About
Are you looking for a way to reinforce addition and subtraction in an engaging way that helps your students make connections? “Storm Chasers” is a real-life math project where students will complete ten different tasks, each one focusing on addition and subtraction to 1,000 and 10,000 in a real-life context. This project will help your students see how addition and subtraction is used in real life.
Ideas for Use
Math projects are an ideal way to consolidate learning. I recommend using them as an engaging activity AFTER skills have been learned rather than during learning. You will likely find that engagement is very high and that your students ask to do more of these!
There are many ways to use math projects in your classroom. Some of the most popular are:
•a small-group or pairs activity
•a guided math activity to allow you to see where your students are struggling
•a fun, rewarding way to engage your early finishers
•a low-prep, easy-to-implement activity for a substitute teacher
You might choose to print specific tasks to use during Math centers, or you might make a booklet out of all of the tasks and let your students choose which one to do when.
This resource is included in PDF format for printing and in Google Slides™️ format for digital learning. This makes it useable with Google Classroom™️.
What's Included?
Take a look at what you’ll find inside this math project:
TASK #1: YOU’RE A STORM CHASER!
After years of scientific research, you are ready to begin your career as a storm chaser! Let’s brainstorm some things that you might be doing in this new job.
TASK #2: TORNADO!
Your radar is showing that conditions are just right for a tornado! This is the moment that storm chasers like you wait for. You need to get to the storm as quickly as you can!
Skills: addition on a number line, time
TASK #3: TORNADO DATA
Wow! That was like nothing you have ever experienced. Not only did you make it in time to see the tornado touch down, but you were able to gather a lot of new data.
Skills: interpreting data from a chart, line graph, problem solving
TASK #4: DEVASTATION
Even though tornados and storms excite you, you must remember they sometimes cause a lot of damage to people’s property. Let’s take a look at the damage that was done to one farm in the area.
Skills: money, rounding to nearest 100, estimates vs actual, three-digit addition/subtraction, making 1000
TASK #5: ENCOUNTERING OBSTACLES
As you drive into a storm, you encounter all sorts of danger such as hail, low visibility, and pounding rain. Solve the problems.
Skills: problem-solving, money
TASK #6: TOTAL RAINFALL
Part of your job is tracking the rainfall. This helps you better understand weather patterns. Let’s take a look at some of your data from this week.
Skills: finding unknowns using addition/subtraction, interpreting data, using a chart/table, rounding to the nearest 10
TASK #7: WEATHER JOKES
Being a storm chaser means that your friends are ALWAYS telling you weather jokes. Here are a few you’ve heard recently.
Skills: addition and subtraction within 1000
TASK #8: TORNADO ALLEY
Tornado Alley is an area in the USA where tornados occur frequently. Let’s use a hundred chart to learn about the storms in Tornado Alley this year.
Skills: patterns in a hundred chart, problem solving
TASK #9: BREAKING RECORDS
It’s been a record year for thunderstorms! Let’s take a look at how many storms there were this summer in the country.
Skills: picture graph, interpreting data, multiples of 1000, ordering and comparing
TASK #10: STORM CHASING EXPENSES
Storm chasing is an expensive job. You have to spend money on vehicles, fuel, and equipment and there is never a guarantee that you will even see the storm. Let’s compare the amount that you’ve spent on the last three tornados.
Skills: addition, subtraction, ordering, problem solving
What Teachers Are Saying
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Students loved this resource over distance ed. Having math in context makes it so much more interesting, especially when it can be tied to other curriculum outcomes in science, socials, reading, etc. I will use this year after year. Highly recommend." Coffee Girl
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "I used this resource with my 3rd grade students as part of our weather unit. I love that this resource is cross curricular in the sense that it combines both science and math standards. Also rigorous enough to challenge students in their math skills." Shelby R.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "At the end of the year, we were reading the book Storm Runners. This was a great tie in to that book. I used this for a review activity the last week of our long year of remote learning. It worked well for students to be able to guide themselves through. They felt accomplished with being able to complete most of this on their own." Heather H.
