[Our March math activities are available for third, fourth, and fifth grade.]
March is normally when I start to panic about making sure my students are prepared for the state testing at the end of the year. I run a ton of copies of practice tests and have students take practice tests online as well. Even though I feel more confident my students will be prepared, test prep does tend to leave us all wanting a bit more excitement.
This March, treat your 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade students to some fun while still maintaining math skills practice. Hand out Leprechaun Number Riddles to brighten a Monday morning, or run off copies of cootie catchers as a fun Friday afternoon activity to reward all their hard work for the week. Don’t worry, they’ll still be practicing their math skills as they chase the evasive paper leprechaun.
As you plan out your math block for March, save room for these great activities to keep students engaged and asking for more.
Let’s take a closer look at what March’s print and go math bundles include!
- Leprechaun Number Riddles
- Spring Grids & Graphing
- Daylight Saving Time Logic Puzzle
- Hidden Treasure Shapes
- St. Patrick’s Day Cootie Catcher
- St. Patrick’s Day Symmetry
- Lion & Lamb Fraction Cards
- Area & Perimeter Spring Garden Beds
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1. Leprechaun Number Riddles
If you love word play and riddles as much as me, you’re sure to enjoy this activity. These tricky leprechauns have hidden letters in their gold coins. Students must first solve each number riddle, then use the answers to solve the main riddle.
Aside from being engaging, this activity gets students to flex their math reasoning muscles and use a wide variety of math skills including rounding, place value, number forms, operations, and more!
3rd Grade:
Use number clues to solve a riddle
• rounding, even/odd, place value, operations
•• harder clues
4th Grade:
Use number clues to solve a riddle
• rounding, place value, prime/composite, operations
•• harder clues
5th Grade:
Use number clues to solve a riddle
• rounding, place value, comparisons, operations with decimals
•• harder clues
2. Spring Grids & Graphing
Fun! Fun Fun! Sometimes you just need a fun coloring activity. The 3rd grade version begins with pre-graphing skills where students use letter and number grids to find items in a garden. In the higher level, students color a picture based on a key using the number/letter grids.
4th graders locate and graph on a coordinate grid, with the x-axis having letters and y-axis having numbers. This helps eliminate confusion and gets students ready for coordinate grid graphing in 5th grade.
5th graders work in one quadrant using ordered pairs to locate and plot points, then draw and color a picture. See image above.
3rd Grade:
Use a letter and number grid to find and color images
• locate places on a grid
•• color in a grid according to a key
4th Grade:
Use a coordinate grid with letters and number to locate items and plots points on a graph
• locate places on a coordinate grid with numbers and letters
•• plot points on a number/letter coordinate grid and color a picture
5th Grade:
Use a coordinate grids to locate items and plot points on a graph
• locate places on a coordinate grid with ordered pairs
•• plot points with ordered pairs to draw and color a picture
3. Daylight Saving Time Logic Puzzle
Yes! Another logic puzzle! Does Daylight Saving Time always mess with your schedule? In this activity, students use clues to help a teacher with the daily agenda for their classroom.
Teacher-Tip: Have students use clocks to help with elapsed time.
3rd Grade:
Use clues about elapsed time to fill out a daily classroom schedule.
• 6 agenda items
•• 9 agenda items & times
4th Grade:
Use clues with minutes and simple fractions of an hour to fill out a daily classroom schedule
• 6 agenda items & times
•• 9 agenda items & times
5th Grade:
Use clues with minutes and hours in decimal form to fill out a daily classroom schedule
• 6 agenda items & times
•• 9 agenda items & times
4. Hidden Treasure Shapes
This activity is perfect for a quick review of geometry vocabulary. All vocabulary words are provided and students will need to fill in the blanks to make all the statements true.
BONUS: A word search at the end is the perfect activity for your early finishers to practice their vocabulary.
Teacher-Tip: Got 5 minutes? Play Geometry 20 Questions. Have a student think of a shape. Students take turns asking yes or no questions until the shape is guessed.
3rd Grade:
Fill in blanks about shapes and special quadrilaterals.
Find vocabulary in a word search
• shapes by number of sides
•• special types of quadrilaterals
4th Grade:
Fill in blanks about types of triangles based on angles and side lengths
Find vocabulary in a word search
• shows same and different side lengths
•• no side lengths shown
5th Grade:
Fill in blanks about quadrilaterals in a hierarchy
Find vocabulary in a word search
• shapes are shown
•• no shapes shown
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5. St. Patrick’s Day Cootie Catcher
Search for a tricky a leprechaun with a cootie catcher! Start with a color, do some math, do some more math, then check to see if you can catch that sneaky leprechaun. 7 times out of 8 you will just miss the sneaky leprechaun, but get lucky (or play long enough) and you’ll catch him for sure!
3rd Grade:
• skip counting
•• division facts
4th Grade:
• factors
•• prime or composite
5th Grade:
• 2 step operations with parentheses
•• 3 step operations with parentheses
6. St. Patrick’s Day Symmetry
While symmetry is specifically a fourth grade standard, it doesn’t hurt to get started in 3rd grade or review in 5th. In the lower level of this activity students will identify or draw lines of symmetry on St. Patrick’s Day themed images. In the higher level, students will practice drawing the second half of an image.
The best part is that at the top of each page there is a review and examples of symmetry, so you don’t have to worry if you haven’t covered the concept yet.
Teacher-Tip: Create a hands-on symmetry activity with pattern blocks. Draw a straight line down the middle of a blank piece of paper. Create a design on one side of the line and swap with a partner to create the other half symmetrically.
3rd Grade:
Identify correct lines of symmetry and draw the other half of a shape
• identify lines of symmetry
•• draw 2nd half of images
4th Grade:
Identify and draw lines of symmetry and draw the other half of a shape
• draw lines of symmetry
•• draw 2nd half of images
5th Grade:
Draw lines of symmetry and draw the other half of a shape
• draw and determine how many lines of symmetry
•• draw 2nd half of images
7. Lion & Lamb Fraction Cards with 3 Different Games
Each grade level plays the same 3 games with a different set of 80 cards depending on the grade. Third grade focuses on recognizing fractions, fourth grade on tenths and hundredths as fractions and decimals, and fifth on improper fractions and their mixed number equivalents.
The first game, Go Sheep, is like the classic Go Fish. Players take turns asking for a particular fraction and making matches in pairs.
The second game is played liked Memory, but called Forgetful Lambs. All or some of the cards are placed face down and players take turns flipping two cards looking for matches. This also makes a great solo game!
The third game is a bit more complicated and fast paced. Wild Lions is played like Spoons, where there are no turns and you have to find all four matching cards. Lions are wild cards, and if you pay close attention you can win even if you don’t have a set of four!
Teacher-Tip: You can also use these cards for simple sorting at a math center, ordering from greatest to least, or even have students make up their own games!
3rd Grade:
Fraction cards in sets of four (fraction, number line, image, word form)
• match 2 fractions
•• match all 4 fractions
4th Grade:
Fraction and decimal cards in sets of four (fraction, decimal, image, word form)
• match 2 fractions/decimals
•• match all 4 fractions/decimals
5th Grade:
Improper fraction and mixed number cards in sets of four (improper fraction, mixed number, image, number line)
• match 2 improper fractions/mixed numbers
•• match all 4 improper fractions/mixed numbers
8. Area & Perimeter Spring Garden Beds
It’s time to garden! This is a great activity to practice or review area and perimeter. Students will cut out the rectangles at the bottom of the page and sort them to match according to their perimeter or area.
3rd Grade:
Match fruits and veggies based on their area and perimeter
• Area or perimeter given with rectangular grids
•• Same area, different perimeter or same perimeter, different area with rectangular grids
4th Grade:
Match fruits and veggies based on their area and perimeter
• area or perimeter with missing dimension
•• area or perimeter word problems
5th Grade:
Match fruits and veggies based on their fractional area
• match shading on rectangular grids to given area
•• shade to find area and fill in blanks
View the Grade Level Bundles
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Enjoy each of these activities with your students until next month when more math goodies arrive!
- Monthly themed games, puzzles, crafts, coloring, and more!
- 2 levels for differentiation
- BW & Color
- Answer Keys
- 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade bundles!
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