Drive-Thru Menu Math Stations

Beep beep! Honk honk! Put students in the driver's seat with these realistic math stations. Your students will love hopping in the car and heading out to get lunch at the drive-thru--no driver's license required. Bonus, these math stations are great for any level.

What You'll Need
Menu

• Get your hands on any of our Menu Math activity books that come with full color menus, and that means no prep necessary. Plus, they are packed with reproducible practice pages and come in multiple levels.
• Snap a picture. Next time you're at your favorite drive-thru restaurant, take a picture of the menu, print it, and then laminate.
• Make your own kid-friendly menu.

Pencils and Paper
Chairs, four per station

Set-Up
Create several stations, or let's call them "restaurants," throughout your classroom. At each restaurant have a menu (or a few copies of the menu for each student), pencils, and paper. Split students into groups of four or five, but no more than five. Assign one student per station to be the cashier; this student will take the orders.

Cast Your Vote! An Election Activity for the Whole Class

Teach students about the voting process with this fun and cross-curricular activity for the whole class. While you are teaching about U.S. government, elections, and the voting process, this activity will help students have a hands-on understanding of the process. Students will create candidates, make campaign slogans, give speeches, cast votes, and so much more. Bonus! Get free downloads below.

These Activities are Absurd!

More like these activities are all about absurdities, and they are intended to help your students grasp this critical thinking skill. 

The funny thing about absurdities is that they entertain and build thinking skills. Absurdities are a key component of humor. Because they are fun, absurd activities can turn a reluctant learner into an eager student.  And we all need a little more humor in our lives!

But absurdities have a serious side too! They are an effective teaching tool for problem solving and decision making.  Students become more aware of the need to analyze the logic in something and apply common sense reasoning to communication. As students do this, their skills in making judgments and finding solutions increases.

These fun, clever, and absurd activities will improve students' critical thinking skills!

Fall is Here!

For adults, fall means that we can start sipping on pumpkin spice lattes and wearing scarves. For our students it means it's time to learn about the changing of the seasons...and that Halloween is almost here.  Let us help you ring in the fall season with a free worksheet download and some fun fall-themed activities.

Save Yourself from Repeating Yourself

Some students need instructions repeated, and that's okay! But you can head-off confusion and interuptions by using these seven tricks that will help you avoid the “What are we supposed to do?” question after you’ve already given your students instructions.

1. Please, get out a pen and paper.
If you’re giving big instructions explaining the giant essay that students must complete by Friday, with 631 words, double-spaced, in curlz font on the topic of deforestation (please don’t do this to your kiddos), you may want to make sure that they are writing these details down.

2. What page did you say?
Designate a spot on your board for important information that your students can always know to refer to. For example, if you are asking them to complete the questions on page 85 of their math textbook, write that on the board. This will help avoid the “What page did you say?” question.

Back to School Freebie

Start your year off right with this easy-to-use set of record sheets.

Help Students Get Better at “Getting It”

Comprehension is that magic moment when your student assimilates information and suddenly “gets it.” That aha moment feels so good! Because comprehension requires a higher level of reasoning ability, once students master this skill, they will be able to tackle new challenges with the ability to think them through and discover solutions.

We’ve put together the following activities that will helps students progressively improve their abstract thinking skills and their ability to “get it.” 

Where are we going? 

This activity will have students reading simple symbols in a key and answering questions about a map. You can get lots of questions out of this one map that will improve comprehension skills. Simply display the map on your whiteboard or print it out so each student gets his or her own map. Then ask students to use the symbols to answer the questions below.

Practice Following Directions in the Kitchen

Improving your students’ ability to follow directions is not only a skill that will help improve your daily life in the classroom, but it will help your students out in the real world.

5 Mysteries Students Should Read

Here at Remedia, we love a good mystery! We’ve found that the mystery genre is a great way to engage students in reading, build comprehension skills, and improve critical thinking. That’s why we’ve put together this four-part series all about the wonderful genre of MYSTERIES!

PART 4: 5 Mysteries Students Should Read

Sherlock Holmes 
Sherlock Holmes is typically more appropriate for grade 8, so if that is where your student’s reading level is, then terrific! If not, your students reading at a grade 5 will appreciate our High-Interest/Low Readability Classic adaptation of TheAdventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of Baskervilles. These activity books break the mysteries into 10 chapters that include follow-up comprehension questions and vocabulary-building activities. Plus, you can pair the activity book with an audio CD, which features a word-for-word reading and exciting sound effects. 

Nancy Drew
In 1993, the New York Times called Nancy Drew a “30s sleuth and a 90s role-model.” And we think that over twenty years later, this still holds true. Especially since the publisher continues to update and modernize Nancy Drew’s stories. Follow this link for a list of titles and their reading and interest levels.

Activities for After You’ve Read a Mystery

Here at Remedia, we love a good mystery! We’ve found that the mystery genre is a great way to engage students in reading, build comprehension skills, and improve critical thinking. That’s why we’ve put together this four-part series all about the wonderful genre of MYSTERIES!

Part 3: Activities for After You’ve Read a Mystery

Wanted Sign
Have students create a wanted sign for the villain of their whodunit. Students can draw the bad guy and then beneath the picture write who, what, where, when, why about the criminal.

Follow the Clues
As students read, have students write down the clues and the paragraph or page number they are found on. Then, once students have finished reading the mystery, have students go back to their notes and label each clue: useful or red herring.

How to Read Mysteries with Your Students

Here at Remedia, we love a good mystery! We’ve found that the mystery genre is a great way to engage students in reading, build comprehension skills, and improve critical thinking. That’s why we’ve put together this four-part series all about the wonderful genre of MYSTERIES!

PART 2: How to Read Mysteries with Your Students

Use this mystery story <free download> from one of our Mini Mysteries books to practice the following steps.

1. Predict: Have students review the title, the synopsis on the back of the book, the cover of the book, and the pictures within the story. Ask students to write down what they predict the mystery will be about.
   
   
2. Read: You may want to read the mystery to your students to test their listening ability, or students may read the stories to test their own logic skills. A combination of both may prove to be the best approach.
   
   Tip: If you hand out copies or post the story on your whiteboard, only give students small segments at a time so they don’t read ahead.
   
3. Investigate: Ask students to listen for interesting facts and clues.

·      If you’ve given students a copy of the mystery, then ask them to highlight facts that give clues.  Or have students write down the clues and the paragraph or page number they are found on. Tip: At the end of the story, have students go back to their notes and label each clue. Was it a useful clue or a red herring?

·      Have students write down or underline the names of possible suspects. As they continue to read, students can make notes next to each suspect: the suspect’s alibi, motives, evidence, etc.

Why should your students read mysteries?

Here at Remedia, we love a good mystery! We’ve found that the mystery genre is a great way to engage students in reading, build comprehension skills, and improve critical thinking. That’s why we’ve put together this four-part series all about the wonderful genre of MYSTERIES! 

PART 1: Why should your students read mysteries? 

High-Interest
Mysteries will get and keep your students’ attention! No matter what age, your students will want to solve a good whodunit.  Mysteries introduce protagonists like detectives, inspectors, and even pre-teen girls and antagonists from all walks of life.  And because an unsolved mystery can take place anywhere, this awesome genre will take your students all over the world. 

Critical Thinking & Deductive Reasoning
Making Inferences - Using Logic – Predicting Outcomes
When reading a mystery, students must use facts and reasoning to come to a decision or an opinion.  They’ll use logic to analyze the mystery, evaluate possible solutions, and follow sequential steps to arrive at a conclusion. These same steps are required in any problem-solving situation both academic and practical. Students will develop abilities in examining information, exploring possibilities, and sequencing.  

Use our Story Map <free download> to help students come to a logical conclusion when reading. 

5 Easy Ways to Show Your Students the Love

1. Take a cue from the recent social media craze that Kyle Schwartz started by asking her third graders to jot down “What I Wish My Teacher Knew”. This simple lesson plan not only builds your students’ sense of community, but it also shows your students that you care and are there to listen to their needs. Read the full article about Kyle Schwartz’s lesson here.
   
2. Keep a birthday calendar for your students and celebrate birthdays with a special message on the board.
   
   Tip: Don’t forget about your summer birthdays. Take note of those in the last weeks of the school year.
   
3. Send this note home to parents asking them to write their child a letter telling them just how proud they are. If it’s in your budget, include an envelope and the paper for them to write on. You can either give out the parent letters all at once or randomly on days you feel some students need a little pick-me-up, like right before a big test.
   
   Tip: You could even have parents do this at the beginning of the school year on Meet the Teacher Night so you don’t have to send anything home in hopes that it makes it back to you.
   

Click to Tweet: I love my students! Here are 5 easy ways to show your students the love from @remediapub

4. If you have students who play in a school sport or are in the school’s band, go to their events and show your support. Students will feel extra special knowing you are there cheering them on. 
   
   Tip: Announce student victories to the class. "Let's give Austin a round of applause. His baseball team won their game this weekend."
   
5. Sometimes it may feel like you are only sending negative notes home. Be sure to balance out the notes. If you see a student excel, succeed, or do a good deed, send a positive note home. They deserve to know you noticed, and their parents will be happy to see some positive feedback.

How do you show your students the love?

5 Crafts & Experiments using Recycled Soda Bottles

We know you save every empty shoebox, paper towel roll, and soda bottle just in case the right class project or craft comes along.  So let us help you put those hoarded 2-liter soda bottles to work! 

Start by removing the labels and the sticky residue left behind. The trick is soaking the bottles in warm water, which will get most of the label off, and then using either white vinegar or peanut butter (yes, peanut butter—smooth, not chunky) to remove the sticky residue.

Worm Farm 
You will need a 2-liter bottle, 16-ounce water bottle (empty), sand, dirt, rocks, worms, tape, and black construction paper. Cut the tops off of the two bottles.  Be sure to save the top of the 2-liter bottle. Put about one inch of rocks with a little dirt in the bottom of the 2-liter bottle, then place the smaller bottle inside the larger bottle, and begin layering sand and dirt around the smaller bottle.  Once you have the dirt filled most of the way to the top, add three to five worms, and tape the 2-liter bottle’s lid back on top (remove the cap). Now, you’re ready to watch the magic happen. Worms work best in the dark, so cover the bottle with the black construction paper and check back in to see their progress. Encourage students to keep a journal to record what they see and discover.

Punctured Plastic Bottle Experiment
This experiment demonstrates how air pressure controls the flow of water. To demonstrate this, you will poke a hole near the bottom of a 2-liter bottle, cover the hole with masking tape, and then fill the bottle with water and put the cap on the bottle. Click here to download this experiment and activity from our Hands-On Experiments books.

Solve Math Word Problems in 6 Easy-to-Follow Steps

Many students have difficulty mastering word problems. We have a solution that helps students break apart a word problem into six easy-to-follow steps. In following these steps, students will learn to focus on the information and sequence that is helpful to solving the problem. 

Use this template <free download> to make following these steps even easier.

1. Underline the Facts

Students should carefully read the problem and then determine which facts give them the information they need to solve the problem.

2. Highlight the Question

Focusing on the question will give clues as to what operation should be used to solve the problem.

3. Circle the Operation

Focusing on this step allows students to use the information gathered in the first two steps to make their decision about the operation and then move on to the next step.

Students who struggle with word problems may specifically struggle with the words that indicate the operation. Work with students to recognize these words and what operation they indicate: in all (add), how many more (subtract), how many left (subtract), etc.. 

Tip: In addition to circling the operation, have students write the operation. This will help students make the connection between words like “how many more” and the operation
“subtract”.

4. Write the Equation

This important step is a result of determining the operation and then using the information from the facts. Writing the equation says: “I know how to do this problem.”

5. Solve the Problem

This is the computation part of the process. Students will solve for the answer.

6. Write Your Answer in a Sentence (Does it make sense?)

Writing the answer in a sentence helps reinforce the problem-solving process. Asking students to think about whether or not the answer “makes sense” helps them check the answer and see it in the context of the problem.

Following these steps will help students master one-step word problems so that when extra information appears in their word problems, they can differentiate the important versus the unimportant information.

Tip: Have students use different colored crayons or markers for two-step word problems. This will help each operation stand out. Plus students will love getting to use markers in math class!

Check out our two Step-by-Step Word Problems activity books that are packed with practice activities using these 6 easy-to-follow steps. The books feature three to four levels of practice. As the levels progress, students are challenged to apply their skills. Word problems include multi-digit addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with and without regrouping.

Classroom Activities for All of April

Plan ahead with these fun activities and free downloads to get you through April Fools, Earth Day, and National Poetry Month

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3 April Fools Jokes to Play on Your Students

• Give your students this "pop quiz". Use our April Fools pop quiz <free download>. Tell your students, "Be sure to read all of the questions before beginning, but the first person to complete the quiz with all of the answers correct will win a candy bar!" The questions on this April Fools quiz are obscure, but the last question instructs the students to not answer any of the questions, just write their name and turn in the quiz. Success will be based on how well your students follow directions.

• At the end of the school day say to your students, "I'm very disappointed in how few of you turned in your essay that was due today! You may make up the assignment by writing five additional pages on the original topic and turn the entire essay in to me, tomorrow." Enjoy the students' reactions and choose how far you take it from there before you yell "April Fools!"

• Write every students' name on the board with random information next to each name, for example dates, letters (A-F), vocabulary words, and/or numbers. Do not explain anything to the class. If a student asks what it's about, simply say, "I'll tell you after lunch." Watch your students squirm and sweat all morning in anticipation. At lunch remove the names and write "April Fools!" on the board.

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Earth Day Activities

Trash-less Tuesdays
Try having a "Trashless Tuesday" each week of the month of April. Do this by encouraging your students to bring reusable containers to lunch on Tuesdays and to avoid bringing anything that needs to be thrown away (i.e. no prepackaged food) to help cutback on waste.

Two Recycling Activities
For the next two activities have each student bring in one clean, recyclable item to class: glass, plastic, paper, or metal. You should also bring in a few items for those students who will forget, and to add to the mix.

Use the students' items to work on graphing skills. Either give each student a blank graph <free download> or put one on the board to complete. Ask students who brought a glass item to raise their hands and count them; add that number to the graph. Do the same for the other categories. Now have students create a bar graph, line graph, or pie chart using the information you've gathered.

Now, it's time to recycle. Turn recycling into a classifying game. Have students trade their item with another student in the class, as they may already know in which category their item belongs.  Put four boxes at the front of the class labeled: glass, plastic, paper, and metal. Then, have students take turns putting items in the correct receptacle.

Activity Book Suggestions

• How We Impact the Environment

• Managing Waste & Recycling 

• Climate Change 

• Our Trash

More Recycling Tips for Your Classroom

•  Math Activities Using Repurposed Magazines

• Crafts & Experiments Using Recycled Soda Bottles

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National Poetry Month
For some quick tips on where to get started with poetry in your classroom, use our Teacher's Guide to poetry <free download> in the classroom pulled from our Writing Basics Series: Writing Poems, which gives students lots of practice writing traditional forms of poetry such as couplets, quatrains, and haikus as well as the non-traditional free-verse form.

Read Poetry
Read a poem to your students every day of the month. After each poem, ask students:

• What do you think the poem is about?

• Where did the poem take place?

• Who is the speaker in the poem?

• How did that poem make you feel?

• Why do you think the poet wrote the poem?

By asking these questions (and more) after each poetry reading, by the end of the month students will begin analyzing poetry without your prompting. Also by listening to you read poetry, students will better understand the rhythm and flow of poetry.

Write a Ransom Note Poem
Have students write a poem (the shorter the better with this activity). Then let them rummage through magazines to find the words from their poem. Encourage students to make the more important words or words that need more emphasis to be larger. Then, have them cut and paste the words and letters onto a piece of construction paper. It's a colorful way to display your students' poetry.

3 Kid-friendly Poets Include:

• Shel Silvertein

• Valerie Bloom
  

• Fred Sedgwick
  

Free Download
Smilies & Metaphors activities from our Writing Basics Series: Writing Poems

Test-Prep Tips for Teachers & Students

Test Giving Tips
Take some of the anxiety and anticipation out of test day by making your classroom a test-friendly environment.
•  Set the mood by playing calming music as students come into class.

•  Give tests at the beginning of the day when students' attentions are still alert and focused.

•  Give your students each a magic pencil (no. 2 of course)--they come in fun colors and designs. Or get creative and have students decorate their no. 2 pencil with glitter and stickers the day before the test to help them relieve some pre-test stress.

•  Have extra sharpened pencils available in case of breaks so students aren't sharpening pencils during the test.

•  Stock your classroom with plenty of books for students who finish tests quickly.

Click here to download this poster.

•  Have student turn finished tests in to the back of the classroom. This can be less distracting for students still taking the test and lessen any anxiety they may have for not finishing as quickly as their peers.

•  Get the wiggles out between tests: jumping jacks, stretching, pencil sharpening, bathroom break, etc.

•  Celebrate when testing is finished! Get party ideas from our Party Time! Pinterest board for great ideas.

Need some more help?
Check out Remedia's materials geared towards improving test-taking skills.

Test Taking Tips
Download the FREE You can do it! Test-Taking Tips poster and bonus activity.

How to Improve Students' Critical Thinking Skills

Improve high-level, critical thinking skills and you're sure to improve reading comprehension, problem solving, writing skills, and more! We’ve gathered five important higher-level thinking skills, defined the skill, and suggested a way for you to help improve that skill. These tips are a terrific way to give your students the tools they need for success in school as well as in their daily lives!

The Penny Project

Find a penny, pick it up. All day long you'll have good luck! This project has your students doing just that–collecting pennies while gaining research skills and meeting the standards. This project is perfect for any time of the year, but would be a fun project to introduce around Presidents' Day when your students are learning about Abraham Lincoln and/or George Washington. Bonus! These activities are great for primary students, but can easily be adapted for your older students.

What you'll need:

• Letter-Size Manila Folder - one for each student, or divide students into groups of two

What to do:

1. Reproduce this Lincoln patter <free download> for each student or group to cut, color, and past to the front of their penny folder.
2. On the inside of the folder, have students trace a penny, making 25 circles. You can change this based on the project you choose to do, see below for details.
3. Have students start collecting pennies. Challenge students to
   a) find a different penny for each year, for the last 25 years; b) to find a penny from 25 different years.
4. As students find pennies, tape or glue them in place. Encourage students to put their coins in order of year, oldest to newest.
5. Students should write the year under each coin.

Meet the Standards

• Display the coins in a timeline. (CC.W.2.a)

• Research five of the 25 years that their coins represent.
• What is one significant thing that happened in each of the five years? (CC.W.8)
• Make a timeline showing highlights from each of the five years. (CC.W.2.a)

• Ask students to find a coin from the year they were born. Then ask:
• Who was president that year? What are some similarities and differences between that president and the current President? (CC.RI.5)
• Research to find what the latest technology during President Lincoln’s time was. Compare that to latest technology from the year you were born? (CC.RI.5)

• Challenge students to find the oldest penny. Offer a reward (of your choice) for the student who finds the oldest coin. Then have students:
• Write a report highlighting events from that year. (CC.W.2)
• Make a timeline showing highlights from that year (CC.W.2.a)
  
• Have students find a penny from significant times in history. Hold student's attention by making the specific dates both educational, fun, and relatable. Based on their research or prior knowledge, students will know what years to find. (CC.W.7)
  Examples:

• Barack Obama inaugurated as 44th president (2009)
• The book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone came out (1998)
• Space shuttle Challenger exploded (1986)
• Ronald Reagan inaugurated as 40th president (1981)
• First cellphone was used (1973)
• Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his, “I Have a Dream Speech” (1963)

Bonus Research Question:
Why does Lincoln face a different
direction on the penny? (CC.W.8)

As students collect research and complete other Lincoln projects they can keep everything in their Penny Project Folder.

Tip: Because this project is perfect for Presidents' Day, you could have students do this same project with George Washington and quarters. Split the class in half so that some students create a Penny Project Folder and some students make a Quarter Project Folder.

Abraham Lincoln Freebies 
Use the free worksheets below to build student's knowledge of Abraham Lincoln. As students complete the worksheets have them add each to their Penny Project Folder.
All About Abe - Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Abraham Lincoln's World - Research Skills Worksheet, Using an Almanac
Equality Freebie - Critical Thinking Worksheet

5 Lessons of the Heart

Put a twist on your Valentine’s lessons with these heart-themed, science lessons, activities, and free downloads. They go beyond the mushy-gushy romance of V-day...although, we're not against that (see Secret Valentine Exchange)! Plus February is American Heart Month, so you can use these activities all month long to promote heart health awareness.

Getting to Know the Heart
Familiarize students with the parts of the heart with this free labeling activity from our Labeling for Comprehension Series. Students will read a short description of the heart, and then demonstrate their understanding by labeling the diagram. Now, they are ready to get their blood flowing with the next two activities.

A Blood-Pumping Graphing Activity
Integrate math, health, and heart-healthy science with this blood-pumping activity. Students will graph their heart rates while doing different activities.

1. Ask students, “Did you know that your heart is a muscle? In fact, it is the only hollow muscle in your body. Like all the muscles in your body, your heart stays strong when it exercises. Let’s see how exercise makes your heart work and keep strong.”

2. Have students find their pulse while sitting at their desks (resting heart rate). Have each student gently press their forefingers to their wrist, near the base of the thumb. Have them count the pulses while you keep time for 15-seconds. Then each student should multiply their count by four to get the beats-per-minute.  Have students write this number in this chart (free download).

3. Complete the chart together as a class. After each activity, have students take their pulse. You’ll be in charge of the clock, tracking the intervals, and making sure students stay on-task. When you are done, have students create a bar graph or line graph to show how their heart rate differed for each activity.

4. Explain to students that blood is a special “belt” that brings oxygen to the muscles and carries the bad away, and you want your heart to be in its best shape to do this well.

A Field Trip Through the Heart
Good News! This field trip does not require a permission slip. Students will take a trip through the heart right in your classroom.

• With tape, draw a large diagram (click here to download) of the heart on our classroom floor. This diagram includes a station for the lungs and body cells.
• Label the chambers of the heart, the lungs, the body cells, and all blood vessels accordingly.
• Place large blue circle cutouts in the body cells and large red circle cutouts in the lungs.
• Have a small group of students be the “blood” moving along the route through each station like blood flowing through the heart.
• Have two students be the “lungs” in the lung station.
• Have a few students act as the “body cells” in the body cells station.
• Narrate what the blood is doing as the students go through each stop.
• Explain what blood vessel they must take.
• As students reach the body cells station, have students exchange their red circles (blood cells carrying oxygen) for blue circles (blood cells carrying carbon dioxide).
• As students pass through the lungs, have them exchange their blue cells for red cells, which illustrates the diffusion of oxygen into the blood. Point out that blood vessels carrying blood away from the heart are arteries, and usually carry red blood.  Blood vessels carrying blood towards the heart are veins, and usually carry blue blood.
• Also point out that the right side of the heart handles blue blood and the left side of the heart handles red blood.

Tip: To really reinforce the lesson, have a different group of students take a trip through the heart, while another set of students narrate the journey.

Use these free worksheets <free download> before students take a trip through the heart to give a little background knowledge of the heart and cardiovascular system. These worksheets come from our The Human Body: Digestive, Circulatory, Reproductive, & Excretory Systems book.

Secret Valentine Exchange
Finish your heart-throbbing unit with a Secret Valentine Exchange. This activity is still science-focused while incorporating language skills.

1. Put every student’s name in a bag, and have each student draw a name from the bag.

2. Have students color and decorate this free heart template using red and blue crayons, construction paper, or magazine clippings to properly indicate where the red and blue blood cells flow.

3. On the back of each heart ask to students “pour their hearts out” to their Secret Valentine using heart-themed idioms or proverbs, such as: heart pumping, change of heart, heart misses a beat, heart bleeds, with a heavy heart, eat your heart out, from the bottom of my heart…etc.

Use this opportunity to encourage students to work on their handwriting, poetry, and/or creative writing skills. On V-day, have students share their heart (pun intended) with the whole class and reveal who and why they think their Secret Valentine has a heart of gold.

Freebies from the American Heart Association
Check out The American Heart Association who makes a variety of educational lessons, posters, activities, and other great freebies to support your heart lessons.

7 Get-Up-&-Move Math Activities

Maybe you want to promote a healthier classroom by getting your students up and moving through an activity, maybe your students are more tactile learners, or maybe you find that if your students are active they are more focused and well-behaved throughout the rest of the day. Whatever your motivation, we've got some "active" math games to get your students up and moving... Plus you don't even have to leave the classroom!

Bowling Math
Get an inexpensive bowling kit from the toy section and set up a lane or two in your classroom. On the bottom of each pin write numbers (depending on your student's level make the numbers as small or large as you'd like). Have students take turns rolling the ball down to the pins. After one student rolls the ball down to the pins, have that student walk, lunge, or skip down to the pins. Have that student add up the numbers on the bottom of their pins--that's their score for that round. If you'd rather not keep score, just have students work the math problem. They can either add, subtract, or multiply all of the numbers or just the two largest numbers.

Active Stations
As students make their way through your normal math stations, have them do lunges, crab walking, or wheel barrels to get to the next station. 

Bean Bag Toss
Use these simple instructions (from Dirt & Boogers Blog) to make your own Bean Bag Toss easily and with very few materials. Adjust the design with a few extra holes to make this game educational. Simply cut several holes into the box and label each hole with a number. Give students a math equation and have them toss the bean bag into the hole with the correct answer.  Or assign word problems to each number. Whichever hole the bean bag lands in, that is the word problem the student must answer.