Introducing Math

I have made it through my very first days as a 3rd grade teacher...and I am pooped!  The tininess of my students amazes me.  Moving from 4th grade to 3rd grade is a bigger adjustment than I thought it would be.  I am having to make sure I give instructions in smaller chunks and realizing how much less independent they are.  I am learning a lot though!  As I have mentioned before, my state has adopted and adapted the Math Common Core Standards.  My county has started the journey of training us in AMSTI (Alabama Math Science Technology Initiative) in math.  We got the Pearson Investigation Units and a whole lot of manipulatives.  I think it is always important to give kids time to play with new materials before you try to teach them how to use them as learning tools.  So today that is what we did.  I set up a few different stations around the room (unifix cubes, pattern blocks, small white boards, etc) and broke my kids into groups so they could explore.  We also practiced our station behavior before and during our exploration time.  We practiced walking from station to station silently, cleaning up after ourselves, working together, and staying on task.  After stations were all cleaned up, I asked the students to write in their math journals about how we behave and move during stations.  Students were then encouraged to share their writing under our Elmo (document camera).  I think this was a very valuable way to spend our time today.  I took some pictures of the kiddos exploring the materials and reading today.

Guided Math- Chapter Two



Third Grade Gridiron is hosting Guided Math: Chapter two.  Head over to her blog to see what others are saying about Chapter Two.  I will be co-hosting Chapter Four starting on June 24th!

I just finished reading the second chapter of Guided Math.  For years, we have spent so much focus on reading and we finally found that Guided Reading works for a lot of students and classrooms.  It now seems so silly to me that I did not make the connection between Guided Reading and teaching math.  I can use some of the same strategies, set-ups, and procedures to be more effective.  DUH!  That being said, a lot of the information in this chapter was not new to me.  However, applying it to math instruction was kind of new to me.  I always strive to create a warm, safe classroom with lots of access to books.  This year, I want to make sure my students also see the math when they walk in our classroom for the first time.  I am not exactly sure how I want to achieve this yet but I am pondering a math word wall.  I always leave a lot of blank space on my walls for all those anchor charts we will be creating too!  This year, I will be using math journals and I want to keep them in a basket so I can get to them easily.  Here are some other things from the chapter that stood out to me:

1.  The students look to the teacher to determine how to respond to each other

2.  Explicitly teach how to locate, use, and replace materials

3. Incorporate measurement into visualizing! Love, love, love it!

4. Turn on my math radar for connections

5. MODEL, MODEL, MODEL- expectations, procedures, thinking, writing, problem-solving, connecting...

Guided Math Chapter One

I am joining the fun and participating in Primary Inspired's book study of Guided Math.  My school district is adopting the math part of AMSTI this year.  For those of you that do not like in Alabama, AMSTI stands for the Alabama Math, Science, Technology Initiative.  You can read more about it here.  AMSTI has been shown to help students develop a deeper understanding of math through math workshop.  Reading Guided Math this summer will hopefully assist me in running Math Workshop and helping my students to create their own understanding of mathematics through experiences.

That being said...Here are some of my thoughts on Chapter One:
1.  I think most of us would agree with the opening description of past (and sometimes current) math instruction in which the teacher stands in front of the room and you either get it or don't.  I remember how intimidating and frustrating this was for me as a child.  There were times I would be too scared to ask a question or even not know what kind of question to ask.  I do NOT want that for my students!

2.  I was shocked at some of the data that was reported in this chapter.  Those figures of adults that can not do daily task that involve math application are not acceptable to me.  Yet somehow they are for a lot of leaders in education.  I wish more people knew exactly how far our country and kids are when it comes to math.

3. After four years of teaching 4th grade, I agree whole heartily that "lack of conceptual understanding handicaps students as they face more difficult math challenges in upper grades."  One student of mine this year comes to mind.  He wanted to learn but just had so many misconceptions and such a lack of basic number concepts it made it incredibly hard for him.

4. Meaningful- That is the word that kept coming up for me while reading this chapter.  Students need meaningful experiences with math.  They need to know how it will come up in their real lives.  Making that connection will hopefully keep them engaged and learning.

5. Last thing I promise! Students need to feel safe in your classroom.  They need to know that they are respected by you and their peers.  I really want to make sure I work on this by being open to all answers and keeping my face and comments positive while students learn their mistakes with my guidance. 

I encourage everyone to join the book study or at least read the blog posts related to it.  Your students' math instruction is too important to ignore.

Funny and Measurement People

I thought you might need a laugh to start your week off right.  This week our story is about the moon (which just happens to go along perfectly with our space unit). We were in small group and I asked my students, "What do you think of when you think of the moon?"  One little girl looked at me and her eyes got wide and she blurted out, "Bumps! Acne! Proactive!"  Clearly we had some misconceptions.

In math we are reviewing measurement so we did our capacity measurement men today.  This is a great hands-on and visual math activity.  Here are some photos!

Slowing Down for Some Factoring Fun

A huge chunk of the 3rd Nine Weeks for my fourth graders is dedicated to fractions.  We eased into this unit by using manipulatives and drawing to explain what a fraction is and then we practiced naming fractions.  Then we added and subtracted fractions with like denominators (which my kids said was so easy!).  Today it was time to dive into the more complex concepts- key scary music- simplest form!!! I know you are all hiding under your covers now much like I wanted to do this morning. 
    Every year my students have struggled with simplest form and I finally realized I was putting it all on them in one huge heap of math nonsense! Factoring, greatest common factor, dividing oh my! So today I tried a new approach- breaking it down into small pieces.  Today we talked about what a factor is and how we factor.  I showed them some examples and then we factored some numbers as a class.  Once my kids got the hang of it, we had a factor competition.  The kids loved it and it did not take a lot of time.  My kids already sit in groups so we had our teams.  I put a number on the board and they had to work together to find all the factors of said number.  When they thought they had them all, they would raise their hands.  I would come to them and tell them if they had them all or if they needed to find more.  The team that got all factors first was the winner of that round.  My kids were so into it they even forgot who won and to ask me about prizes.
 After factoring for a bit, I started putting two numbers on the board and we would factor both.  Then we would circle the factors they had in common.  Next step we added was finding the greatest common factor or gcf as we call it.  The last thing we did was talk about how we would use this with fractions.  They saw the pieces come together in the end! I am hopeful that by slowing down and taking the time to focus on the factoring my kids will be more successful with this skill this year.  Keep your fingers crossed!!

Na Na Na Na FACT MAN!!

 I have been telling my students since August how important it is to know your basic math facts by heart! Apparently every teacher at my school has too and we haven't gotten through to our kids.  Fact Man to the rescue! Our amazing Title One teacher, Mrs. Edwards, dressed up as Fact Man on Friday.  You never knew when Fact Man would rush into the room and ask a student a math fact! When a kid got one right they got a piece of candy.  My kids were delighted by this fun way to encourage fact fluency.  Fact Man will be making more visits to our school soon.  Perhaps he can stop by your school as well! Check it out!

Fact Man's cape was decorated with math symbols and words

My kids watching Fact Man

Geometric City

First of all, I want to give a huge shout out to the ladies at Lesson Plan SOS.  They created an amazing project in which students use their knowledge of lines and polygons to plan and create their own city.  I encourage all teachers in grades 3 to 5 to go to Teachers Pay Teachers and buy it now!  My kids were so engaged and they were begging me to keep working on their math.  I love how it also had a writing piece that went with it.  My kids did an amazing job of thinking about their audience, being creative, and advertising their cities. This project gave my students the chance to apply their math knowledge in a creative way, write with the purpose to persuade, practice speaking in front of the class, and work together which is not always easy to do! The students keep asking when we are going to do our next math project.  Here are some pictures of their awesome work.

Simon Says Geometry

This week in math, my 4th graders are studying geometry.  We have learned the names of different polygons, how many angles they have, and how many sides they have.  We also talked about flips, slides, and turns.  A co-worker made up some motions to go with flips, slides, and turns a few years ago.  The kids stand up. For a slide they simply slide over.  For a turn, they leave one foot in place and turn their bodies about 90 degrees.  For a flip (no they don't do a flip but they would try if I would let them!), they turn 180 degrees.  After practicing these motions, we just had a spur of the moment game of Simon Says and the kids loved it!! When I play Simon Says if you talk then you are out.  I would say things such as "Simon Says slide to the right" or "Simon Says hold up the number of fingers a hexagon has."  This game was a fun way to review our polygons and practice our motions.  They keep begging me to play it again and of course, I gave in!
  There are some amazing geometry packets available on Teachers Pay Teachers from different sellers whose blogs I follow.  On Friday we are going to do the Geometric City created by Lesson Plan SOS.  And I love the activities in Ashleigh's Buggy About Geometry Unit. 
  I am giving my students their mystery case files tomorrow.  Check back for pictures!

Mulitplication Number Necklaces

Wow! I can not believe it has been over a month since I blogged!  October was crazy but hopefully I can get back on my blogging schedule.  I had someone ask how to use number necklaces with mulitplication facts.  I would write a problem without the answer on the index card (7x6=).  The students would have to figure out their fact and then get in order from least to greatest based on their product.  For example 6x6 would come before 7x9 because 36 is greater than 63.  This would require students to practice two skills at once!  You could also do this with divison facts, addition facts, and subtraction facts. 
  We have been doing graphing in math this week which one of my favorite things to do! Of course I bought the fun size M&Ms and we graphed the colors in our bags.  This year I had the students make a table first and then take the table and turn it into a bar graph.  I did this because on our state testing most of the graphing is done this way. 
  I hope you all have a short week like we do!

Graphing Ideas

I was thrilled to here positive feedback on my post about ordering and comparing numbers!  Thanks for reading! I was asked by a reader if I had any ideas about graphing.  Graphing is on of my favortie math concepts to teach.  Most of the data we graph is student centered.  We practice writing tally marks while we collect our data.  I ask a question and give some options such as what is your favorite sport.  The students come up a few at a time and make a tally mark by their choice (or sometimes we use post-its to create a fast bar graph).  We do A LOT of modeling and I pretend to forget to label my axis or give my graph a title. Of course I love to use food so I will give each student a packet of skittles and we graph the colors.  After we practice graphing a lot, we do a data project.  I break the kids into groups.  I either give them a topic and have them come up with a question (one year the topic was sleep and some questions were how many hours do you sleep a night, what do you wear to sleep, etc) or I have the kids pick a question out of a bag.  They must come up with their answer choices and decide how they wil poll the class.  Then they collect their data! After collecting their data, they make a line graph, a pictograph, a bar graph, and line plot with it.  Then they present it to the class.  I might have a rubric somewhere- I will get back to you on that.  I have also divided kids into groups and given each group the same data.  One group made a line graph, one group made a bar graph and so on.  Last year for a graphing review we teamed up with a first grade class.  You can read about it here.  Hope these ideas help.  Feel free to ask questions.

Ordering and Comparing Whole Numbers

 I find myself apologizing to you again for neglecting my blog. School has been happily busy and due to a tropical storm in the Gulf I was without power the past few days. My power is fully restored now and I have updates. Last week my wonderful students and I practice ordering and comparing whole numbers (and later decimals). We talked about how to line up the numbers by their place value and compare or to think of it as money. My kids love to think of anything in math as money-should this worry me? Anyways, after practicing I broke out my handy number necklaces. My number necklaces are simply numbers written on brightly colored index cards that are then hole punched and made into necklaces using yarn. I gave each kid one. Then I called two students at a time to stand in front of the room. The rest of us would make our comparison sign or "alligator mouth" with our arms. Then I would have a student read our number sentence (13,402 is greater than 12,394). After doing that a few times, I called students up in groups of four. A fifth student would then arranged the students (and their number necklace) by least to greatest or greatest to least. Finally I called each group (my kids sit in groups) up to the front (one group at a time ) and asked them to get in order from least to greatest. By the last group we were in order. I found it easier to call them by groups than to just let them all go at one time. To call students back to their seats I said things such as "if your number has a two in the thousands place please walk to your seat" to reinforce place value. You can use number necklaces for multiplication facts, decimals, percents, fractions or any combo you choose! Here are some photos!

We are doing our "alligator mouths" to compare our friends' number necklaces.

I had them put their cards over their faces for privacy.  And they thought it was funny.  Don't you love 4th grade humor?

Ordering Numbers

As some of you know,  I am taking a two week math workshop (only three days left!) and I have a few ideas to share with you.  Today I played a game on ordering fractions and decimals.  On small cards (I would cut index cards in half) write decimals, fractions, or both.  When the students play, the first thing they will do is draw a 3 by 3 grid.  You might want to make some on the computer and laminate them to save time and make them last longer.

When it is their turn, the student will pick a card from the stack.  They will place their number somewhere on the grid.  The goal is to have the numbers in order on each row (from left to right) and in each column (from top to bottom).  If the card they draw can not be played, they lose a turn.

The student that fills up their grid first (with their rows and columns in order) wins.  You could do this with any grade level and any skill.  You can use whole numbers, decimals, fractions, percents, mixed numbers, improper fractions, multiplication facts, division facts...you name it!  If you were going to use multiplication or division facts, I would not put the answer on the card.  For example, one card might say 6x5= and another might say 4x3=. 
  You can practice this same concept using number necklaces.  Write a variety of whole numbers (or fractions, percents, facts, etc) on index cards and with a hole punch and some yarn make necklaces.  Hand each kid a necklace and tell them that they are to get in order from least to greatest.  I did that with my kids this past year and it was a lot of fun.  Once they are in order, ask a few kids how they knew where to get or how they know they are in the right place.
If you have any questions about these activities let me know.  These activities came from the Mathematics Education Collaborative.

Don't forget the giveway ends at midnight!

Number Talks

I am currently taking a two week math workshop called Numerical Reasoning.  It is put on it part by the Great Birmingham Mathematics Partnership and the Mathematics Education Collaborative.  The emphasis of the workshop and the other ones given by these groups is for children to learn mathematical skills through meaningful experiences such as menus, investigations, etc.  I could write forever about this type of learning and how I want to use and how I have used it but...I won't! Today I want to focus on one aspect of it called a Number Talk.  A Number Talk is a ten to fifteen minute math routine in which students are asked to solve problems mentally.  Students are encouraged to use a variety of strategies (counting up, decomposing numbers, constant difference, etc) to solve a math problem (fractions, addition, subtraction, time, multiplication, division, you name it).  When a student has an answer, he or she will give a thumbs up sign and hold their hand close to their chest so other kids won't panic when they think everyone is finished.  After students have had time to think, the teacher asks if someone wants to share their answer.  The teacher writes all answers students come up with on the board but does not tell which is correct.  Then the teacher will ask who wants to share their thinking and record how different students thought through the problem.  The goal is to increase fluency, allow students to create new strategies besides the traditional algorithms, and be exposed to different ways of thinking.  Number talks can do done with kids of all ages with a varying degree of difficulty. Number talks are a great way for you to peek into the minds of your kids and learn about them and from them.
 For more info on number talks check out the following:

Number Talk PDF
Number Talks PDF 2
I will be more than happy to answer any questions or help you get started using Number Talks!

Graphing With First Grade

We are reviewing graphing skills this week in 4th grade. Graphing is always one of my favorite math concepts to explore with my students.  We do some of the typical graphing activities when we first introduce it- like graphing the colors of your M&Ms and group projects.  To fight the end of the year blahs and generate data with larger numbers, we decided to collaborate with our first grade friends who are also reviewing graphing this week (this was the brain child of the fab Brooke who also teaches 4th grade with me).  We broke our kids into small groups and each group was responsible for coming up with a question and at least 4 answer choices.  I asked my kids, "What do you want to know about the 1st graders at our school?"  After each group put their question and answer choices on a piece of butcher paper, we went around to all the first grade rooms to collect our data.  The first graders were working on tallying so the little ones took turns coming up to each group and answering their question by putting a tally mark on their answer choice.  To keep this organized, the 4th grade groups sat in different areas of the room with their butcher paper on the floor.  The 1st graders rotated in small groups until they answered each question.  Once we collected all our data, we returned to our room where the students worked on creating line graphs and bar graphs.  Later in the day, the first graders came and collected their own data with the big kids.  This was a great way for each grade level to model and practice their graphing skills.  And they all thought it was so cool-esp. the ones with older/younger siblings.