Fast forward a year… and I am a huge Boom Learning fan! There are so many uses for boom cards in education, but I think boom cards for math can be most helpful for educators. There are so many possibilities for skill reinforcement and repetition, but in a fun and engaging format! 

If you are wondering how to use boom cards and why they are so helpful, then read on… I’m about to get into the nitty-gritty of why boom cards can be such important math tools. Make sure to read to the bottom for my list of what to look for when buying Boom Decks!

(Looking for Boom Cards to help with Fact Fluency? This Math Facts to 10 Bundle breaks down math facts into groups so that your students can master them sooner!)

What Are Boom Cards and How Do They Work?

The first thing you’ll need to know is how to get started and how to use Boom Cards. Boom Cards are accessed through the Boom Learning website. Here, you can set up a free teacher account where you can see and assign decks to your students. A free account allows you to assign decks to as many students as you like by giving them a special “pin” to access. 

Boom Cards also has a premium version, which allows you to have multiple classrooms and keep track of student data. You can try a free version of the premium version here to try it out.

How To Use Boom Cards

Once you’ve got an account (free or paid), you can start looking for Boom Decks that you’d like to use with your students! These are a set of task cards practicing a certain skill. Students answer using the interactive features of Boom Cards. Sometimes they have to drag and drop, sometimes they have to click on the correct answer, or sometimes they have to type something in.

You can assign different decks to different students. Some decks are free, and others need to be purchased. All of the decks you have downloaded will show up in your library for you to get the special “pin” to send so that students can access them.

Students can use a computer or tablet to access the decks you have assigned them. There is also a Boom cards app that they can be downloaded for them to have easy access to their decks.

All Types of Learners       

One of the very best advantages of using Boom Cards in education is that they can reach students with a variety of different needs. Their interactive nature helps students stay engaged, and also helps them learn using multiple modes. This is perfect for math — it can be so hard to address all students and their needs with a single curriculum.

For example, many Boom Cards have audio on every slide that reads the directions aloud. Some cards might have drag and drop features that are great for highly visual learners. And finally, the keyboard interaction helps kinesthetic learners have hands-on opportunities. 

In fact, I’ve found that using Boom Cards for math is often a favorite practice activity in my classroom. My students love using the iPads to do their Boom decks – even the students who struggle with math!

Repetition and Self-Checking

Boom Cards naturally provide the repetition that students need to master many math skills, especially fact fluency. As students work through Boom Decks (which can include dozens of task cards), they are gaining repetition and practice. 

High quality Boom Decks will provide practice with the same skill using several different modes of understanding. This keeps engagement high during repetition and gives the student a well-rounded knowledge of the concepts.

Furthermore, the self-checking aspect allows students to know right away if they got an answer right or wrong. If they got it wrong, they can redo the same question until they get it right. Or they can press “skip” and come back to it later. This immediate feedback helps students in their learning process, and they can immediately try to fix errors as they go.

Choosing the Right Decks

When looking for the Boom Cards for math, here are some things to look for to help ensure your students will be highly engaged:

• Focus on a specific skill: Boom Decks that have a little bit of everything aren’t as effective as decks that help your students focus on mastering one skill at a time. Look for a set of decks that breaks things down into bite-sized pieces so that your students are getting the reinforcement they need.

• Offers multiple modes of learning: I love finding decks that provide several types of practice for one skill. These can help students who may need multiple modes of learning to understand new things.

• Bright, colorful graphics: Some teachers might not put this high on their priority list, but I think that having Boom Decks that draw kids in with pleasing colors and graphics is hugely helpful, especially for our more reluctant learners!

Data for the Teachers

Finally, I want to talk about how to use the provided data. If you opt for the premium account, you get access to all your student data. This can be useful in providing you with different insights into how your student are doing.

For example, you can see if they show improvement with the same deck over time. You can also see which cards they are having trouble with, to help you find specific skills they need more practice with. The data will also show overall how your class is performing, which can help you adjust your lesson planning throughout the school year.

Boom Cards in Education

While Boom Cards definitely had their moment in the spotlight during the pandemic, I believe they still deserve a place in everyday learning. I have found again and again that they can be a highly engaging and very effective way for students to get extra practice with new math concepts and skills.

How will you use Boom Cards in your classroom? Let me know in the comments! 
xoxo 
Laura

Resources For You:

Articles For You:

10 Ways To Have Fun With Math Facts – Yes, It’s Really Possible!

Math Activities 1st Grade Students Absolutely Love

5 Color by Number Worksheet Tips To Actually Help Students With Math

The post What Are Boom Cards And How They Make Math Fun appeared first on Love Grows Learning.

Here are my top tips for using color by number worksheet packets to help your students actually get better at math!

In a pinch and looking for something ready-to-go? My color by number worksheet pack is designed to help students master their sums to 10 in a sequential and strategic way. Snag it here.

Tip 1: Choose a Skill To Practice

If you want your color by number worksheets to be effective, you need to have a plan for which skill you are trying to help your students learn.

The most common skill to target is math fact fluency. This is such an important skill for students across all grades to be working on, and color by number math worksheets are certainly a valid source of fluency practice. So depending on your grade level, you can decide if you want your students to be working on math facts with sums to 10, or maybe subtraction, or maybe early multiplication facts. I love using these to help my students learn their addition math facts to 10.

Tip 2: Get Specific

Okay, so let’s say you want your students to practice their addition math facts to 10. Now you need to get even more specific. Which fact fluency skill are you going to zero in on? 

Are your students still learning one more and one less? Did you just teach ways to make 10 and your students need extra practice? The more specific you are, the more meaningful the practice will be. Printing off any old “addition color by number worksheet” is not really going to help your students. But if you find a “doubles and doubles plus one facts color by number worksheet” because that’s what you’re teaching right now – that is going to be helpful!

Possible Specific Skills To Target:

• Identifying Numbers to 10
• Adding 1 or Subtracting 1
• Adding Doubles and Doubles Plus 1 under 10
• Ways to Make 8, 9, and 10
• Subtracting 1 and 2
• Multiplying 1, 2, and 3
• Multiples of 4
• Etc…

You can see those skills get pretty darn specific – as in, they are specific to one or two lessons you would teach. 

This is truly where the gold lies with color by number math worksheets – when you can align them with a specific skill you are teaching at the time.

Tip 3: Teach the Strategy First

Once you know which skill you are targeting, you need to make sure that you first teach the necessary strategies. In other words, the color by number worksheets are a source of application and practice – They certainly aren’t a replacement for your math lesson.

For example, if I want my students to get more practice with one more and one less, I need to first teach them a lesson with several strategies to solve one more and one less problems. For example, we could practice counting up or down on a number line, and then in our heads. Maybe we practice drawing a dot as we count up or down one. Or we practice using our fingers to help us go up or down. Once we’ve gone over these strategies, then I can use the color by number printables as a way to practice these strategies. 

Skipping this step will unfortunately lead to the color by number worksheets becoming meaningless busy work. We don’t want students left to their own devices to find ways to solve each problem on the worksheet. We want them practicing the strategies we taught them!

Tip 4: Differentiate Your Color By Number Worksheet Packs

Inevitably, even if you are teaching the same strategies and skills to all your students, they are going to end up in different places and have different needs. 

One of the best ways to make color by number worksheets a meaningful tool is to differentiate them for your students.

This means different students will be working on different worksheets, depending on which math skills they are currently mastering. One way to do this is to have different sets of color by number worksheets that get progressively harder. Each worksheet set should target a different fluency skill (probably in the order they were taught). Then as students demonstrate mastery with one set of worksheets, they can graduate to the next. 

I find that if I have these worksheets ready to go, it’s easy to have students working on different things. When a student finishes one set, I check to see they’ve reached a good level of independence with that skill. Then I can just hand them the next set.

Tip 5: Change It Up!

Let’s be honest, doing the same thing over and over again can get boring! Even if you have an endless supply of cute pictures for your color by number worksheets, eventually students are going to get tired of doing the same activity.

So even though we’ve established some great habits for making color by number worksheet packs an effective part of your math teaching, we also want to mix in some variety for students.

Did you know that there are lots of different types of color by number printable worksheets? Most people think of a clipart picture divided into different sections that you slowly color in to reveal the image. But there are lots more!

There are secret messages, mazes, pixel pictures, riddles, hidden paths, and probably even more that I don’t know about! Mixing and matching these options will keep students loving their color by number work, even if you’ve been using them all year long.

Color By Number Worksheets Rock!

Hopefully, you now have some great ideas for how to use those super cute color by number worksheet packs you’ve been saving! As long as you’re aligning them with your curriculum and your students’ needs, you can rest assured they are benefiting your students and helping them get stronger with their math skills.

In a pinch and looking for something ready-to-go? My color by number worksheet pack is designed to help students maBy Number Worksheet Pack!

It's already broken down by skill, differentiated into three different parts, and has loads of variety.ster their sums to 10 in a sequential and strategic way. Snag it here.

What do you think? Will you be trying out some color by number worksheets with your students this year? Let me know in the comments!
xoxo
Laura

You may also be interested in:

Math Activities 1^st Grade Students Will Love

What Are Number Bonds and Why Are They So Important?

How To Use Color By Number In The Classroom And Not Feel Guilty

The post 5 Color by Number Worksheet Tips To Actually Help Students With Math appeared first on Love Grows Learning.