In today’s episode, we’re diving into simple, hands-on ways to help your child practice writing numbers — without the boredom or frustration! Whether you're a parent, teacher, or caregiver, these playful activities will keep young learners engaged while building fine motor skills and number sense.

First up, we talk about Water Painting, the perfect activity for hot summer days. Grab a paintbrush and a cup of water, and let your child “paint” numbers on the sidewalk or wall. It’s fun, mess-free, and dries away on its own!

Next, we explore Sand Writing, a tactile favorite that helps kids form numbers while engaging their senses. It’s a great way to build memory and fine motor skills — plus, kids love the feel of sand between their fingers.

For a neater option, try Gel Writing. With just a plastic bag, dollar store gel, and a little food coloring, you can create a squishy, mess-free writing surface. It’s sensory-friendly and so much fun — just remember to double-bag to avoid spills!

And if you’re looking for a grab-and-go option, check out the Number Writing Workbook, designed for Kindergarten and rising First Grade students. Inside you’ll find simple tracing pages with visual guides, fun number mazes, and activities that combine tracing, coloring, and number recognition.

Tune in to hear how small changes in materials can turn ordinary number practice into an exciting, multisensory experience your child will love!

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Number Writing Workbook

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In this episode, we explore how simple materials—like beads—can transform your math centers. Beads aren’t just colorful and fun; they’re powerful tools for counting collections, building fine motor skills, and creating patterns. We’ll dive into hands-on activities like Spin and Thread, DIY number racks, and engaging rekenrek games that help students strengthen their number sense and counting strategies. Whether you’re looking for easy prep ideas or creative ways to switch up your manipulatives, this episode is packed with practical tips you can use tomorrow. Tune in and bring new life to your math lessons!

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In this quick episode, we are diving into 3 unconventional ways to increase engagement in math class!

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Today's episode comes from a listener email about getting buy-in from other teachers to give BTC a try!

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Transforming your classroom into a Building Thinking Classroom is an exciting journey—but when it comes to consolidating learning and reflecting on problem-solving tasks, it can feel tricky with younger students. Between stamina struggles, time constraints, and building those metacognitive skills, what’s a teacher to do?

In this episode, we’re tackling those challenges with fun and effective strategies to wrap up your thinking tasks:

🌶️ Check Your Understanding Questions Use “mild,” “medium,” and “spicy” extension questions to give students a choice and push their thinking a little further.

🎲 Games for Consolidation Turn reflection time into play with quick, themed games that tie into your tasks and can double as math centers later!

📝 Meaningful Notes Help students record their learning in creative ways—like fill-in-the-blanks, circling items, or drawing—so they can revisit important strategies and takeaways later.

💡 The 4-Quadrant Method Break down strategies and reflections into bite-sized pieces for young learners to understand and remember.

Whether it’s through playful games, choice-driven questions, or creative note-taking, these approaches will keep your students engaged and make math reflection meaningful and manageable.

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👉 Grab Kindergarten, 1st Grade, or 2nd Grade Thinking Task Bundles here!

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Let’s make consolidation time just as exciting as problem-solving! 🎉

In this episode, we dive into how AI tools like ChatGPT can support teachers in crafting creative and engaging math tasks for Kindergarten, 1st-grade, and 2nd-grade students. While AI can’t replace the human magic you bring to your classroom, it can be a great brainstorming partner to help spark ideas, refine tasks, and create meaningful learning experiences.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

1. The Power of Specific Prompts
   • A generic prompt like “Give me math tasks for counting” might not get the best results. Instead, provide details like grade level, standards, goals, and even a story context.
   • Specificity helps AI provide deeper, more tailored responses.
2. Ask for Variations
   • Encourage creativity by requesting multiple examples or exploring specific parts of a task.
   • Need thin-slicing? AI can help you design tasks with increasing levels of difficulty, ensuring they meet your learning objectives.
3. Engagement Matters
   • Beyond math concepts, you can ask AI for fun and creative ideas, like coming up with 10 names for a fictional business that include puns or alliteration to match your theme.
   • Adding a playful twist makes tasks more enjoyable for students!
4. Check the Work
   • While AI can do a lot, it’s not perfect. Always double-check tasks for accuracy, especially as the math becomes more advanced or nuanced.
   • Use AI as a starting point but refine the details yourself to ensure they’re just right for your students.

💡 Final Thoughts: AI isn’t magic—it’s a tool. It won’t create slides, choose the perfect context, or capture your students’ unique needs. What turns an idea into a task your students love is you. Your creativity, expertise, and connection to your class are what make learning truly come alive.

📚 Looking for Pre-Made Thinking Tasks? Check out our Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade bundles for ready-to-use ideas tailored to Building Thinking Classrooms!

✨ Join the Conversation: Have you used AI to create math tasks? Share your experiences and tips with us on Instagram or [email protected]

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Looking for ways to make 2nd-grade math engaging and fun? In this episode, we’re sharing creative, story-based tasks that get your students excited about skip counting, place value, addition, subtraction, and more—all while building critical math skills!

Here’s what we’re covering:

🍊 Skip Counting at the Orange You Sweet Orange Factory—help your students count baskets of oranges in multiples of 5, 10, or 100.

👾 Place Value Party Planning with the Aliens of Countaria—can your students decode the alien languages and save the “Outta This World” Block Party?

🏴‍☠️ Treasure Hunt Adventures with Pirate Captain Redbeard—solve length problems to navigate the treasure map and uncover hidden treasures!

🍫 Brownie Partitioning at the Brownie Bakery—partition rectangles into rows and columns to figure out brownie orders.

📏 Measuring with the Cube Queen and Popsicle Stick King—compare measurements and decide when to use larger or smaller tools.

🍦 Dreaming of Ice Cream with Whirl’d of Swirls—build rectangular arrays to keep up with growing ice cream orders.

Links & Resources: 👉 Grab the full task bundle here! 👉 Check out the blog post here!

Tune in and let’s make math an adventure! 🎉

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Today, we’re diving into something that every early elementary teacher has faced: coming up with the perfect math task—especially for those curious First Graders. Sometimes, it feels like the hardest part, right?

Well, no worries, because we’ve got some exciting, hands-on ideas to spark engagement and build math confidence in your students! We’ll talk about:

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📖 Story-Based Problems that bring math to life with fun narratives.

🔢 FREE 100 Chart Mysteries where your students will outsmart the 100 Chart Thief.

🍕 Pizza Fractions at the Dough-licious Pizzeria.

📏 Nonstandard Measurement Adventures with the Cube Queen and Popsicle Stick King.

🎡 Data and Graphing at the Laugh-A-Lot Carnival.

🎲Skip Counting by 5 with dice

🔺Composing Shapes with pattern blocks

⭐Save ⏱️ and 💸 on the 1st Grade Task Bundle!⭐

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Sometimes coming up with a task for Kindergarten is the hardest part! In this episode, I share 7 tasks perfect for your kindergarten classroom in a building-thinking classrooms style! Dive into the world of playful, hands-on math tasks in this episode of Making Number Sense Make Sense! From counting and number writing with the mischievous dogs at Paw-some Pups Playhouse to solving addition problems with a broken cash register in "Cash Out," we’ll explore creative ways to engage young learners. Plus, hear how sorting toys, composing shapes, and comparing lengths bring math concepts to life through fun, story-driven activities. Whether you're teaching counting to 20, addition within 10 or 20, or tackling shape challenges, these tasks will have your students excited to learn and eager for more!

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Kindergarten Task Bundle

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Counting and Number Writing Task

Cash Out Addition Within 10

Sorting Task

Composing Shapes Task

Comparing Longer and Shorter Task

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The hardest part about Building Thinking Classrooms is finding the tasks when you want to spice it up a bit! In this episode, I'm walking you through how I approach coming up with ideas for tasks! Want the task I talked about? You can get the 2nd Grade Cash Out Task here! K and 1st Grade versions are below.

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