Celebrating "Thinking Puzzles" on Friday has been a huge part of my students math class this year. I have a box of thinking puzzles. They are puzzles that typically have 6-8 pieces and when placed together correctly form a square or triangle. I originally purchased these for "back in the day" when I used to do centers in the morning. However, I needed to find time on Friday especially for small group reteaching. Finding "time" is so hard for me in math class because we switch students, and I only have my students for an hour a day. Not that I want more time to teach math, but I have had a difficult time finding time for both ends of the spectrum-reteaching and enrichment.
I have pulled out my bag of tricks for math for third trimester and every Friday we have spent 20-30 minutes allowing students to choose from the math tub. An unexpected surprise for me was that students wanted the time to choose a math activity, so I noticed some improvements on their math papers. I typically had 2-3 small groups that needed a review of a specific skill that week or I would enrich students who had been extremely successful during the week. The two pictures on this page are students who continued week after week working on their thinking puzzle and finally completed it! Here are some additional items that they can choose from:
*Phase 10 ( a card game involving sequenced patterns. I just found out there is an app that will be getting for class iPad)
*24 Game (an order of operation game - students have to make different equations that = 24)
On our class iPad, some students review past math concepts at Wonderopolis including:
#190 What is a Prime Number?
#162 What is Pi?
How do you find time in math class? Leave me a comment.
Happy 2011 I hope you have an amazing year! I want to wish my friends Franki and Mary Lee a Happy 5th birthday both of you have encouraged me to explore the world of blogging. Thanks!
As I was Thinking Towards 2011 I decided I am going to have the students choose their favorite app and write about how they use the app in their learning. This is the first of monthly features with review comments by my students. I just added Math Bingo the first week of December, and it already won the top award from my class for the month of December below are their comments on why they like Math Bingo.
*This app took kids like me who don't like math and made practicing facts fun.
*On level three, it really stretches your thinking because I had to borrow and regroup.
*I don't like division facts, but I memorized my basic facts to 12 because I wanted to earn more bugs for Bingo Bungee.
*Playing Bingo Bungee helped me with my estimating.
*I was eager to practice math facts.
*The different levels helped me to extend my thinking.
*The time limit helped me to increase my speed with answers to basic facts because I wanted more bugs for the game.
*It improves my reflexes by making me think and then quickly tap the answer.
*This app really helped me with quick thinking for problem solving.
*I had to use mental math to help me answer more quickly.
*If I had to guess 6 times in a row, the app made me stop and change my level.
*What a fun way to review for math tests because I use math facts all the time.
Enough said, if you haven't purchased Math Bingo I would suggest it.
