Finding tasks for the littles that are challenging
enough but also engaging enough can be difficult.
So today I'm going to share with you five tasks
specifically for first grade standards. and welcome
to Making Number Sense Make Sense, a podcast
for elementary teachers, specifically early elementary
teachers, looking to really make an impact in
the number sense of their students. The first
task I'm going to share with you today is called
code breakers. So this one is kind of like a
puzzle that they have to figure out, and when
they figure out the values of each item, then
they figure out the code word. In this one, they
might have two of the same item. So let's say
it's a sun. So they might have a sun plus sun
equals two. So then they have to figure out,
well, how many could each sun be worth if the
total value is two? And so then from there, they'll
be like, okay, I know the sun is worth one. And
then the next line might be a sun and a popsicle.
And the answer for the sun and the popsicle would
be five. So then they have to figure out, well,
if I know that the sun is one, how many is the
popsicle? And they go on from there, finding
the value of each of these symbols. And by the
end, they'll see that the symbols have a corresponding
numerical and letter value. And they'll use that
information to figure out what the secret code
word is at the bottom of the page. Now this has
a version that only goes to 10 to start off with
something maybe you want to try at the beginning
of the year if you're just working with values
within 10. But if your students are ready, you
could give them the values within 20 to build
up to that first grade standard. The next task
is a measuring task. And in this task, there
is a cube queen and a popsicle stick king who
are renovating a room in their castle. So for
this activity, There are several things that
your students have to measure and they would
have to figure out how many cubes long is whatever
the item is or how many popsicle sticks, however
long this item is. Now those would not be done
on the same day. So you might have cubes one
day and popsicle sticks the next day because
what we're really getting at is them laying multiple
copies of the same item. to measure something.
The next task is a graphing and data task. And
the scene for this one is that a group of friends
have gone to a carnival and they voted on the
various things they want to do. So what rides
they want to go on, what games they want, what
snacks they want. In each data set, they have
to figure out how many votes were for each item.
So for example, maybe they had popcorn and funnel
cakes or whatever it was for snacks and they
have to figure out who wanted which one. So they
have to count them, graph them, and then answer
some questions about the choices that this group
of friends made. The next task is for composing
shapes or composite shapes. So students need
to figure out how to make various things with
pattern blocks. Each thin slice is something
that's a little bit more complex to make and
they have to figure out how to make these things.
Something I love about a simple task related
challenge is they feel kind of like they're leveling
up when they get to the next item. The last task
I'm going to talk about today is working with
numbers to 120. And so this task is called the
hundreds chart thief. So the premise of this
task is there is a thief who has stolen numbers
off of the hundreds chart. And these numbers
come in a specific. pattern. So using the numbers
that are still left, they can figure out which
ones are missing. And the way that it gets more
challenging is even though the patterns are the
same, the amount of numbers that are given to
them are less. So they really have to consider
where do these numbers go in the hundreds chart
and how can they fill in the missing numbers.
Each of these tasks starts with some task launch
slides, has the thin slicing built in, and some
kind of check your understanding piece, whether
that be additional problems or the opportunity
to kind of take notes to really build in that
consolidation and reflection piece that can be
really tricky to keep. These tasks will be linked
in the show notes, and if you want to try a building
thinking classroom style task for free, you can
also get that at the link below.