Number Tasks

Written by Donna Boucher

Donna has been a teacher, math instructional coach, interventionist, and curriculum coordinator. A frequent speaker at state and national conferences, she shares her love for math with a worldwide audience through her website, Math Coach’s Corner. Donna is also the co-author of Guided Math Workshop.

I was at a science training Friday, and they showed us an easy little review game.  I thought the format would be great for math, so here’s what I came up with.

The student rolls two number cubes.  It might be easier for the kiddos if the number cubes are different colors, like on the recording sheet, but they don’t really need to be.  The green number cube tells them what number to use, and the red cube tells them the task.  For example, if they roll a green 3 and a red 2, they would use the number 14 and show it with ten-frames.  Is that clear?  Then they roll the number cubes again and have a different number with a different task.  I didn’t make a recording sheet, because our kiddos would put the work in their math journals.

I did, however, make several versions of the sheet so you can customize it.  Click here to grab yours!  If you download it, I’d love for you to comment.  🙂

Check out this post for a new version for fractions!

65 Comments

  1. Tammy

    What a simple yet clever game. Thanks.
    ❀ Tammy
    Forever in First

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Thanks, Tammy! I love simplicity. 🙂

      Reply
    • Lori B

      Donna, this is great. I teach ElEd math methods to undergraduate students. I shared your blog with my students because I wanted them to know where they could find good, solid math resources to help support their lessons. Thank you for taking the time to share. I follow you on Pintetest and Facebook. Lori Bjork.

      Reply
  2. Mr. C

    Very nice. It could be used for multiplication too.

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Absolutely! There are so many ways to use it! That’s why I included blank ones.

      Reply
  3. Cindy Calenti

    The math ideas you share are wonderful! Thank you for your knowledge.:)

    Cindy
    Granny Goes to School

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Thanks, Cindy! I so enjoy doing it, and I’m glad it’s useful!

      Reply
  4. missmc2

    Once again you’ve made my teaching life better and my students’ understanding deeper! I’m looking forward to making our class’ rollin with robots once conference days are over.

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Thanks! I get such a kick out of comments like that! Good luck with conferences. 🙂

      Reply
  5. Kate

    Thank you for sharing such a wonderful differentiated resource!

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      My pleasure, Kate!

      Reply
  6. Amy B

    LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Amy Burton

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Thanks, Amy! You know I love having your stamp of approval! 🙂

      Reply
  7. Michelle

    Always love your ideas, Donna. This can be used in so many ways throughout the year for review and practice. Thanks!!

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Thanks, Michelle! Like I said, when I saw it used for science, I thought of all kinds of applications for math!

      Reply
  8. Jennifer

    Wow, love the review options with this one… wondering the structure of the recording. Any hints you can share? Thanks for the freebie!!

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      I would probably have them write the number and then to the side write their response to the task. So it might look like:

      14 Even
      13 23, 33, 43, 53, 63
      12 8 more to make 20

      Make sense?

      Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Okay, there were supposed to be spaces:

      14………………..Even
      13………………..23, 33, 43, 53, 63
      12………………..8 more to make 20

      Reply
  9. Teacher and Life Long Learner

    Again you amaze me!!!!!!

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Sweet comment! It’s just something I love doing. 🙂

      Reply
  10. Randy Sue McKeever

    Wow! Thank you so much for sharing! I have a spec educ class and this makes this activity so adaptable and easy to differentiate! You always amaze me!

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Glad it’s useful for your kiddos!! Thanks for commenting. 🙂

      Reply
  11. Tiffany Slocum

    This is great! Thank you!

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      You’re so welcome, Tiffany!

      Reply
  12. Claire

    Thanks. This is going to be great for my below grade level learners.

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Glad to hear it! And it’s so flexible that you could probably use versions with all your kiddos.

      Reply
  13. Brandon

    Thank you for such a great resource!

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      You’re welcome, Brandon! 🙂

      Reply
  14. Erika

    Thank you for sharing this! It’s a great resource to review my kiddo’s math skills as we come back to school! 🙂

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      I hope they enjoy it and that your back to school goes well. 🙂

      Reply
  15. Amy

    Thanks for the great idea! We will learning about solid shapes next week. I plan to use the customizable version to promote the exploration of 3d shapes. I will list the shape name in the left column and tasks in the right column (How many vertices? Is the solid stackable?) I will make the solid manipulatives available and part of the game by asking them to find the solid to match the name before completing the task. I’m sure this will make that extra vocabulary practice more fun!

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      I LOVE this idea! I’m going to share it with my 2nd grade teachers. Thanks so much!

      Reply
  16. T Bell

    This is brilliant. Thank you so much. I love the fact that this is simple, yet has so many applications. I can adapt it in so many ways for my homeschooler.
    Your work and generosity is very much appreciated.

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Well, I don’t know about brilliant. Ha ha. Glad you like it, and you’re right–there are lots of applications! 🙂

      Reply
  17. Lori B

    Great Job. I teach el ed math methods. I shared your blog with my students. You provide good, solid math resources. Thank you for taking the extra time to share them with us!

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Thanks so much for the sweet comment, Lori!! Glad you find my posts useful enough to share. 🙂

      Reply
  18. Busy B

    Thanks for sharing! Your site is by far the best for great math ideas for my classroom!

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      You’re totally welcome! Thanks for the kind compliment. 🙂

      Reply
  19. Linda Downs

    Thank you so much. Your items are always so useful and I appreciate that you make many of them free. I work part time for a private school and the pay is minimal. However, I love what I’m doing and after 27 years in public school, the smaller class sizes are wonderful. Thanks again for all you do to help teachers.

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Thanks so much for your kind words, Linda! I love providing free resources and I’m so glad you find them helpful. 🙂

      Reply
  20. Patricia Jeska

    Thank you. I am having so much fun doing these kinds of activities with my first graders.

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      I appreciate you letting me know, Patricia! Always nice to hear what’s going on in classrooms. 🙂

      Reply
  21. Anonymous

    Thanks! I’m going back to 2nd grade after 2 years in 4th and this will be great for math centers I’m goin gto try out.

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Good luck on your transition! 🙂

      Reply
  22. Tess Canet

    When my building level math coach is unavailable, and even when she is, you are a constant “go-to” for me! Thank you so much for your posts and your freebies. You are a life saver!

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Sweet comment, Tess! Thanks so much. 🙂

      Reply
  23. Jbug

    Can’t wait to use this when we go back to school! I <3 heart all your ideas!

    Reply
  24. Anonymous

    The world is a better place with you giving us great Math ideas! My students always enjoy your ideas and stay engaged! THANKS!

    Reply
  25. BMcGraw

    Love this math review… Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  26. Anonymous

    Thank you for sharing! I can’t wait to use this. The blank one will be great for differentiation, as well.

    Reply
  27. mrsrobinsonsroom

    This is perfect! I love the power of number of the day, but this makes it more a game and my kiddos do math games every day for practice of skills. PERFECT!

    Reply
  28. Michelle Stockert

    You make me laugh every time I read, so I came up with….! Thanks for sharing all these wonderful activities. WOW. I have to tell you that I found some frog jumping games at the dollar store and they are tri- colored. We are going to use them like shake and spill games. It immediately came to my mind, so you are transforming my thinking! Yippeee!

    Reply
  29. Laureen Fontaine

    This is great – the kids can’t say they are bored with the same task! Thank you 🙂

    Reply
  30. Christie

    Love this idea! It can be used in so many ways and differentiated so easily. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  31. Nora Epplen

    I think you are a wonderful math teacher. I have used many of your resources that you have so generously shared at no cost. Your students are blessed to have someone so knowledgeable. I have told my colleagues to come check out your blog. You have fans in Ohio 🙂 Thanks!

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Very sweet comment!! Made my morning. 🙂

      Reply
  32. Lori

    So much fun to use numbers and games to practice. Math On!

    Reply
  33. Celinda Crandall

    Love the activity and no complaints about the math or pedagogy, just one comment regarding the dice. Red/green color blindness is the most common, so it’s a color combo to avoid. I often use one white and one colored die—which is also much easier when photocopying or printing sheets.

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Very interesting, Celinda! Thanks for the info! 🙂

      Reply
  34. Debbie Reiblich

    I love this idea. However, when printing, the lines are not showing up.

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Check your PDF printing settings, Debbie. Be sure “Print as Image” is checked. Also, if you are trying to print right from the Google doc, try downloading it first. Hope that helps!

      Reply
  35. Courtney Bielenberg

    I enjoy your posts and use so many of your products! Thank you so much for sharing – this game is sure to be a hit in my 1st and 2nd grade classroom!

    Reply
  36. Debbie

    I love this idea for students to work with numbers and build their number sense. I teach fifth grade and want to adapt this to our work with decimals. Do you have other resources that would work well to help their understanding of place value?

    Reply
    • Donna Boucher

      Here are the search results for ‘place value’ from my blog. There are resources for all grade levels!

      Reply
  37. S Vance

    Thanks so much!

    Reply

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