Kidspiration and Word Problems

Addition and Subtraction are the main math GLET's for first grade from September through November. I have regrouped my math students with another teacher from my grade-level. She has experience with touch-math and has agreed to take students who need more assistance. I have the kids who "get" math and need further practice in mathematical fluency, word problems, and place value.

I struggled in the beginning of our regrouping with what to teach these students so that they would not become bored. Here is a project we're working on:

I have made a kidspiration template which allows students to create their own word problems. The file begins with students creating enough muffins for the day (15). Then they roll two number cubes to find their customers. Finally, they figure out how many muffins they have left over. They work through green, yellow and red boxes to fill in the missing word problem pieces. Ultimately, they will work on changing every aspect of their "real life" word problem!



I have spoken with tech services to get permission (and a file) to upload my template to a server so my students can access it on all computers. As soon as we work through the projects, I will post the results. We had a technical glitch last week, so this week I'm hoping students can complete at least one problem in groups of two! Sorry about the picture (The green box doesn't show and yellow is the mustard color). I'm happy to forward the template to anyone interested.