Try This: Start Math Menu with Games They'll Want to Play

If you're kicking off Math Menu for the first time this year, don't start with everything at once. Start with games. It's one of the lowest-lift entry points: a quick one-time print-and-cut for the deck, then no more prep needed all year. Your students already love game time, and once they've got the routine down, you can swap the deck or the dice later to teach something entirely different.This week, try: Salute!
Next week, try: Three in a Row

Same rules, same "Salute!" cue your students will learn once, but underneath, you're building a structure that grows with them all year. Start with basic addition facts in September, and by spring you could be using the exact same game to practice multiplication, integers, or decimals. Nothing to relearn except the math itself.

Salute Versions

• ALN Menu Game - Salute (Additive)
• ALN Menu Game - Double Digit Salute!
• ALN Menu Game - Salute (Multiplicative)
• ALN Menu Game - Fraction Salute
• ALN Menu Game - Integer Salute (Additive)
• ALN Menu Game - Integer Salute (Multiplicative)

Three in a Row Versions

• ALN Menu Game - Three in a Row Addition
• ALN Menu Game - Three in a Row Double Digit Addition
• ALN Menu Game - Three in a Row Triple Digit Addition
• ALN Menu Game - Three in a Row Decimal Addition
• ALN Menu Game - Three in a Row Doubles
• ALN Menu Game - Three in a Row Multiplication
• ALN Menu Game - Three in a Row (Multiplication - x2, x3, x4, x5, x10)
• ALN Menu Game - Three in a Row (Multiplication - x6, x7, x8, x9, x12)

Suggested Cadence

Week 1: Introduce Salute (or Double Digit Salute)
Week 2: Introduce Three in a Row
Week 3+: Move into full Math Menu rotation, once students are comfortable with the routine

Try this with AI Math Coach:

Copy and paste this prompt into AI Math Coach and fill in the blanks:

See it in action:

A 3rd grade teacher introduced Double Digit Salute during the first week of Math Menu, using it to reinforce two-digit addition and subtraction within her place value unit. She sent AI Math Coach this prompt:

AI Math Coach suggested she listen for whether students referenced tens and ones explicitly (e.g., "the total is 78, you have 48, so I need 3 more tens and 0 more ones") versus counting up one at a time, and offered two go-to questions: "How did the tens digit help you figure that out?" and "Could you show your thinking using a number line or base-ten blocks?" She noticed several students defaulting to counting on by ones, which told her exactly where to focus her next mini-lesson on decomposing by place value.

Already planning ahead: Later in the year, once her students move into multiplication facts, she'll swap the same game structure to Salute (Multiplicative), same routine, same "Salute!" cue, just a new card deck and a new operation.

Time investment: 1 minute to send the prompt; the insight came free during the game itself.

Try one game this week, no new materials to make once your deck is printed. Just deal the cards and watch what your students already know.

Ready to try it?