Tuesday, February 9, 2016

XtraMath! Free Math Fact Fluency Practice!

My students and I love XtraMath and can't believe that it is actually free! I've been using XtraMath in my classroom since last school year! It's a web-based math fact practice program that builds your students' math fact fluency in addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. 

One session lasts approximately 8-10 minutes. My students do one session every day. I just love the format of this program.

If a student does not answer the math fact within the allowed time, the answer will faintly appear as you see below allowing the student to answer the math correctly. This helps the student to learn the fact. The keypad to the right can be hidden for students that prefer to use the computer keyboard to answer.

If students key in an incorrect answer, the incorrect answer will show as wrong, as well as the correct answer for the student to enter.
Students can see the ones they've mastered in green and the ones they will be working on next in gray.

 In the Race the Teacher session, targeted facts are repeated over and over each time they are answered incorrectly, providing a great amount of repetition for your students. 

 Students receive feedback throughout their session!
 And yes, this free site also provides simple "to the point" class or individual reports. Navigation through the site, printing reports and changing students' program is super quick and easy!
On the individual student report I can see exactly which facts my student needs more practice on. I can see the ones correct, incorrect, and the facts they were timed out on. 


Students can also do XtraMath at home and parents can monitor the reports too!

I have Scholastic FASTT MATH available at my school and my students and I still prefer to use this free site! I love the repetition it provides, the teaching of each fact, the reports, the student feedback, the parent involvement, and the simple navigation!!! 

Check out XtraMath for your classroom here!



Monday, February 1, 2016

100th Day Trail Mix & Freebies


We celebrated Day 100 today!!!! I needed to change it up since I have had some of these students for 4-5 years. So...we did 100th day Trail Mix!!
We talked about how ten 10's make 100 using our base ten blocks and counted by 10's on our fingers. We put out 10 plates of 10 different items.
Items included:
pretzels
banana chips
goldfish
almonds
raisins
Chex cereal
Honeycombs
M & M's
marshmallows
sesame sticks

We gave each student a baggie with their name written on it. Students went around the table counting out 10 items from each plate to add to their baggie. 



This was great counting AND fine motor practice for some of my students. 

They were proud to show off their own Trail Mix they made themselves!!

Then they got to enjoy!!
 This student didn't waste any time!!! Haha :) :)
I put the leftovers from the paper plates into one gallon size ziploc baggie and will use it for a class snack!

For a couple more ideas, you can grab a couple of 100 Day printables here and here.

Have you celebrated your 100th day yet?