Math! {Balancing Facts}

Hey y'all! I'm Jessica from Pride and Primary and I am so excited about blogging today on The Primary Punchbowl, our new collaborative blog! This whole experience has been amazing! I have met so many wonderful women who truly inspire me to be my best!

I'm here today to talk with you about balancing some math facts! I know this is a big part of our curriculum in first grade and it's always good practice to remember the meaning of the equal sign! It's a great way to expose children to math concepts that they will build upon later in their academic careers (I'm having flashbacks to high school chemistry and balancing those equations. Eeek!!).

We begin working on balancing facts in early October and continue throughout the year. The kids pick up on it super early and they have a blast doing all of our activities! 

It's very simple: The equal sign means the same. One side has to be the same as the other side. If one side is 8, then the other side must also be 8. 

5 + 3 = 8

4 + 4 = 6 + 2

8 = 8

This simple introduction sets them up for a whole slew of math stuff: inequalities, true and false equations, comparisons, etc. This is the basis for more challenging math work. And the kids do amazing with it. They seriously rise to the challenge. 

I was never really a big fan of math. :/ 

Probably because all we ever did was solve problem after problem on the chalkboard and then do the exact same thing 50 more times in the textbook and again for homework. Really? How exciting is that? After about the fifth time of working a problem, I pretty much had it down pat. So why did I need to repeat it 50 times? So rote and monotonous. 

We all know children today learn MUCH differently than we did. So I like to make math FUN!! Check it out: 

This is my favorite activity to introduce Equivalent Expressions! Candy Corn Fact Balancing! 

I made this huge candy corn and then huge numbers. The kids work together to make facts equal. 

There's a smaller version for each child to use in centers or for seat work and a recording page for accountability. This is in my October Math Centers pack on TpT. 

I've also made one that we use during December for review: 

I LOVE Penguins!!

I make similar activities for centers. Here are a few pics: 

This center pack is 50% off this week in honor of our Fall Blog Hop and Blog Launch!

Here is a Freebie for you!

To end our unit on Fact Balancing we do a craftivity. 

I usually have the big office bulletin board around November so I like to show off what we've been doing in class with Balancing Fall Treats is Sweet! 

Here's how it works: 

First the kiddos pick a number (usually under 15) to balance. Then, they choose two facts that equal that number. 

I precut the little pictures on the lines, so they can pick four that equal their facts. 

They color and they can cut out the entire treat if they want. 

Either way the activity is still cute!

Grab your fall freebie {HERE}!

Well that's it! Thank you so much for joining us and don't forget to enter our Fall Hop Giveaway!

Happy Teaching!

Jessica