Saturday, March 6, 2010
Calendar Math
In Early Years classrooms, from Kindergarten to Grade Three, a great way to begin the day is with calendar time. During calendar time, students learn about time (days of the week, months of the year, and seasons) and about numbers. Routine in learning is very important, especially for younger students, as it helps the students be prepared for what they will learn. Repetition is also important as it solidifies concepts and facts in the students’ minds. Calendar Math should be presented in a similar way each school morning. Having students sit in a carpeted area near the calendar works well.
1. Student Writes Down the Date – Choose one student to come and write the next number on the calendar. Calendars can be made on a white board or on laminated paper. On laminated paper, washable overhead markers work best; the calendar can then be sprayed with water at the end of each month, wiped off, and used again.
2. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow – For this activity, a pocket chart is ideal, although a magnetic white board may also be used. Have the words “Yesterday was” on one row of the pocket chart. On the subsequent two rows, have the words “Today is” and “Tomorrow will be”. Have days of the week cards set aside for use. Ask students, “What day was it yesterday?” Choose a student to find that day of the week and put it in the top row beside “Yesterday was”. Then have students read with you, “Yesterday was _______ (whatever day of the week it was). Ask the students, “What day is it today?” Choose a student to put that day on the middle row. Have students read that sentence aloud with you. Then ask students, “What day will it be tomorrow?” Choose a student to put that day of the week on the bottom row of the pocket chart. Read that sentence aloud with the students.
3. Days At School – Keeping track of the days spent at school is a fun activity for Early Years children. When the number of days at school reaches 100, the class can celebrate with a 100-Day party. One way to keep track of the days at a school is to take three two-liter milk cartons and cut the tops off them. Then tape them together so they sit with the holes at the top. Cover them with construction or wrapping paper. Write “Ones” on the box that is on the far right when you are facing the boxes. Write “tens” on the middle box and “hundreds” on the box on the far left. Punch a hole near the top of the front side of each box. Make three sets of small square cards with the numbers 0 to 9 on them. Hole punch each set of cards. Run a string through one set of cards and through the hole in the “Ones” box. Tie the string. Do the same for the “Tens” box and the “Hundreds” box. Each school day, a student places a straw in the “Ones” box and flips the cards so the number showing corresponds with the number of straws in the box. When there have been 10 days at school, bundle the 10 straws with an elastic and place in the “Tens” box. Flip the cards so that the card showing on the “Tens” box is 1 and the card showing on the “Ones” box is 0. When there are 10 bundles of ten in the “Tens” box, students have been at school for 100 days. Group the 10 bundles together, place an elastic around them, and put the bundle in the “Hundreds” box.
Calender Math Supporting Activities (WORD Document)
1. Student Writes Down the Date – Choose one student to come and write the next number on the calendar. Calendars can be made on a white board or on laminated paper. On laminated paper, washable overhead markers work best; the calendar can then be sprayed with water at the end of each month, wiped off, and used again.
2. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow – For this activity, a pocket chart is ideal, although a magnetic white board may also be used. Have the words “Yesterday was” on one row of the pocket chart. On the subsequent two rows, have the words “Today is” and “Tomorrow will be”. Have days of the week cards set aside for use. Ask students, “What day was it yesterday?” Choose a student to find that day of the week and put it in the top row beside “Yesterday was”. Then have students read with you, “Yesterday was _______ (whatever day of the week it was). Ask the students, “What day is it today?” Choose a student to put that day on the middle row. Have students read that sentence aloud with you. Then ask students, “What day will it be tomorrow?” Choose a student to put that day of the week on the bottom row of the pocket chart. Read that sentence aloud with the students.
3. Days At School – Keeping track of the days spent at school is a fun activity for Early Years children. When the number of days at school reaches 100, the class can celebrate with a 100-Day party. One way to keep track of the days at a school is to take three two-liter milk cartons and cut the tops off them. Then tape them together so they sit with the holes at the top. Cover them with construction or wrapping paper. Write “Ones” on the box that is on the far right when you are facing the boxes. Write “tens” on the middle box and “hundreds” on the box on the far left. Punch a hole near the top of the front side of each box. Make three sets of small square cards with the numbers 0 to 9 on them. Hole punch each set of cards. Run a string through one set of cards and through the hole in the “Ones” box. Tie the string. Do the same for the “Tens” box and the “Hundreds” box. Each school day, a student places a straw in the “Ones” box and flips the cards so the number showing corresponds with the number of straws in the box. When there have been 10 days at school, bundle the 10 straws with an elastic and place in the “Tens” box. Flip the cards so that the card showing on the “Tens” box is 1 and the card showing on the “Ones” box is 0. When there are 10 bundles of ten in the “Tens” box, students have been at school for 100 days. Group the 10 bundles together, place an elastic around them, and put the bundle in the “Hundreds” box.
Calender Math Supporting Activities (WORD Document)
Beyond Slices of Pizza: Teaching Fractions Effectively
part 1
The final report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel paid close attention to “proficiency with fractions…for such proficiency is foundational for algebra and, at the present time, seems to be severely underdeveloped.” This webcast, showcases best practices when it comes to the teaching of fractions. How do teachers and school district personnel ensure deep “conceptual and procedural knowledge of fractions,” as stated by the national math panel report …
Part2
Part3
Part4
Part5
Part6
Part7
Teaching Elementary Math
If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is. ~John Louis von Neumann
“The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple.” S. Gudder
Someone asked me once: “Why do you pay so much importance to math? Is that any good for you? Why do you like it? “. And I said: “what do I win with math? Everything… J
Math changes the way I think and my approach to life. It helps me to get better organized and see things in better perspective. It makes a major contribution to my personal development and to my cognitive transformation.
Math develops reasoning and reasoning helps in just about everything. To understand math means to understand its principles and to apply them in the very daily life. Math is not just calculus and drawing pictures, math is more than that – it is learning to approach a situation, to find the optimum solutions for it and to search for and delete any possible cases in its way.
“The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple.” S. Gudder
Someone asked me once: “Why do you pay so much importance to math? Is that any good for you? Why do you like it? “. And I said: “what do I win with math? Everything… J
Math changes the way I think and my approach to life. It helps me to get better organized and see things in better perspective. It makes a major contribution to my personal development and to my cognitive transformation.
Math develops reasoning and reasoning helps in just about everything. To understand math means to understand its principles and to apply them in the very daily life. Math is not just calculus and drawing pictures, math is more than that – it is learning to approach a situation, to find the optimum solutions for it and to search for and delete any possible cases in its way.
Going Beyond Math Story Problems
I’m an elementary mathematics methods professor at the University of Oklahoma and recently I coordinated a project to help pre-service teachers create stories with math questions that are enhanced with technology.Small groups of elementary pre-service teachers collaborated by posting (non-consecutively) to a wiki (on www.wikispaces.com) in order to co-create a “story of the day” and math questions related to the story that also aligned to an elementary math standard. Each pre-service teacher also created a Voki (See these electronic avatars at www.voki.com.) and embedded it in the story to add an additional element of interest. There is an example of a Harry Potter theme-based story with math problems appropriate for 3rd graders at www.xyzproblem1.wikispaces.com – click on Problem of the Day 1. Problem of the Days (2 – 6) are first drafts created by the pre-service teachers. If you are interested in trying to create a similar project the Home page outlines not only the complete project but also gives instructions for embedding a Voki into the story. Just one word of caution – check the age limit on the terms of agreement on the Voki site.
Sacra Nicholas
Learning Multiplication with Playing Cards
This is a fun game for teachers to incorporate into their teaching lessons and it is fun because of the partial element of surprise. Kids love surprises and the best part of this game is that the students will have even more fun learning because they won’t even realize they are in class. This will make learning how to multiply even less of a hassle for teachers.What you will need:
Deck of cards per 3 players at a time- average class size 30-35 (12 decks)
The students are first put into groups of 3. There are 2 players that compete against each other. The third player in each group is the person who controls the dealing of the cards. The dealer takes two cards from the deck and places them face down. Then once both players are ready, the dealer flips over the cards. The students try to multiply the two cards that are exposed. Whoever answers correctly keeps the cards. The cards then have a point system. If the student answers incorrectly then the other student has a chance to guess the correct answer. If the student answers correctly then he/she obtains the cards. If the student does not know the answer or does not answer correctly, then no one obtains the cards/points. Therefore, whoever has the most cards at the end of the game is the person that wins.
Teachers can also continue playing this game by taking each winner from each group and have the best of the best compete against each other to find out who knows how to multiply the best. The winner of the entire class can then be assigned to some special task or treat.
Tips:
To make the game more student centered you can buy children’s playing cards that could be a favorite character of the students, or a theme of a popular kids movie.
To make this game even harder or for students who are older you can add
one more card to the original 2 card format. Therefore, instead of students having to multiply 2 cards, they would have to multiply 3 cards. This would make this a lot more challenging and really test the multiplication skills.
Teachers can also have the students make up a sentence that incorporates the answer of the two cards. This exercise will encourage them to learn how to multiply – and, stimulate their creativity as well.
Point System for Multiplication Tables
You can teach the students a fun activity incorporating multiplication times-tables with this inquisitive game that includes the concept of a point system. Who doesn’t love a little competition? I think just about everyone, including children. So with that in mind how about teaching them a little about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as well?Did you know that most people in general tend to do better with any activity when they are competing against someone else? One great way to accomplish this is to incorporate a technique through a fun and stimulating school activity. The way that this game works is that each student is given different times-tables problems.
Each problem is given a certain point amount. For each correctly solved problem that the student has correct, they are assigned the amount of points associated with that problem. For example, 1×1=1, they would be given 1 point; 2X2=4, and so on. If the student answers the problem incorrectly, they do not gain any points. As a matter of fact, they lose the amount of points that correspond to the problem they answered incorrectly. This technique gets the children even more interested in learning multiplication tables as well as answering the problems correctly. It will also get them motivated to correctly answer the equations, especially those with the higher numbers so they can accumulate more points.
At the end of the assignment each student’s score is added up and the person with the most correct problems, as well as the most points is designated as the winner. If there is more then one winner, then you can do a sudden death match and have each player compete against each other until there is a winner. Or you can reward both of them with the title of “Multiplication Masters” and they can be the designated team leaders when you play this game another time.
You can also add even more fun to this game by breaking the class up into teams and assigning 5 players to each team. This allows the students a chance to interact with each other and learn the value of teamwork, plus for those students that are struggling they will be able to work with other students that can help them out.
By incorporating this fun game into your teaching plan, learning multiplication tables will be a lot more fun for kids, plus they will benefit from working with other students. They will also learn a valuable lesson that integrates the concepts of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
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