Rachael:  Hey, teachers. If you have a classroom and a commute, you're in the right place. I'm your host. Rachael and I want to ride along with you each week on your ride into school. This podcast is the place for busy teachers toe want actionable tips, simple strategies and just want to enjoy their job more. Let's go.         

Hey, guys, what's up? It's Rachael from The Classroom Nook, and I am your host for the podcast, The Classroom Commute, where you are right now!

I hope you're having a great day. And today I'm gonna share with you something real quick and easy that could be a game changer in your classroom. It was certainly a game changer for me and my classroom when I was teaching fourth grade.

But first a confession. I still count on my fingers. Yes, like when I go to figure out the tip at a restaurant, I will count on my fingers to figure out how much more I should put and what the total bill now is after adding that tip.

I know, it's embarrassing. I'm not proud of it, but it is what it is. And the worst thing about the whole thing is that I would tell my students that they were not allowed to count on their fingers, and that I wanted them to know their math fact and how to add and multiply quickly in their heads.

I think we can all agree that knowing our math facts is something that we use as adults every single day. There are many things that we've learned in school, say - 10th grade math logic and proofs, that we will never use again unless you teach 10th grade math. However, the reason I was so strict about math facts with my students was because I didn't want them to turn out like me and have to use their fingers.  And math facts -  whether it's multiplication, adding, division or subtraction -  are fundamental skills that many other math concepts build upon. So we want to make sure that our students know them forwards, backwards, inside out, and everywhere in between.

So, knowing this, I wanted to create a fun way for students to learn their math facts that they actually looked forward to doing. And I think I might have found the ticket and I'm gonna share it with you today, and it could be a total game changer in your classroom.

The thing I started doing with my students to help support them learning their math facts was to incorporate math challenges into our day.

So what I mean by that is when we were learning about multiplication, we'd have multiplication challenges, and I'll explain them in a minute.  When we would learn about division, we had division challenges, subtraction challenges, adding challenges. And you can do this at any level.

It's not something that you're only doing at the primary level. It's something that you can do all the way through  sixth grade and upper elementary school.

Here's how it works. Students take short timed math facts quizzes, probably something that you have done many times in your classroom.  You give students a sheet with maybe 15-20 problems on it, and you give him a minute to answer as many math facts correctly as possible.  

So if we're talking about multiplication, they would start by multiplying all their two’s math facts. So 2x3, 2 x2, 2x5..etc.  Then they would move up to multiples of 3, and 4 and so on. And the goal would be to have students memorize their math facts and know them quickly enough so that they could recite them on those timed quizzes.

We did these timed quizzes in my classroom, but here's where it was different for my students. And here's where it really got motivating. We would have four math fact challenges a year, one for adding, one for subtracting, one for multiplication, and one for division.  Each math facts challenge had a different theme. For example, the Multiplication Challenge had an ice cream theme, and as students took their quizzes, they were working to earn parts of their ice cream cone.

And this is gonna be one of those episodes where you're definitely gonna want to head over to the show notes to see some pictures, because it will help make it all clear for you. You can do that by going to classroomnook.com/podcast/7 to get all of the information about these math fact challenges, and I'm gonna tell you about a freebie that you can grab as well while you're over there.

But as I was saying, they earn parts of their ice cream cone, and we're talking a paper ice cream cone at this point.  Every time they would pass a level in the math facts challenge, for example, passing their x2 of x3, they would earn a part of their ice cream cone. For passing x2 they would earn the placemat that they would put their ice cream cone. For x3 they would earn the napkin,  For x4 they would earn the cone itself.  For x5 they would earn a scoop. All the way up to x9, they would earn scoops.  X10 they would earn whipped cream, x11 they earned sprinkles on their cone, and x12 they earned a cherry on top.  They glue these parts of their ice cream cone onto their placemat. And when they earned all parts of their ice cream cone, their paper ice cream cone that is, we had an ice cream party and celebrated with real ice cream, and the students loved it!

I mean, come on, food is the master motivator, right? But even more than that, the result of these multiplication challenges was that they started to know their math facts, and they enjoyed doing it. Students will beg you to take these time quizzes every day. I've had teachers tell me time and time again, who have used these math fact challenges in their classroom, say that their students begged them to take these quizzes every single day because they know they want to add to their ice cream cone, or whatever the theme it is for that challenge.

It is just an awesome way to get your students totally on board with learning their math facts.

So you might be thinking, ‘what are the other themes?’ Well, like I said, the multiplication theme is to build a paper ice cream cone so that they can earn a real ice cream party. The division challenge is a pasta party, so they build their pasta plate. They start with a plate for being able to divide by two. Then they add their pasta noodles by being able to divide by three. Then they add meatballs and sauce, and then they add their paper fork and the Parmesan cheese shaker and then at the end, we had a pasta party, which is actually super easy to do. Premake the pasta at home and then put pasta sauce and meatballs in a crockpot and have it in your classroom all day until you’re ready for your party. For  subtraction, students have a gumball theme.  So they are adding gumballs to their gum ball machine, and when they've earned all of their gum balls, they get to have gum in class, which is always a huge privilege, of course. And then, for addition, it's a popcorn theme, and they have a bucket of popcorn that they add kernels of popcorn to their bucket, and then you have a popcorn party when they pass.  

It's just super simple, but such a motivator for students to have something to work towards, and it's also a visual representation of what they're learning. They can see themselves progressing through because you'll put up their ice cream cone, or their popcorn bucket, or their gumball machine on a display somewhere in your classroom so that they can see where they are in the process.

If you're having a hard time visualizing exactly what the challenges look like, definitely head over to the show notes to see some of the pictures that I’ve put there for you. And the biggest reason that you're going to want to head over to the show notes is so you can download all of the resources and materials that you need to host a math facts challenge in your classroom right on the website in our Members Resource Library.

If you are not already a member, it's totally free to sign up and you'll have access to all four math challenges, in addition to dozens of other resources for all the content areas.  Teacher resources, student resources, and even some video tutorials.  There's a ton of stuff waiting for you there. If you're not already a member, make sure you sign up again. You can get it at classroomnook.com/podcast/7.

Grab these math challenges and do them in your classroom. Your students will thank you. And when they're an adult, they'll think back on you as they're sitting at that restaurant figuring out the bill.  They’ll be able to divide it out among their friends and add on the tip, and do all the things, unlike yours truly.

So that's all I have for you guys today. I hope you found that valuable. I hope you're inspired to host the math facts challenge in your classroom with your students. Have a wonderful rest of the day. Bye for now.