Math Monday - More Pinterest Inspiration

In my quest for balance, I decided to take a mini-break from the blogging world.  I missed it like crazy and am ready to share some of the incredible teaching and learning that I have been a part of recently.  I am linking up with the incredible, Deirdre, from A Burst of First, for today's Math Monday.

Recently, I have taken a step away from our district adopted math curriculum to build the foundational skills that I know my students need.  I decided to search through my pin boards for number sense and fact fluency ideas, and BOY-OH-BOY did I find a ton of great ideas.

It was hard to determine just where to start, but after some organizing I decided to create a few sets of Power Towers (I am super bummed that I can't find the original source).  This activity was very simple to make and has been a hit.

I picked up an enormous back of Dixie Cups from Costco and got to work.  This set is made up of +1 and -1 facts.  I simply wrote the facts on the bottom of several cups.  To make them self-checking, I added the answer inside of each cup.  That is it, well at least on the prep end of things.
My kiddos now use them during math centers.  If they correctly answer a fact they can use the cup as a building piece to their tower.  If they answer the fact wrong they can ask a buddy for help or place the cup at the bottom of their stack and try again.  It is so incredible listening to them whisper their facts and get excited for how tall their towers are.  I can't wait to introduce the sight word Power Towers this week.

I would love to hear about a math activity you use to build fact fluency.