level version has ten games, with each game focusing on a Common Core math standard for that grade. There's some great thinking involved, as students evaluate expressions that quite often look like the real thing, but after closer checking are just counterfeits!

The games are also fun to play. Your kiddos will love being silly when they say "Sorry, Charlie!", "No, Sir-ee!", or "You'd better believe it!" as they put their cards on their mats.

So, give me a "thumbs up" if you'd like a sample of the first grade set! This set of cards and sorting mat includes sample expressions from the other games in the set. It would be great to use as an end of year math center review game in first, or a "let's get those brains in gear again" game time at the beginning of second grade.


Just click on the picture to download your copy. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by Teaching Blog Roundup today. I'd love it if you'd stop by and visit me at Primary Inspiration.  See you again here at TBR on the 5th of July!

Happy Teaching!