Math Warm-Ups for Number Sense

Students need repeated practice on skills in order to work towards mastery. I recently shared with you how my grade level team uses a customized Daily Math Review for our morning work (click here to read more about it). Another key component of my morning is our math warm-up. A few years ago I purchased this pack from Jen Ross (Teacher By the Beach) and I love it!

Here’s a little peek into the pages I use in my second grade classroom and more about our daily routine with the pages.

No matter what, we always start with the hundreds chart. I use the 120s chart included in the pack. Here are some examples of what I might say:

Circle 37.

Now circle the number that is 3 more than 37.

Circle the number that has 6 tens and 2 ones.

Now circle the number that has one more group of ten.

Circle the number that is one more than 94.

Circle the number that is 20 more than that.

I like to skip around in our folders just to keep things fresh and interesting. For now I’ll just go in order. Next up is our number of the day page. We usually use what day we’re on in school. Here’s a tip I learned after the first few days – put the number words page next to the number of the day page so they can correctly write the word form.

Another page I enjoy using is the fact family page. Once we got into 2-digit numbers, I had the kids split the tens and ones into two, 1-digit numbers to work with. Then they can use the number as it is to complete larger addition and subtraction sentences.

I love number grids. I find the kids get kind of bored with them for awhile when we’re using 2-digits. You should see them perk up and refocus when they have to cross into the hundreds place.

After my students complete a page, we do a “swap & check”. Yes, even if they didn’t complete the page in time. The partner circles any mistakes found and shares them when they swap back. This person found an error in the tally marks:

Second graders can always boost their money skills, right? I love that this page forces students to use the fewest coins possible. Even though the box on the right asks for one different way, I have my students draw a line (sometimes two lines) to show multiple different ways. It really shows me who is struggling with coin combinations and values. Oh, and once we get further into the school year, I’ll let my students use half dollars (HD) to save space.

Jen’s pack does include a variety of different pages. No matter which pages I use in the folders, I always leave the back side of the last page blank so I can have my students practice whatever I feel is needed. Here you can see a few examples of things I’ve had my students practice (name collection boxes, rounding, addition and subtraction, etc).

Well, that should give you a good idea of what we do before I begin our formal math lesson each day. If you want to see more about this pack, Jen does a fantastic job explaining how she uses it with her first grade students here.