Fall Math Fun

Hello teacher friends!  I am Amber from TGIF, and my favorite subject to teach is third grade math.  I think I love it so much because when I was in third grade, I struggled to pass all my timed multiplication facts, so I really enjoy working with those kiddos who struggle like I did.  I love seeing their confidence grow!

We have been enjoying incorporating fall into our math activities in my third grade classroom, specifically candy corn!  Honestly, I really don't love the taste of candy corn, but I love how cute it is and how it represents the season.  

I wanted to quickly review some previous topics and candy corn just makes the most tasty greater than and less than symbol.  You can throw just about any math topic in the activity that suits your classroom.  Here are some step by step pictures of what we completed in my classroom.  

First, my students used scrap recycled paper and we folded the paper in eighths.  Then, they used a marker to draw 3 horizontal lines and add 4 larger circles down the vertical fold.  Next, I wrote down some math problems, and they copied it on their sheet.  





I then passed out 6 candy corn to each student.  (We
are a peanut free school and the candy corn I bought was processed in a peanut free plant.  Score!)  I allowed them to eat two now.  (I mean seriously, who can wait that long?)  I asked them to place the other 4 in the circles.  We quickly reviewed greater than and less than symbols.  I drew a candy corn on the board and showed them how the shape was similar to these symbols. 

They then completed the problems and turned their "candy corn symbols" as they completed each one.  I walk around the room checking problems as they work.  If they correctly answered, I put a star by the candy corn.  The students then had to draw in their greater than or less than symbol before they could eat the candy corn.  



Simple, yet effective!

Another math topic that my students have struggled with a bit the past two years is math vocabulary. I decided we could turn that into candy corn too (but not the edible kind this time).  We are into multiplication right now and words like distributive property, factors, products, identity property and arrays were a giant ocean of words and my students were drowning in them!  I made these cute matching vocabulary, example and definition candy corn cards for my students.  I have also made it a FREEBIE for my third grade teacher friends!  <<< Click here.  They would be great as centers too!
I only introduce four new words at a time.  We work on them several days in a row before adding 4 more new words.  There are 12 total vocabulary candy corn for you to use in your classroom for free! 

As you can see in the pictures, I have my students color the candy corn, cut them out and, then stamp them, put stickers on them or add symbols to the back of the 3 sections.  This makes the cards self-checking and sometimes I will assign it as homework rather than assigning a worksheet.  It takes a bit more time to make the cards self-checking but it is SOOOOO WORTH it in the end.  My students have become more fluent in their math vocabulary and, they are using it in their math responses!  YAY!




If you are in need of more multiplication vocabulary resources, check out this Multiplication Vocabulary resource

Another fast activity I used in my math centers this fall was this FREE candy corn color
by code multiplication practice from Live Laugh Math.  I allowed small groups to work together since we are still learning some of our facts.  Those larger facts can be tricky!

If you need more multiplication practice activities, I have several available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  You can check out those resources here. 

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