First Graders have continued working on addition over the past couple of weeks. When I went to the classroom, we began working on Adding To A Set, which is similar to counting on, but the step before introducing number lines.
Here’s how the minilesson worked: We used the cards shown below to begin our addition problems. Students built that number with Legos on their addition mat. Then, as a class, we used the spinner to see how many to join to our group.
Students used small Legos (from Target) to model their problem rather than drawing. After we added to our set, we created an addition equation to match our model.
We did several of these problems together as a class. The students LOVED using the Legos!
After modeling during the minilesson, we played Fill Up The Fishbowl!
Our recording sheet told us how many fish were in the fishbowl at first. We used Goldfish crackers to build our problem. Then, we used the spinner to add fish to our set.
Then, students counted the total number of fish and made their addition equation. Of course, this one was even more fun because we got to eat a yummy snack afterwards 🙂 All of these activities can be found in our 1st Grade Addition Unit by clicking HERE.
Pin the image below to save for later!
Before I go, I wanted to share a fun spider math activity with you! Click HERE to check it out!
The Addition Arachnid has legs made out of Ten Frames! Students can show eight different ways to make ten after building those addition situations on their spidery sums mat! I’ve also included a spider with addition equation legs that can be used to show adding doubles, addition facts, etc.
Last but not least, this spider has multiplication equation legs! Students can focus on one type of fact or show a mix of multiplication facts on the spider’s legs! 
Hey, y’all! My name is Amy Lemons and I am passionate about providing students with both engaging and effective standards-based Math and ELA lessons.
Sample a day of Rooted in Reading with these lesson plans and activities for Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary, and Grammar!
13 Responses
I just love the activities you put together! I tried the freebie above, but there was no live link. Could there be a problem with the browser I’m using? Just wanted to let you know… thanks!
When you sign up for the newsletter it will come in your email 🙂
I haven’t gotten the email, not even to my spam. 🙁
I show that you have signed up but you have not verified. Since you used a school email, they may be blocking it. I would use a personal email account.
Zipped in today to copy these on my Astrobright! We loved making these spiders just in time for Halloween!
That’s so good to hear! So glad you liked them!
You are so creative! I love all of your things! I was just surfing the web this morning, looking for cross-curricular ideas for spiders and LOVE your math spiders. I signed up for your newsletter this morning and haven’t yet received an email from you to confirm my subscription. Will this take a while to receive or should it have happened right away? Thanks for your help!
It should happen right away, if it’s not it may be in your spam or your email has tagged it as spam and won’t deliver it 🙂
I didn’t get the freebie either, checked my spam also. I’m already a subscriber.
It looks like you are using a school account. Most school accounts block newsletters so you will want to try a personal email.
Hello Amy,
Several weeks ago I was looking for state facts and ran across an entire set of states with state flowers and birds. I thought I got it off TeachersPayTeachers but do not see it anywhere. Today, I am having a huge bit of trouble trying to locate these. On Pinterest, I found a few pages of them, and they lead to you and the term “state cards”. Do you remember where you got these, or are they yours? Could you please lead me to the right place? Thank you sooooooooooooo much!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IZQFE79jHzK2e2lizdkrqpTfDI4B7Gw-?usp=sharing
I am a retired teacher and my sweet little granddaughter is in a private school. I am always looking for things that her teacher can use.