Math rich motivation

I've been think a lot about what I can do to make my room more math friendly. One of my students made me realize the other day that it really doesn't require a lot of purchasing of materials or cutting, glueing, and laminating of things to make my students think about math.

I was working with my 4th grade students on memorizing the pattern for there 9 facts and had put them on the white board to practice with.

At the end of the day one of my 1st grade students came in for check out and asked to be able to write on the board as his reward for having an all smile day. All of my kids like to earn privleges like that rewards.

This is what he drew:

They have been working on exclamation points in class.

While his pattern isn't perfect, it made me realize that he is eager to learn, and that just seeing the 9 facts written on the board sparked his interest in number patterns.

Got to love low tech, uncomplicated learning aids.