Plus Sign, Minus Sign, and Equal Sign

    Of course my goal as a teacher is for students to learn, but my father once told me that all teachers should inspire students to want to learn. I love that idea. I want my students to want to learn. School should be fun and exciting. 

    I used to visit Disneyland with my parents during the summer because my grandparents lived near there. I remember the rides, smells, food, and most of all the fun family memories. Disney knew how to attract kids and make an experience for each guest. When I think of wanting to go somewhere, even as an adult, I think of Disneyland. 

    What makes me want to go back? I had an experience. I got to laugh, scream, and be a kid. I loved the smell of all the sweets, the music that I knew every word to, the stories for each character, and where all my favorite rides were.  

    Can I take a tip from Mr. Disney as a teacher and create an amazing experience for each student? That's the idea. Fun and learning at the same time. If I could memorize every song from my favorite cartoons, can I create a classroom where experiences help students remember? I'm gonna give it my best try. 

     Planning for the beginning of next year has been fun. When I was able to get a hold of the curriculum, I sat down and created a year plan (It's a work in progress). This will probably change over time, but the goal was to align the social Studies and science curriculum to match a theme that we will be going through in language arts. 

    My first theme is space and it all goes so well together. We will be studying Creation with the Encounter Curriculum, Ellen Ochoa in language arts, and By Design (Science) chapter 8 and then 7. I've discovered in science and social studies we can move chapters around a bit, not like math and language arts where the concepts build on each other. 

    I want to decorate my room completely space themed (will post when done) and felt like my math needed to match the theme. I am really big on teaching math vocabulary to students as I feel like if they don't know and understand these terms they will have a very hard time when deciphering word problems. 

    The first three vocabulary review words for 1st grade are plus sign, equal sign, and minus sign in Big Ideas Math, the NAD curriculum. I want the kids up and moving as much as possible so I have created rockets with each of the three math symbols that I will print on cardstock, laminate, and attach a tongue depressor. I need to make a set for each student. I'm going to call out vocabulary words that go along with each sign and have students hold up the correct rocket. 

    I plan on extending this activity by adding words that they would hear in a word problem for each symbol. I would like to call a student to give words and maybe see how fast everyone can get their sign up. 

I have put this up as a FREE resource on TPT. You can find it here. 

    The kids could do this with less work but I want to make them feel like they are in space or at least imagine that they are. I imagine that I will use them again if I need to review or refresh their memories.