One of the biggest struggles I had as a first-year 1st grade teacher was math centers! I felt like I spent so much time prepping different math games week after week. Then it took me so long to explain the games to my students and constantly got interrupted at my teacher table when students forgot how to play! I knew I needed to make a change. That’s when I implemented math center routines! I developed consistent routines for my math stations so that students knew what to expect each week. In this post, I’m going to share about our favorite math center routine in 1st grade: Solve the Room!
Keep reading to find out more about this best-selling math centers activity and learn how to implement it in your classroom! Plus grab a FREE set of Solve the Room math task cards!
I created Solve the Room bundles for kindergarten, first grade, and second grade!
- Find Kindergarten Solve the Room here
- Find First Grade Solve the Room Here
- Find 2nd Grade Solve the Room Here
What is Solve the Room?
Solve the Room is an activity that students visit every week during math centers. Each week a tape a set of task cards around the room featuring a math skill I want students to work on or review. When students visit the math center, they grab a recording sheet and clipboard out of the math tub. They walk around the room, search for the task cards, and solve the problems!
Benefits of Solve the Room:
Here are a few reasons we are obsessed with this math center!
💗 Gets students up and moving during math centers – These math activities are perfect for kinesthetic learners because they get to move and learn at the same time!
💗 Solve the Room helps to streamline your math center routine! By doing a set of task cards each week, students will learn the procedures and be able to work independently.
💗 Having this center ready to go will save SO much time when planning and prepping math centers! You can read about my step-by-step process for planning a month of math centers in 10 minutes here!
💗 Students LOVE working at this math center! They get so excited to come in each week and to see the theme of the new cards.
Introducing Solve the Room
Solve the Room is the first math center I teach at the beginning of the year! We practice the procedures whole group first. In 1st grade, I like to start with this Subitizing Activity. Students all get a clipboard and recording sheet and walk around the room quietly looking for the task cards to solve.
Once we launch our math rotations, it becomes a math center students visit every week!
How can I use Solve the Room Every Week?
In my classroom, I use Guided Math to structure my math block. We start with a whole group lesson and then do 3 math rotations each day: Teacher Table, Math Tubs, and Independent/Technology. When students visit the math tub station, they work with 1 math partner and complete 1 tub activity each day.
Solve the Room is always my Tub 1 activity. When it is their turn to visit that tub, They grab a recording sheet and clipboard and walk around the classroom searching for the task cards. They solve the problem on the card and write their answer on the recording sheet. After they finish the activity, they can visit our classroom Grading Station to check their own work (more on that below!)
How Can I organize Solve the Room?
I organize all of my task card sets by month. I love using the Michaels Photo Boxes to organize and store my cards! I use 1-2 boxes for each month and group each set of cards with a rubber band. This makes it easy to pull out a new set each week. If you don’t have the photo boxes, ziplock bags work just as well!
One of my favorite time-saving tips is to use the general recording sheet that goes with all sets of task cards. I like to make a ton of copies at one time and keep it in our Recording Sheet folder. This means I don’t have to go to the copy room every week!
In my Solve the Room bundles I include everything needed to organize and store your solve the room sets: a Task Card Box Cover, Labels for each skill and for each month depending on how you want to organize, and a Recording Sheet Folder Cover!
Time Saving Tips
Here are a few tips to streamline Solve the Room even more!
⭐️ Set up a Grading Station (FREEBIE!) so that students can check their own work.
To help students to be more independent, I started incorporating a grading station into our math routine! When students complete their mat center, they can take their finished work to the grading station. This is a tub that I have set up next to our math shelf in our classroom. They get to be the “teacher” and check their own work! Each set of task cards has an answer key so that students can check their own answers. If they miss any, I have them go back to find the card and try again. Read more about our Grading Station here!
⭐️ Create a student job to put up and take down the task cards each week
I started implementing this a few years after starting Solve the room and it was a game-changer! Instead of me walking around every week and taking down and putting up task cards, I have two students do it for me! At the end of the day on Friday, during snack time, students take down and put up the new cards. We go over appropriate places to put the cards (not too hidden 😜) and how to use the tape! I like to keep my class jobs for a month at a time so students get used to the procedures!
Other Ways to Use Solve the Room?
One of my favorite things about Solve the Room is how versatile on an activity it is! There are so many ways to use task cards in the classroom! I actually wrote a whole blog post about it! You can read it here: 5 Ways to Use Task Cards in the Classroom
Here are just a few ideas:
- Quiz, Quiz, Trade – this is a super fun whole group review game! Read how to play here!
- Use the cards at your small group table
- Fast Finisher Activity: Have a task card drawer
- Keep sets on hand for quick intervention
- Beat the teacher -this is another fun whole group review game
- Do an outdoor Solve the Room
Want to grab Solve the Room for the entire year? Check out this best selling resource!
This bundle includes 40 different sets of standards-based first grade math task cards that can be used in math stations, as a whole class math scoot game, or a Write the Room center.
- Find Kindergarten Solve the Room here
- Find First Grade Solve the Room Here
- Find 2nd Grade Solve the Room Here
Each of the task card sets includes:
- 24 Task Cards
In each Solve the Room pack, I have included 3 versions so you can pick the one that best fits your needs.
- ⭐️ Color- with fun seasonal clipart
- ⭐️B&W- with black line clipart images
- ⭐️Anytime – non-seasonal cards that can be used at any time of the year!
- Recording Sheets
There are several recording sheet templates in this pack. In my classroom, I use the general template. This works for every Solve the Room pack I have created! No need to find and print a new one each week. Just keep a master and copy and you’re good to go! There are also templates included that are specific to this Solve the Room Pack!
- Answer Keys
Here’s what teachers have said:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ LOVE having a set of cards that cover each skill. I love that the entire bundle is the same, so students have consistency in the center each week and there is no need to go over HOW to do the center each week!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️I’ve always struggled with Math Centers, but not anymore with this resource! I love that it offers both color and black/white to print on colored paper options. Amazing resource that includes everything for First Grade all year long! Great investment that will last many years!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ All first grade teachers should get this!! Wow, these are just amazing! Every Monday I hung one set of cards around the room on bright colored paper. During independent work time during math, early finishers would use the recording sheet to find the cards. If they only had time for a few, they had the rest of the week to finish. I usually gave everyone a little more time on Fridays to finish. IT WAS A LIFESAVER for providing a fun challenge for students.
Want to try Solve the Room for free? Grab this free set to try in your classroom!
