Monday, January 26, 2015

Number Talks Book Study -- Chapter 4

Welcome back--so sorry this post is a day late.  As they say, better late than never! Today we discuss Chapter 4 of Number Talks by Sherry Parrish--all part of our book study sponsored by The Elementary Math Maniac. It's a chapter all about number talks for the K-2 classroom.


To read past chapter posts, visit the Number Talks Book Study Archive

Chapter 4: How Do I Design Purposeful Number Talks for the K-2 Classroom?

Chapter 4 is nicely organized into sections for kindergarten, first, and second grade.  Even though I am a second grade teacher, I found it important to delve into the other grades as well.  I recently began number talks in the whole group setting, but I have always had "chats", as we call them, in small guided math groups.  For this reason, the information present for each grade level is equally as valuable.  Plus, I think it important to understand where our kids come from and where they are headed.

I will try to discuss the essence of the information presented for each grade level.  In order to benefit fully from this chapter, that also presents numerous examples of number talks that can be used at each grade level, you will need to get a copy of the book--highly recommended. :0) At the same time, I have inserted a couple of kindergarten number talk videos for those who do not have the book.

The chapter begins by overviewing the contents of the chapter and the focus of number talks at each grade level: kindergarten--fluency, first grade--addition, and second grade--addition and subtraction.

In kindergarten, the focus of number talks should be talking about numbers, counting, building fluency with small numbers, and one-to-one correspondence. Additionally, all of the skills mentioned can be developed through the use of dot images, rekenreks, and five and ten frames.

Dot Images

What is a dot image?  A dot image is simply a specific number of dots arranged in a particular way.

Why use dot images? Parrish stresses that dot images provide opportunities for students to work on counting, subitize, see numbers in different ways, and learn different combinations of numbers.

Here's a great article about subitizing:
Subitizing: What is It? Why Teach It?

You can also check out the following video of a kindergarten number talk using ten frames and dot images.  It is one of the videos included on the DVD that accompanies the book (found on YouTube). It's wonderful to hear kindergartens verbalizing their understanding.



Dot images are SO simple to make. Got some index cards and dot stickers (found by the garage sale tags)? You have all you need to create!  I also like to use paper plates--a little tip that I was given a few summers ago.

Rekenreks

What is a rekenrek? A rekenrek has two strings of beads positioned parallel to one another.  Each string has ten beads of two different colors (typically red and white). One row of beads can be used at a time (fluency to 10), or both strings can be used together (fluency to 20).

Why use rekenreks? Rekenreks help students see the relationship between numbers, subitize, and build fluency.

You will find a wonderful series of number talks using the rekenrek (from 3 to 10) for kindergartens in chapter 4.

Also, enjoy the following rekenrek number talk from MathSolutions (also included on DVD) from YouTube.  



As you see in the video, the kindergartners are using homemade rekenreks.  

Rekenreks to Purchase

Digital Rekenreks
Brilliant Beadstring (ictgames.com)
Number Rack (iPad app)

Five and Ten Frames

Nowadays, I would say most teachers know what five and ten frames are.  Five and ten frames are excellent for helping students visualize addition and subtraction, understand place value, subitize, and build fluency.  

As you saw in the first video, ten frames can easily be used in number talks and powerful discussions and reasoning arises.

Parrish provides a collection of five and ten frame number talks.  I especially liked her discussion of how posing different questions about ten frames can change the purpose and focus of each ten frame.

Need ten frames? Feel free to download this freebie!

In first grade, dot images, rekenreks, and ten frames are equally as important, yet you will see number sentence number talks (addition) are also included in the chapter.  The three tools, along with number sentences, are nicely interwoven by strategy from counting all/counting on, doubles/near doubles, to making ten.  This allows a natural progression from the use of tools to number sentences.

Second grade number talks are designed to "foster specific computation strategies". For this reason,  you will find that the number talks presented are organized by strategy and categories. Categories include: introductory number talks that encourage a specific strategy, number talks for students that are successfully using a selected strategy, and those for students to use and extend a targeted strategy.

As a second grade teacher, I have found this especially useful.  Addition and subtraction number talks are presented with simple instructions for each.  I choose my number talks carefully, and Chapter 4 is a great resource along with the equations I design myself.

If you teach K-2, I am sure you found, or will find, this chapter just as useful as I did!

We would love to hear your experiences with number talks or your thoughts about using them with your students.  Please feel free to share in a comment!

AND, keep those questions coming! Sherry Parrish, the author of Number Talks, will be doing a Q&A after the completion of our book study! Feel free to email us with any questions you have for Sherry. You may send questions to guidedmathadventures@gmail.com. Thanks go out to Sherry!




Lastly, stop back this Sunday for Chapter 5: Student Thinking and Number Talks in the 3-5 Classroom!  Looking forward to it!

All the best--


Sunday, January 25, 2015

A Hundred Days Smarter & Number Talks Chapter 4 to Come Tomorrow...

Hello!  Today I come to you with news of a delay.  I got up to do my Number Talks Chapter 4 post this a.m. and discovered I had left the book on my desk at school.  SO, I will have to ask you to stop back tomorrow night to read my discussion of Chapter 4.  My apologies!

BUT you just might be interest in my A Hundred Days Smarter math workstations for celebrating the 100th day of school.

I updated the stations I did last year and added one.  I would like to share them with you!  Simply click the pic below to download your copy.  They will be used as workstations while I work with guided math groups.

Our 100th day is next Monday!  If yours has past, hope you had fun! If yours is still to come, hope these can be of use.  Enjoy!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_1w1VapXOL_cGozVHctNGRhcEE/view?usp=sharing

Please look for my Number Talks discussion of Chapter 4 to be posted tomorrow evening! To read past book study posts, visit the book study archive.

Smiles,


Sunday, January 18, 2015

Number Talks Book Study -- Chapter 3

Welcome back to our book study of Number Talks, by Sherry Parrish, hosted by The Elementary Math Maniac.  Today we discuss Chapter 3.  This chapter is one that any K-2 teacher should read whether doing number talks or not.  It is all about helping students develop essential strategies.


To read past chapter posts, visit the Number Talks Book Study Archive!

Chapter 3: How Do I Develop Specific Strategies in the K-2 Classroom

To begin, four overreaching goals for K-2 Number Talks were presented:

Developing number sense:  Number sense is developed when students are asked to determine the reasonableness of the solutions shared in a number talk.  Since recently starting number talks in our classroom, this is something that has naturally come out as strategies are shared.  I have been asking if students who did not arrive at the same solution would like to share their thinking.  More times than not, a student will say something like, "That didn't make sense."  As students listen to strategies shared by others, and thinking is recorded for all to see, they are more readily able to see their own misconceptions---furthermore, they are more willing to share because they can "correct" their thinking for all to hear. In the pic below you can see solutions that have been crossed out with names by them.  This indicates that students have shared why their solutions were not reasonable. When discussing number sense as it relates to number talks, Parrish goes on to stress the importance of students being able to make estimations. She suggests having students make estimations BEFORE solving problems.  This is something I do much less than asking students to use estimation AFTER they have come to a solution in order to assess reasonableness. In the pic below, we were just beginning a number talk. This would be a perfect time to ask students to estimate---"Could 30 be the solution/sum?", "Is 100 a reasonable estimate of the solution?", etc.  What other questions do you think could be asked to encourage estimation before students begin using a strategy to solve?


Developing Fluency with Small Numbers:  Fluency is "knowing how a number can be composed and decomposed and using that information to be flexible and efficient with solving problems."  If students are able to compose and decompose "small" numbers, they are able to apply this same thinking when faced with a variety of numbers.  As you can see in the pic below, the student knows that 26 is the same as 4 + 22.  Therefore, she can use the 4 to make an even ten, 30, and she went on to say it could be easily added in her head.


Subitizing: If a student is able to subitize, he/she is able to immediately recognize a group of objects as a single unit. The use of dot images, ten frames, and rekenreks in number talks help children understand the value of a number and its parts. Dot models for subitizing can easily be made with colored dot stickers (the kind you find with garage sale price tags at any office store) and paper plates.  Simply flash the image (for just a few seconds) and ask students to tell you what number is represented by the dots.  Students will visually group the dots in a way that is easy for them to "count". Showing the different ways that students arranged the dots in their heads to figure out the number serves as an appropriate number talk for primary students.

Making Tens: As we all know, understanding ten is vital to an understanding our number system.  In our classroom, we are constantly talking about the "power of ten"!  Parrish shares some EASY ways to help students organize objects into units of ten: use a weekly classroom estimation jar (great for estimation and counting the actual number of objects in groups of five and ten), use five and ten frames in calendar for charting number of days in the school year, have students use interlocking cubes to build towers to match height (counting cubes by grouping tens), and have students help group classroom materials (in tens). In the first pic in this post, you can see the ten frame model of the days of the school year in the background. Please stop back if you would like a copy of the class display, but for now you can download a copy that students use to track the days of the school year.  I will load the classroom display template ASAP when I get back to school.

In chapter 3, the use of models and tools is of great focus for K-2 teachers.  Parrish provides a rationale and overview of using the following: dot images, rekenreks, five and ten frames, number lines, and hundred charts.  Illustrations of their use are also provided.

Parrish goes on to discuss using real-life contexts for problems. SO IMPORTANT!  A real-life context makes math relevant, meaningful, and accessible. She also provides a context for using addition and subtraction that gives strategy examples and sample problems.  I especially appreciated her discussion of subtraction as much more than simply taking away, but finding difference, comparing values, and part-whole relationships as well. Creating a context for each is essential to student understanding.

Discussing efficiency with your students is also important! Love the idea of having students use fingers to rate the efficiency of strategies and justifying their thinking (p. 53).

Finally, Parrish illustrates eight common addition strategies and two common subtraction strategies that students use. These illustrations are great for helping teachers anticipate the strategies their students will use and how to record them (as discussed in detail in Chapter 2).

Great stuff in chapter 3!

We would love to hear your experiences, ideas, and comments about helping students develop strategies.

AND, DON'T FORGET---Sherry Parrish, the author of Number Talks, will be doing a Q&A after the completion of our book study! We are collecting questions now, so feel free to send in any questions you have for Sherry from now up until the first week in February. You may send questions to guidedmathadventures@gmail.com. Thanks go out to Sherry!


Join us next Sunday for Chapter 4!

All the best for a wonderful week--




Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Number Talks Book Study - Chapter 2, Cont. & Makin' It Math Linky

Good day! Today's post serves two purposes---the continuation of our book study of Number Talks, by Sherry Parrish, and our mid-month Makin' It Math linky.  Therefore, make-its will be intertwined in a discussion of Chapter 2.


To read my previous Number Talks discussion of Chapter 1, and the beginning of Chapter 2, please CLICK HERE!

Chapter 2: How Do I Prepare for Number Talks, continued.

First, I would like to share how my students got prepared for number talks.  My students do A LOT of talking about math--explaining their thinking, justifying their solutions, comparing/contrasting their strategy use with that of their classmates, assessing the reasonableness of solutions--all while showing respect for their fellow classmates. BUT, I wanted to introduce my students to the Number Talk procedures outlined in the text because there were components of number talks that I had not used. I felt my students would benefit greatly from the consistency in procedures as well.

We began, as we do with anything "new", by making a list of expectations.  We did this at the beginning of the year when preparing for what we call math "chats", so I thought it fitting to do the same with number talks.  I talked to my students about how a number talk would work and asked them to generate a list of behaviors they felt would be important to show during this time. It's interesting how the first two behaviors on their list are almost directly stated from our social skills program and are quite fitting.  Loved how "think together" was put on the list.  I helped them with the word "praise" as a description of the kinds of positive things we say to one another when sharing ideas, even when there are some errors in thinking.


I also introduced the silent hand signals they would be using during number talks.  We practiced them several times before having our first "official" number talk. The signals are posted as reminders, yet they will not be needed long...  Feel free to download these simple posters by clicking the pic below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_1w1VapXOL_dVIxVHFSYTduZEU/view?usp=sharing

I felt my students were ready to go, so I had to make sure I was ready.

Chapter 2 helped to prepare me...

After sharing four procedures and expectations essential to number talks, Sherry Parrish goes on to help teachers understand how important it is to anticipate the ways students will come to a solution. She suggests thinking through the possible strategies students may use to solve a given problem.  Even if you are not able to anticipate all of the strategies students will use, preparing yourself ahead of time in this way will increase your ability to understand what is being shared during the number talk.  Parrish also stresses the importance of thinking about how you will record students' thinking so that it clearly illustrates each strategy for students.

Below you will see some pictures of how I recorded students' thinking during two different number talks.  I will be recording on the SmartBoard just as soon as my computer glitches are fixed.  This will be a nice way to store records for easy reference.  For now, I am doing it on chart paper.

I chose the problems carefully as suggested early in chapter 2.  The majority of my students' understanding of place value is strong, and many use this understanding when adding two digit number, yet I wanted the whole class to see how making a landmark or "friendly" number can work (a strategy that some students have worked with in small guided math groups). 


Would love to hear your comments about what you see recorded.  Why do you think solutions are crossed out with names written next to them in the second pic? What do you notice about Abbi's thinking from one day to the next? 

As I reflect, one of my goals will be the addition/breaking up of each place value as described in the text to illustrate the separation of each digit's value in a different way.

Example:
29 + 29
(20 + 9) + (20 + 9)
(20 + 20) + (9 + 9)

Have I said how much I love number talks already??

Moving on...

I am sure many of you thought about student accountability when reading. I did. Parrish makes six wonderful suggestions for developing students' accountability:

  • Ask students to use finger signals to indicate the most efficient strategy.
  • Keep records of problems posed and the corresponding student strategies.
  • Hold small-group number talks throughout each week.
  • Create and post class strategy charts.
  • Require students to solve an exit problem using the discussed strategies.
  • Give a weekly computation assessments.

AND--What if students still need to develop mental reasoning?  Make manipulatives accessible, and use tools such as number lines, hundred charts, rekenreks, and ten frames as appropriate for developing conceptual understanding that is foundational to mental reasoning.

Finally, Parrish suggests five small steps toward teaching for understanding:

  • Start with small problems to elicit thinking from multiple perspectives.
  • Be prepared to offer a strategy from a previous student.
  • It is all right to put a student's strategy on the back burner.
  • As a rule, limit your number talks to five to fifteen minutes.
  • Be patient with yourself and your students as you incorporate number talks into your regular math time. 

In the coming chapter readers receive support for developing specific strategies in their K-2 classrooms.  Hope you will stop back this coming Sunday for a discussion of Chapter 3! 

Now, some WONDERFUL NEWS!

Sherry Parrish, the author of Number Talks, will be doing a Q&A after the completion of our book study! We are collecting questions now, so feel free to send in any questions you have for Sherry from now up until the first week in February. We will also include a reminder in each of our book study posts. You may send questions to guidedmathadventures@gmail.com. Thanks go out to Sherry!


Last, but not least, we would love for you to leave your comments and link up any math made-its you would like to share!

Smiles,





Sunday, January 11, 2015

Number Talks Book Study - Chapters 1 & 2

Welcome!  So glad you stopped by to join us for our new book study sponsored by the Elementary Math Maniac.  Today we focus on chapters 1 & 2 of Number Talks by Sherry Parrish.


While we are participating in a book study, we also want to provide followers (who have not purchased the text) with additional resources to help them understand the essence of number talks and the impact they have in the classroom.  These will be imbedded into chapter discussions, hopefully not to confuse, but to create further understanding beyond the text. Over the course of the coming weeks, our own experiences with number talks will also be shared. Please feel free to join in!

Chapter One: What is a Classroom Number Talk?

I appreciate how Sherry Parish begins chapter one, sharing her experiences visiting a second and third grade classroom and asking students to share their reasoning behind subtracting.  Their reasoning was focused on using the standard algorithm, but the conceptual understanding behind its use was lacking.  As the second grader stated, "That's just how you do it when the bottom number is bigger than the top."

This brought back memories of pretesting my fifth graders many years ago and discovering they were able to add fractions, change improper fractions to mixed numerals and vice-versa, etc.---with very few students understanding why they were performing the steps they were.  They had memorized the steps taught the previous year, and three quarters of the class did not understand the meaning of a fraction or mixed numeral in the first place.  Some teachers, when faced with this situation, would spend some time complaining and casting stones at the previous year's teacher, but I would like to think that most would immediately begin helping their students develop the conceptual understanding and why what they were doing worked and that there are other ways of thinking. Parrish provides support for this very thing--talk about it.

One of the things I like most about Sherry Parrish's presentation of number talks is that she shares a journey she has taken--one that has "challenged and refined my thinking about what it means to be mathematically powerful". I think anyone who delves into this text will challenge and refine their thinking as well--no matter where they are in their own journey.

It is also a journey she has not taken alone. She acknowledges many, including Ruth Parker, who began work with number talks many moons ago. Enjoy the following video of Ruth Parker's presentation, Do We Really Want them to Reason? at the Key Curriculum Ignite event at the 2012 CMC-North conference in Asilomar.




So, what is a number talk?  Parrish defines a number talks as "a classroom conversations around purposefully crafted computation problems that are solved mentally."

In chapter one, Parrish goes on to describe a number talk in a third grade classroom and shares five key components of a number talk, yet seeing a number talk in action brings it all to life.  Below you can watch three videos.  The first is the introductory video clip shared on the DVD that accompanies Number Talks, by Sherry Parrish.  The second is a third grade number talk video that comes directly from the DVD as well (both courtesy of MathSolutions).  The third is a fourth grade number talk (courtesy of Math Perspectives). After watching the videos, an overview of chapter one will be shared.

Introduction




Third Grade Number Talk -- CLICK HERE!

  
Fourth Grade Number Talk



You can also read a brief history of number talks on the Math Perspectives website where the above video was taken from.

Five key components of a number talk are shared in chapter one.  I have pulled one quote from each component that best illustrates the component.

  • Classroom Environment and Community - "The culture of the classroom should be one of acceptance based on a common quest for learning and understanding."

  • Classroom Discussions - As you saw in the above videos, the teachers are recording students' thinking and giving them the opportunity to explain their own strategies and express their understanding of fellow students' strategies.  Answers are shared and justified.  In both videos you can also see the students' use of a thumb to indicate a solution.  Students should also be encouraged to put up additional fingers as they come up with other strategies while they are waiting.  This is a strategy that I do not currently use and plan to implement this week!  Love this quote, "In number talks, wrong answers are used as opportunities to unearth misconceptions and for students to investigate their thinking and learn from their mistakes."

  • The Teacher's Role - "Since the heart of number talks is classroom conversation, it is appropriate for the teacher to move into the role of the facilitator."  In the fourth grade video, you saw the multiple pathways shared for figuring out the perimeter of the square and halving the area of the rectangle.  I liked how the teacher also presented a "situation" or context for the problem, yet she did not lead students in any way.

  • The Role of Mental Math - "When students approach problems without paper and pencil, they are encouraged to rely on what they know and understand about the numbers and how they are interrelated." In this way, focus is not place on steps that are memorized.  Students are forced to use their understanding of place value.  Parrish also discusses the importance of writing problems horizontally to encourage the use of a number's value instead of focusing on digits when arranged in columns.

  • Purposeful Computation Problems - "The teacher's goals and purposes for the number talk should determine the numbers and operations that are chosen."  One of the best parts of the text is the inclusion of number talks with a strategy focus.  Readers are given a strategies table in the beginning of the text that outlines the strategy, appropriate grade levels, and page number where it can be found in the text. Do not use random problems. 

Thought you might enjoy reading the following articles as well...

Here's another number talks resources: Inside Mathematics--Number Talks

Chapter 2: How Do I Prepare for Number Talks?

Great chapter!  My first suggestion for preparing-----BUY THE BOOK!  It is well worth the investment, I promise!  There's a lot in this chapter, so I have decided to break chapter 2 up into an additional post this coming Thursday to accompany our Makin' It Math mid-month linky.  Below is a discussion of the beginning of the chapter...

Even though number talks are designed to be only 5 to 15 minutes long--Parrish presents four procedures and expectations that are essential to number talks.

Select a designated location that allows you to maintain close proximity to your students for informal conservations and interactions. This serves to build community and lends to informal assessment on your part.

Provide appropriate wait time to ensure the majority of the students have accessed the problem.  Student engagement and participation are expected from all students.  The quiet thumb signal is a great strategy for this.  Please stop back in a future post when I share how I begin use of this with my students.

All answers are accepted, respected, and considered.  Model this as a teacher!  Show your acceptance of ideas, affirmation of thinking, and praise all efforts.

Encourage student communication throughout the number talk. THINK-PAIR-SHARE! It's been around ever since I can remember--use it! Student engagement is high and those who are reluctant to share have an opportunity to share outside of the whole group.  I have seen this strategy build confidence in those reluctant to share as they DO begin to share in the whole group.  "Having the opportunity to ponder other approaches strengthens our won mathematical foundation and understanding."

Please feel free to visit a previous post shared during our Guided Math in Action, by Dr. Nikki Newton, book study that relates to this procedure/expectation.

Woo-eee! Hope you are hooked and want to learn even more--or as the fifth grade teacher in the introductory video stated it perfectly, "walk through that door".

Please feel free to share anything you are thinking or wondering about in a comment! 

Please stop back this coming Thursday for more of chapter 2 and some free made-its.  AND thank you again to Tara, the Elementary Math Maniac, for hosting this book talk.  Head over to check out her post!  Below is a schedule for future chapters.  Hope you will continue the exploration with us!


All the best--



Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Math IS Real Life -- January Edition

Welcome!  It is our first time linking up with some fabulous fellow math bloggers,  4mulaFunThe Teacher StudioTeaching to Inspire in 5th, AND MissMathDork for Math is Real Life.

http://www.missmathdork.com/2015/01/math-is-real-life-january-2015-edition-spatial-reasoning.html

Many moons ago, I posted a little sign in my third grade classroom that read, "Become a USER of math, not just a DOER of math." This was after endless conversations about why we learned all the things we did in our third grade math classroom.  I have memories of telling the kids they would not be walking about in the grocery store and have someone hand them a worksheet with problems to solve, and they would not open a cookbook with a recipe they want to double and see a multiple choice question in the margin.  Yes--we learn to do a lot with math, but if we are not able to USE it for a purpose all the things we know how to DO are no good to us at all. The foundation of our explorations back then, and always will be---understanding the purpose for what we are learning and how it helps us maneuver in our daily lives.

I would like to share one of my second grade students' recent explorations...

A few weeks before Christmas break, I was browsing the holiday items at Farm & Fleet, and I happened upon a beaded ornament kit that I knew well--those infamous pipe cleaner beaded wreath ornaments.  Well, I had to get them, as they brought back memories from my own childhood and I knew my kids would enjoy making them.

  
I got the two kits home, sat down at the kitchen table, and took a closer look at the directions to help determine how I should divide the beads and pack them into individual baggies for my kids. I am always wanting to do things to make things easier in the long run when it comes to prep of materials.  I looked at the diagram and figured out how many green beads and red beads I needed to put in each baggie.  I got through one kit that made enough for 16 ornaments when I asked myself--"What am I doing? I should have the kids doing this!"  I stopped midway and left my nice little prep behind.

I took the other ornament kit to school that same week and shared it with my kids. I told them how I picked up the ornament kits and they would have to help out with prep before we could make them as a class.  I showed them the big bag of  green beads, and the small bag of red beads, and told them there were enough beads to make 16 ornaments. I posed the same questions I asked myself at home (replacing the "I" with "we"):

  • What do we need to do? (separate the beads)
  • What do we need to know to be able to do it? (how many green and red beads are needed for each ornament)
  • How are we going to figure it out?

The kids were very quick to answer the first two questions.  They needed more information to go further.  One student said loudly, "Why don't you just look at the directions, Mrs. Masters?" Ha! Smart cookie!  So we looked at the directions, and I knew he was expecting the directions to tell us exactly how many of each bead we needed to make an ornament.  NOPE! Here's what we found.


We discussed what we saw--number of each color of bead in the kit, number of pipe cleaners in the kit, a diagram showing how to feed the beads onto the pipe cleaner, and a diagram showing how to bend and tie.  Did the directions show us what they needed to know? Well, yes, but they had to do some work.  None of the kids chose to focus on the total number of beads in the bag, but their attention WAS drawn to the diagram.  BWT this was also a perfect example of using informational text features for a purpose.

Quite a few hands went up when I asked how what we saw could help us.  In our discussions we decided to just count the red beads in the diagram, that was easy--we needed 8 of them for one ornament.  Then we saw that each group of green beads had 4 beads, and we needed to have 7 groups of green beads to make an ornament.  I asked the kids if they had enough information to help them answer their question, and they said yes. It was time to go to it! Some kids worked together, and some went on their own, to determine how many green beads were needed to make one ornament.  No directions were given except for the fact that they needed to show their thinking.  Here are some examples of their thinking...


Each group/individual showed their thinking, explained, and we asked ourselves if what was shared was reasonable.  After discussions began, two girls went back to their seats to do some revision.  One student in particular noticed this and drew attention to the fact that they left.  I asked them why they went back, and they said it was because their answer didn't make sense.  I stressed how important it was that the girls realized this and went back to rework.  As we say, the trip (journey) is just as important as the solution. We, of course, had some discussions of how repeated addition of equal values is multiplication and how each section of the ornament was a group.  Only a few students wrote 7 x 4 or 4 x 7.  This exploration was a perfect application of skills learned and served as a foundation for new knowledge as well (multiplication).  Not to mention, we had a good-ole'-time making the ornaments and taking them home to put on our trees. Something to remember!

Thanks to  4mulaFunThe Teacher StudioTeaching to Inspire in 5th, AND MissMathDork for the opportunity to link up! 


ALSO--Just a reminder, starting January 11th, we will be joining Tara, The Elementary Math Maniac, for her book study of Number Talks: Helping Students Build Mental Math and Computational Strategies (K-5) by Sherry Parrish. The text is well worth the investment, and we hope you will join us!


Smiles!

Friday, January 2, 2015

It's a New Year!!

It's a NEW YEAR--a Happy New Year to you!!

It's that time of year--time to celebrate and look ahead...

To help you celebrate a new year, I have created a couple of FREEBIES for you.  Enjoy my Winter Walk-About problem solving activity and Winter Friends math games.  Simply click each pic to download!

Update:  Please redownload my Winter Friends math games, as there was an error on the "In the meadow..." game board. Sorry for the error!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_1w1VapXOL_OXd1WlBpZmMzcWM/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_1w1VapXOL_SWtlbi0yN2hSZ1E/view?usp=sharing

AND just wanted to share a few of our blogging plans for the year ahead...

  • share new-found knowledge (for example, book studies)
  • provide a closer-look into our work with students in guided math groups
  • add read and reflect sheets for use with math mentor texts (see Resources on navigation bar)
  • continue to network with fellow math bloggers

We look forward to another great year with you!

To start it off, please feel free to join us as we participate in a new book study of, Number Talks by Sherry Parrish, sponsored by The Elementary Math Maniac.  We will do our best to keep up!  See the schedule below.


All the best to you and yours for a fabulous new year!