"I never knew math could be that fun" exclaimed Joey.
Who knew that gumdrops could make a decagon?
Let me help you count your skittles into groups of 2.
These were just some of the conversations that we (Shelly and I) heard during Math-A-Palooza during the last week of December. Again, I am thankful for my friend, Shelly because she thinks math. Our students had a wonderful time of reviewing and previewing several math strategies.
Practicing place value, the students drew a number out of a bowl and had to build it using graham crackers, pretzel sticks and gum drops. The students then had to write their number on a dry erase board in word form, standard form and expanded form. Finally they got to each their number.
Using their skittles, both first and fifth graders separated them into color groups and recorded how many they had. The first graders built their own bar graph and the fifth graders built a circle graph. They enjoyed this activity and began to have conversations about how the graphs were similar and different.
Bet you can't catch me I am the gingerbread man! This station focused on measuring. The first graders used the large gingerbread man and the fifth graders used the smaller one right under the measuring tape in the photo. First the first graders had to measure the stage and record their results. Next the fifth grader measure the stage but had to predict first based on the results of the first grader's measurement. Finally, they had to measure themselves using the measuring tape and predicting how many gingerbread men that would be. It was fun to listen to the conversations about how the two gingerbread were connected in size.
If you teach intermediate and you don't have math buddies, I strongly encourage you to try and find a primary class to buddy up with for 2013. If you're lucky enough to find Shelly who loves math that is the best present of all!
One of my goals this year is to focus on "rich" math problems. We are discussing rich problems during my math professional development (PD) and discussing different strategies to help students think about problem solving differently. During vertical grade level conversations, I was talking Shelly, a first grade teacher. Shelly is super smart about math because she understands elementary math because she has taught 4th grade and is now teaching first grade. I always learn some new instructional ideas that I can take away and apply to my classroom.
She recently asked if our classes could be math buddies, so yesterday we joined her class to focus on measurement. Both sets of students traced their foot and cut it out for their pattern. My class loved this activity and was a little surprised when that was their morning seat work. Then I let them know that we were going to have first grade math buddies-they were super excited! Once we were in the first grade room, the students measured their foot by using cubes known as "units." As you can see from the picture, the students were then challenged to find a set of feet that were between 40-50 units. This was interesting to observe all of the different strategies that the mixed groups chose.
*Some groups added all the units for one large unit. (picture above)
*Several groups used the 100 chart to add the value of each foot.
*A few groups added them together which was a HUGE step for first graders.
*One group split the feet into pairs and then added them.
I am super excited that our 5th graders are going to have math buddies this year-let the exploration begin.
