Dime Collector

2 player game: Each player gets a ten frame. Players take turns rolling a die. They count out the number of pennies the die lands on and place them on their ten frame. When a player fills his ten frame, he trades his pennies in for a dime. Play the game until kids get bored. The player with the most dimes wins!

I SPY Time

Read the room activity from What the Teacher Wants! Kids hunt around the room for the correct time. Visit her site for a free recording sheet, clock templates, and many more time games!

Digraph Die

Students take turns rolling the die. After each roll, all players must come up with one word that contains the digraph. When finished playing, players add up their words, whoever has the most words wins! Visit the Weekly Hive for another phonics activity with the h brother words: H Brother Superhero Scavenger Hunt! 

Lego Chrome

Build with Chrome: Kids find and explore different plots. They can recreate a famous landmark or just play around! Once they are finished building, they can print their creation and find the area and perimeter of their structure. You can print a 3D or 2D version of your art. Click here for digital Lego Geometry on Build with Chrome. Click here for tactile Lego Geometry.

Strongest Shape

Geometry experiment from Zoom, which shape is the strongest? Check it out here!

photos via Zoom

Measuring ME!

Are You a Loop, Arch, or Whorl?

No two fingerprints look the same. However, they do share certain characteristics. Take students' fingerprints (index finger only) and compare! Visit ZOOM to see how to get fingerprints with a pencil and tape. Next, have students compare their results with their peers (make a graph). Then, compare their results with other kids around the country on ZOOM! Which pattern is the most and least common (loop, arch, or whorl)? For older kids, you can explore the complete nine different fingerprint patterns. Check out Hubpages and Ridges and Furrows.

My Name in the Stars!

I love the Loco Teacher's name constellation project, so I was inspired to create my own! Students practice graphing by mapping out the letters in their name to create a constellation (click here for a freebie). Afterwards, if you have a lite-brite, have students light up the room with their name! Then, have them connect their stars, use their imagination, and create a picture. What does their constellation look like?! For another kid-personalized constellation idea, check out Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational's body constellations!

Snowflake Project for Sandy Hook

letter via Sandy Children Help

View Snowflake Album of what kids have made.

The Snowflake Project for Newtown: make and send to:
Connecticut PTSA
60 Connolly Parkway, Building 12, Suite 103
Hamden, CT 06514
by January 12, 2013.

"Don't forget to add a note (who made them, age, from where)"

Visit: http://www.ctpta.org/SANDY-HOOK-FUND.html for more information.

You can also "send a picture of your snowflakes to crafts4newtown@gmail.com to get them included in an album, our gift for Newtown- check www.facebook.com/SandyChildrenHelp for more info."

Lattice Multiplication

Deconstruct 2 digit multiplication! Visit Cool Math 4 Kids for a step by step written explanation.

PBL KID Web Quests

kid tech via alamy / kid astronaut via kids dream spot

Astronomy
Solar System Explorers - Mrs. Laurel Anderson
Mission to Mars - Lori Teacher
Come to My Planet - Janice Oliver
Physics
Simple Machines: Playground Design - Sherry Nevola
Biology
Animal Classification - Teach-nology
Animal Adaptations - FGSE Nova
Animal Life Cycles - Warrensburg K-12
Habitat Adventure - IHRIC
Math
Moving to the Beat: Choreography - Teach-nology
Multiplication: Game Design - St. J Schools

Toothpick Math Puzzles

Geometric "match stick puzzles" that help develop problem solving and critical thinking skills. For more puzzles to try, check out AIMS Center!

Polygon Alphabet

Integrate typography into a geometry lesson! How many letters can you find that reveal a hidden polygon if you add 1, 2, 3, or 4 line segments to the letter? Print off an alphabet sheet and have students hunt for polygons! Then, have them record how many letters they found with hidden polygons for each number of line segments. Example: 1 line segment: 4 letters (A, L, P, V)

Play Doh Rock Cycle

Demonstrate the rock cycle with play doh! Visit East Tennessee Wildflowers (featured below) for instructions (scroll down), as well as other hands on common core activities!

- Click here for more science (and math) play doh projects

- Check out other hands on geology activities here (including crayon rock models, soap rocks, and candy rocks) 
- Visit Science Matters for a Plate Tectonics play doh lesson

KENKEN

KENKEN is a math puzzle created by Japanese mathematics instructor Tetsuya Miyamoto, to "improve students’ math and logic skills." You can have students work on interactive puzzles or print them. Puzzles are on 4x4 (beginners), 5x5, 6x6, 7x7, 8x8, or 9x9 (advanced) grids. Click here for more information!

Below is an example of a 4x4 puzzle. Kids practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills. They must rearrange the numbers so each row and column has the numbers 1-4 with no repeats.

How Old Are You?!

Explore place value using the real world application of age! Students will get a kick out of seeing their age in months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds! 

Visit Math Cats to figure out exactly how old you are!

Example

Born July 22, 2004
Current day and time: December 18, 2012 / 3:28pm

8 years old

100 months old

438 weeks old

3,071 days old

73,719 hours old

4,423,154 minutes old

and you're aging by the second!

Polygon Quilt Game

This awesome game was created by Amy's Geometry (team lacoe.edu - Los Angeles County Office of Education)! Kids take turns coloring in a small triangle on the quilt board. When a player creates a polygon, he or she earns points. The tricky part is that each polygon must consist of only 4 mini triangles. The one with the most points at the end wins! Check it out here (board included)! Also, there is a free printable on docstoc created by seg11239 from lacoe.edu! (game board featured below)

12 Days of Christmas

This Christmas activity integrates creative writing, growing patterns, ordinal numbers, and adding money! First, introduce the song "12 Days of Christmas." Then, have kids create their own version, using ordinal numbers and a growing pattern. They can include gifts from multiple people in their lives or a single person. They can even include their dog! Afterwards, have students research the cost of their items (internet activity). Who spent the least and most amount of money?!

Gingerbread Geometry

Explore area, perimeter, and volume by constructing a gingerbread house! Click here for directions from Math Wire! 

Project Santa: Makeover Challenge

I loved Mrs. T's First Grade's Santa Suit Challenge! So, I was inspired to create my own! Check out what Mrs. T's fashionistas and fashionistos came up with. Also, this activity goes along with a book. Plus, kids have a small persuasive writing activity to explain why their suit is so cool. Click here for the details and a free printable! 

Another idea: rather than using the printable, kids could design + draw specific items for a creative writing project: Santa Needs a Vacation!! (what should he wear - depending on where he goes) - this could fit into a landform lesson and kids could design a postcard with Santa and the landform!

Dara

Nigerian problem solving game from the Cincinnati Art Museum : Dara! It can be played on the pavement or on paper! First, create a 5 x 6 grid. Next, create teams of two. Each team gets 12 counters (sticks vs. stones or other manipulatives). Teams take turns laying down a counter on a square (anywhere - see note below). Once all counters are laid, the game begins. Teams take turns moving their object to an adjacent open square. Moves can only be up, down, left, or right. The goal is to get three counters in a row. If they get three in a row, they remove one of their opponent's counters. The game is over when a team cannot make any more moves. The team out of moves loses! 

Note: 
1. Teams must scatter their objects around the board, when placing them before the start of the game. They are only permitted 3 objects in a row before the game.
2. Counters placed 3 in a row before the game begins don't count. They must make a move to remove an opponent's counter.
3. Teams can only remove one of their opponent's counters, even if their move could knock out more than one.

Click here for more math games from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique!

High / Low

Work on number sense with the classic game High, Low. Select a specific range of numbers to work with, such as 1-50 (featured above). For older kids, you can include negative numbers. One child is chosen to be "it." He / she chooses a number and keeps it a secret! Peers take turns guessing the numeral. The person who is it writes the number each person guessed under high or low. They write it under high, if the guess is greater than the number. They write it under low, if the number guessed is less than their number. Whoever guesses the secret numeral first wins! 

40 > 39 > 38

Pin the Apostrophe

Have fun learning apostrophe placement by playing Pin the Apostrophe! (inspired by Dave Blazek's party game for teachers comic / same rules as Pin the Tail on the Donkey).

If Earth was the size of a cherry tomato...

BBC has a giant pdf filled with astronomy activities: Star Gazing Live Star Guide 2012! Featured below is their activity of comparing planet sizes with food (page 22). Illustration via BBC, click the link to check out the rest of the activities!

Koch Snowflake

Integrate art and geometry by constructing a Koch Snowflake. Students draw an equilateral triangle. Then, they keep adding smaller equilateral triangles to create a symmetrical snowflake. See this project in action here!

View a kid version over at 4 Kids 2 Guinea Pigs! - plus step by step instructions.

Visit Wonder How To: Math Craft to see how to construct a koch snowflake out of pennies!

Check out Hektor for 3-dimensional versions!

Wanted Gingerbread

First, have kids design a paper gingerbread (man, lady, boy, girl, baby, etc.). They can decorate it with colored glue for icing, buttons for candy eyes, etc. 

Next, have kids fill out a wanted poster for their paper cookies. Tell them to be very descriptive about what their cookie looks like. Click here to download!

Then, hang the gingerbread cookies up around the room and collect their wanted posters. Pass the posters back out randomly, making sure each child doesn't have their own mini poster. Kids turn into mini detectives. They have to read the description on the poster and find the missing gingerbread cookie!

Walk Through Paper?!

Can you walk through a hole in an 8.5x11" sheet of paper? Pass out a sheet of paper to all of your students and see if they can figure out how to cut a hole large enough for them to fit through. Then, show them this magical trick! Visit Pleacher or The Math Lab for the how to (and a free printable with lines to cut the "perfect" hole)! Afterwards, stretch your paper out and try to find the area and perimeter of your paper! How did it change? For younger students, this project can tie into a basic measuring unit.

You can even fit through an index card! Click here for details!

Is your number 2?

Magic Math Trick
1. Think of a whole number 1 through 10
2. Double it!
3. Add 4
4. Divide by 2
5. Subtract the original number
Is the numeral 2?!

Also, check out Is your number 18?!

Visit The Math Lab for the algebra behind this math magic!

Place Value Diner

Place Value Burger

Kids construct a burger - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ztfmp9-KqsbIE2khPH2iaCrjiFOkyb09/view?usp=sharing

photo credit: culinary schools: kids

Place Value Pizza

Construct a pizza that showcases different number forms! Visit 2nd Grade Ponderings for a free printable.

Place Value Fries

Get a french fry container for each place value you're working with. Kids stick yellow popsicle sticks in each fry box. Then, they write down their number. Click here to see a couple more french fry ideas (and get a visual).

Place Value Ice Cream

Add a sweet treat to your diner - Pitner's Potpourri

Roll Bundle Win!

Workers at the diner can create bundles of straws for the diner! Click here for details!

Make soda jerker hats for kids to sport while playing these activities!

Cut 2 strips of construction paper and staple 2 of the ends together. Then, take two sheets of tissue paper. Glue the bottom edge of the tissue paper along the backside of the paper head band (middle of the band to the top edge of the construction paper strip. Once dry, fit the band on the child's head. The tissue paper should stand straight up! This is really funny looking!!! Finally, tuck the tissue paper down, shape and tape! After you shape it, you will have an authentic looking soda jerker hat!

(Note these hats can also be shaped to look like a chef hat.)

If you know of any more place value games that could fit into a diner theme, let me know!