Yet Another Math Activity

   This week was a short week for us, with Fall Break giving us a four day weekend.  Yay!  In theory, fall break is a time for teachers and students to relax and recharge for the second half of the semester.  In reality, it's a super busy school week, filled with fitting 5 days worth of learning into 3 days of school, finalizing grading period grades, and meeting with parents during pre-report card conferences.  The days off are filled with all my fall yard work {trimming bushes and trees, weeding, mowing, raking leaves, etc.}, catching up on house cleaning and laundry, swapping out summer clothes for winter clothes, and cleaning my refrigerator {something I do fall and spring break--that's right, I'm a party animal!}.

     While I was waiting for some laundry to finish today, I started looking at our upcoming multiplication unit.  I decided to re-vamp the lapbook I made last year and make it cuter.  I didn't add any clip art or anything {I tend to make items that are clip art free as I find it distracting, and I have students who spend their time doodling on the pictures rather than focusing on the lesson}, but I used a cute fonts {hello helvetica and hello journaling from Hello Literacy, one of my favorite blogs!}.

Available at my TpT store.

    I use this lapbook as a way for my munchkins to keep track of their multiplication learning.  We use a folded piece of 12 x 18 construction paper to form the folder and glue the charts on to.  I 3-hole punch it and we put it in their math binder.  They record definitions, strategies, and examples in the lapbook, and they can take it out of their binder to use as a reference as they work or to take home and study.

     Do you use any special incentives or activities to help your students learn multiplication?  I've found that most third graders are excited to begin the multiplication unit because they see it as "big person" math, but once they realize that there is some brainwork involved, they lose interest.  I'd be really interested in hearing some ideas on how you keep your students enthusiastic about learning their facts and strategies.

     

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