5 Low-Floor High-Ceiling Math Tasks: Second Grade Building Thinking Classrooms Tasks

Post may contain affiliate links.

When starting the Building Thinking Classrooms framework, the most challenging part can be finding tasks that work for 1st grade. Let’s talk about some of my most loved, bestselling 2nd grade math tasks. 

Each task has an original task, and thin-sliced follow-up tasks designed to be completed within the same problem-solving session. Each thin slice is a little more challenging than the previous one, perfect for groups who tend to finish early. After students have completed the task, they have either 3 differentiated levels of a check your understanding follow-up tasks, or a game or activity to reinforce the learning, perfect for consolidation or a lesson wrap-up.

These tasks cover a range of topics like composing shapes, addition and subtraction to 20, measuring objects with nonstandard units, graphing with up to four categories, and numbers to 120!

Money

In this task, Charlie has opened a lemonade stand and wants to make 2 dollars in sales! Each thin slice gives a different price. Charlie is charging per glass. Your students need to figure out how many glasses he would need to sell to make 2 dollars at each price point. 

As the check-your-understanding task, your students need to figure out how many glasses Charlie would need to sell to make 3, 5, or 10 dollars! This task also includes an optional note-taking sheet where students do a quick fill-in-the-blank to consolidate their knowledge of coins and their values, and reflect on the strategies their group used and other groups used for their future self. 

Arrays, Repeated Addition, and Equal Groups Task

In this task, your students have a dream of opening an ice cream shop called the Whirl’d of Swirls, but instead of starting with a shop, they start with an ice cream cart and work up to the shop with each thin slice. 

At the ice cream cart, they can prepare up to 3 ice cream cones with up to 5 scoops each. After they finish all the ice cream cart orders, they can move on to the ice cream truck and prepare more cones, and eventually move on to their ice cream shop! 

Partitioning Shapes Math Task 

In this task, your students are helping the Dough-licious Pizzeria! Their customers are very particular about how they want their circular or rectangular pizzas partitioned. Your students will show how they would partition the pizzas among 2, 3, are 4 sharers for a variety of pizza orders.

2-Step Subtraction Within 100 Math Task

In this 2-step subtraction problem, your students are in the jungle and need to figure out how many animals are left when some go away, and some more go away. This task is a great opportunity to explore different strategies of subtraction within 100!

Skip Counting by 5, 10, and 100 to 1000 Math Task

In this task, your students are helping the “Orange” You Sweet Orange Factory. They have gift baskets available for purchase of either 5, 10, or 100 oranges. Each new order is a thin slice that increases in difficulty or value, and your students need to figure out how many oranges are needed for each order.

You can save on all of these tasks, or be set with tasks for each common core standard here!