Hey there, teacher friends! Let’s chat Math… I know I can hear some people groaning already….
However Math doesn’t have to be boring and a BIG yawn fest.
Mathematics is an essential subject that plays a crucial role in our daily lives, but for many students, it can be a challenging and intimidating subject.
As a teacher, one of your primary goals is to make math learning enjoyable and engaging for your students. Making math fun can help your students develop a positive attitude towards the subject, which can have a significant impact on their learning outcomes.
In this blog post, we will explore some fun and creative ways to teach math in the classroom that can help your students build their math skills while having fun at the same time. Let’s get started – I have some creative ideas for you.
Math Olympics
Have students compete in different maths challenges such as speed maths, mental maths, and estimation challenges.
This can help students develop their maths skills and build their confidence in a fun and interactive way.
This is a great one to illustrate inclusivity of cultures and embed it into your curriculum!
Math Manipulatives
Math manipulatives are crucial tools for teaching maths concepts!
They help students to see, touch, and interact with abstract ideas in a more tangible way, improving their understanding and retention of new concepts.
Here’s a snapshot of our MAB Block Task Cards in action, providing hands-on learning with colourful blocks to help students practise counting and basic addition skills.
We often pull out the MAB blocks or even counters to help this task box set.
Have a look at some of our math task card resources
Maths Art
Maths Art is always a favourite activity. Having various visual learners in my class, it really helps having illustrated tasks to help with mathematical learning. One of my students’ favourites is colour by code.
Colour by code is a colouring activity based upon rounding up prices. Students colour a created image based upon the money specified that needs rounding up in price, with the answers represented by various colours.
These are all differentiated for different learning levels, with a variety of images per pack. We usually complete a colour by code activity with a different holidays / seasons to make it extra fun!
Click here to purchase.
Maths Escape Room
Create an escape room game that involves solving maths problems to progress through different rooms.
This can be a fun and challenging way for students to work together to solve problems and develop their critical thinking skills.
Menu Maths
These are bright, differentiated life skills activities, based upon ordering from a menu.
Students are given a poster of created prices (various posters included) and work their way through a progression of maths equations. It’s like going to the store and ordering food without having to leave the classroom.
It’s could be accompanied by how to order social situations and role play activities. Menu maths is a great way to take your students on a life skills excursion of cuisines without leaving the classroom.
Click here to see menu maths resources!
The good thing about maths, is it can be embedded in most things students are learning.
By making maths enjoyable and exciting it won’t even feel like they are actually learning!
In maths special education students can build their maths skills, yet also develop additional life skills whilst learning the subject.
What are your favourite Maths tasks? I would love to know ! Connect with us on Instagram.
Thank You! ❤️
Thanks for hanging out with us! We hope you found this post helpful to both you and your special students.
Be sure to check us out when it comes to special education teaching resources and ideas, The Special Education Studio is where it’s at. Visit our website and socials for helpful tips, resources, and personalised support.
