Taking our favorite math game and giving it a larger-than-life spin is always a fun experience. First students shake dice contained in a clear plastic container. The number (younger children) or numbers (added, subtracted, divided or multiplied for older students) then correlate to a step in making your snowman. Certain steps may need to be rolled for a few time as they must be done in order. Students love using this fun method to show what they know about a particular math concept.
0 Comments
After teaching my class the "Doubles Rap" only a few short weeks ago I thought it fitting to create a video for my students to remember me by after I am gone (but that encouraged them to learn as well). I asked the other STU interns to join me and this is what we came up with in two afternoons. The kids haven't stopped singing it since. As a fun addition to math workshops I have created an estimation jar. Students place their estimation in their math journals is they have extra time and want to try for a jellybean sticker.
I believe that an important goal in my teaching is to have students collaborate with and learn from others all around the world. It is important that students learn to give back to those around them and not take anything for granted. I am excited to work alongside great organizations, such as KIVA micro loans, to teach students how to help make change and think globally. Having students choose and monitor the loans we give as a class also incorporates a responsible understanding of money from our math curriculum. I think it is so important to think globally and act locally at any age.
I have learned how much a document camera can help me with my teaching. I often use it now to read at the mat, show students how we use our math manipulatives, etc. I recommend this technology to anyone working with children, it has made it much easier for students to see what we are learning and is a great tool for students with visual impairments.
For teaching odd and even numbers I created mitten manipulative sets. We used these mittens to play several station games after we read the story "Missing Mittens". I have been continuing to implement this manipulative into our weekly stations and the students love them. We have been learning about money over the past few days and today we had our first store station. I gave the students time to chose the items they wanted to "buy" with their plastic money and then record their choices on a "Show Me the Money" erasable sheet that I made. We had such a great time learning how money is added to match the price of the items we wish to buy. We also had someone come in this week and teach us all about earning and saving our money.
This mat has been a fun tool for our younger learners as we explore number sense. Students have had fun creating the numbers from 1 to 100 and then playing various games like "guess my number".
In an effort to teach skip-counting by 2s, 5s and 10s in a more creative way I introduced "Frederick the skip-counting frog". Frederick's main problem is that he can never quite find his way home and always needs our help to place his lily pads for him to hop back to zero. I would pretend to get a phone call from Frederick who would tell us what number he was stuck on. Students would then place the lily pads as we explored if he could skip-hop by 2s, 5s and 10s. Students would raise a red light if an path was unsafe and a green if Frederick was allowed to start hopping back. This also allowed me to see when students might not be getting the concept and do a formative checklist assessment.
Some items that are often the focus of our curriculum can be enhanced using anchor charts. The following are some smaller ones that help students remember our daily math strategies.
|
AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE CLICK "PREVIOUS" TO SEE MORE OF THIS BLOG. You can also navigate older posts using "Archives" or "Categories".
Explore.
I am always learning how to be the best teacher I can be. Follow along with me on my adventures... Archives
May 2013
Categories
All
|