Building a Math Community During Morning Meeting

It’s a daily routine that helps set the tone for the rest of the day of learning – you can learn about all of the components of a morning meeting at https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/what-is-morning-meeting/. 

Part of the morning is doing a daily whole-class activity or game. This is a great time to engage your students in some simple math games! Here are some of my favorites:

• Sevens: The goal of this activity is for students to get their total to seven (although you can switch up the total at any time).
  • Students will start in pairs of two. Like rock, paper, scissors, they will count to three, but instead they will show a random number of fingers (0-5 or 0-10). 
  • If the total number of fingers that are displayed between the students adds to seven they “win” and will combine with another pair of students to form a group of 4.
  • They repeat the task with four students trying to get a total of 7 among the displayed fingers. This will continue until all the students have combined into a single large group and ends when the whole group displays 7 fingers. This means that some students have to strategically show 0 fingers. TIP: Choose one student to be the “counter” when you get to the larger groups.
• Mystery Number: Think 20 questions, but with a number in mind. One person chooses a number in their head – then students ask yes or no questions to help them figure it out (Is it an even number? Does it have a digit in the hundreds place? Is it less than…?).
• Which One Doesn’t Belong: Utilizing this online resource (or make one yourself!), have kids share around the circle which one doesn’t belong and why. Or you can set it up like four corners and do several quick rounds. It’s a great opportunity to practice the Standard Mathematical Practice (SMP) #3.

Enjoy these first few days of school and feel free to reach out to chat math with me anytime at ndupre@mtholyoke.edu. 

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