Happy Monday! I wanted to take some time today to go over the daily math warm-ups that I use in my classroom. My students come to learn what activities happen on what day and it gives us structure and variety!
Monday Mathematician: This is our quiet keep to yourself week starter (Mondays are hard, aren’t they?). Math Giraffe has this great weekly mathematician resource in her store and it works well to do it on Monday as she posts the info on Friday on her Instagram. Then, at the end of the semester, the crossword is a great sub/low energy day activity.
Tiling Tuesday: I love tiling activities so much! Initially, students think that it will be incredibly easy, and maybe even babyish, but once they try one they realize it isn’t so easy. These activities by Teacher Thrive come in a variety of skills and you can build your own bundle saving money and personalizing the skills you want to work on in your room. Students not only work on relevant skills to the lessons being taught but work on perseverance and problem-solving. I bought a set of number tiles from Amazon and kept each set in a snack bag in a storage container.
What’s Going on Wednesday: The New York Times displays a graph every Wednesday and provides prompt questions for a classroom discussion. There can be inline interaction if you so choose, but I don’t do that with my class. We look for patterns, make inferences, and come up with other questions to ask each other.
Thoughtful Thursday: Ted Ed has a fantastic series of math riddles that I show on Thursdays. This is another discussion activity as each video provides you with information and rules, time to talk and come up with a solution, and the answer. Sometimes they even have extras at the end. I have found that some concepts are pretty difficult but I still let my students try them so they get the exposure to more difficult concepts.
Fun Friday: This usually takes us a little longer than the 5-10 minutes I usually use for warmups! By Friday, we need to blow off some steam, get a break from the difficult tasks of the week and do something fun. A class favorite is 20 Express. A seemingly simple game, it actually requires a lot of strategies and deals with probability. I like to play along because it is just that fun! Sarah Carter has a really great explanation of the game and free printable game boards at Math Equals Love.
I hope this gave you some ideas and resources to use in your classroom! These are all super low/no-prep activities that help me feel like I always have something planned even when I am running around last minute trying to get my content lesson ready. Let me know in the comments some of the ways you use routine warm-ups to make your classes go smoothly!