Mental Math in Primary – Videos & Viewing Guides November 30, 2008

I have been meaning to share this link for a while.  Clicking on it will take you to a page of resources produced through the Nova Scotia Department of Education.  It is a series of videos of classrooms in which early primary teachers (grades 1, 2 and 3) work on important mental math strategies with their students.  Each video is about 8-10 minutes and well worth a viewing.  They look to be producing videos for grades 4 and up as well, although the page has remained unchanged for the better part of a year, I am afraid.  

The Ministry of Ed in Nova Scotia has likewise produces a series of viewing guides, which I have “prettied up” and have attached for your use.  Each viewing guide is matched to each of the videos indicated above.  Perhaps your school staff or primary team could view the videos and have a collaborative chat about the strategies used…?  It’s ALWAYS best to learn these things together!

Enjoy.

Viewing Guides:

viewing guide 1 grades 1-2 introduce-make-ten-strategy

viewing guide 2-grades 1&2 reinforce-ten-frame-strategy

viewing guide 3 grades 1&2 assessing-students-strategy-selection

viewing guide 4 grades 2&3 near-doubles-strategy

viewing guide 5 grades 2&3 reinforce-make-ten-with-12-digits

Carole

 

Place Value – decimals November 26, 2008

This is a gift for Tamara and her amazing kids…

I put together some place value “tents” for modeling decimal numbers to 100ths, that I thought you might find useful.  They are, of course, untried, but if you do use them, let me know what you think and if they need tweaking.  These ones will nest in reverse – that is, i the number 3.21, the largest tent is the 0.01, the medium sized one is the 0.2 and the smallest is the 3. (3 and a decimal point with no numbers following… technically the decimal should not be there, but I THINK it makes sense conceptually when it’s modeled with the kids.)

carole

decimal-numbers-wholes

decimal-numbers-tenths

decimal-numbers-hundredths

Place Value Materials November 24, 2008

Hello all…

I wanted to post the cards for creating nested 3-digit numbers – tents of paper that show, for example, how 357 is the same as 300 and 50 and 7…  Print the files below onto bond and cut them out, then fold them into tent shapes.  They’re a great resource for supporting children in understanding larger numbers – and REALLY making sense of the digits.  Clicking on each of the files below will give you enough cards for a class set – so check before you print then all!

place-value-numbers-100

place-value-numbers-10

place-value-numbers-1

 

Also, for Laura – some on-line games I thought you’d enjoy around developing place value understandings…  Have fun!

100 Hunt

Give the dog a bone

Woodcards

The Add 9 Fairy

Primary games – spinners and more November 19, 2008

For my friends…

I have attached some of the missing pieces you were looking for, namely, 

build-it-spinner

spinner-6-to-9-dots

good-questions-for-math-thinking

giant-ten-frames

doubles-snap

doubles-plus-one-snap

where-is-the-party

my-numbers-and-what-i-did

Big Red Bus

enjoy – let me know if i have forgotten anything…

carole

The doubles… November 13, 2008

I made a set of images that people might like to use as models for thinking about the doubles facts.  The ideas come from the work of John Van de Walle – I just added the clip art!  Enjoy!

the-doubles

Carole

PS – The double nines are drawn from the image of an 18-wheeler… 2 wheels on the axel of the truck (under the cab), then 4 on the next axel and 4 on the next, then 4 and 4 more on the last 2 axels…  Tricky, but apparently THAT’S what makes an 18-wheeler an 18-wheeler!

the new math curriculum documents November 10, 2008

For those of you (like Sylvia) who are looking to find the Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PLOs) and Achievement Indicators for the new math curriculum related to your particular grade level, here they are!  :) You can print off the whole package (K-7) or just the grade(s) you teach.

ministry of education – math irps

Carole

De-mystifying the multiplication chart November 9, 2008

Here is a post for Hilde and friends…  

I promised to send along my powerpoint slide with the animations to show how the multiplication chart is full of patterns – and how learning strategies for mastering the facts makes it manageable. 

hope it’s helpful.

demystifying the multiplication chart powerpoint

The Order of Operations Bowling Game November 6, 2008

Here’s a game we played today in grade 7, to practice and apply the notion of order of operations – that when you have a string of operations to perform, it matters in what order you apply those operations.  It’s a bowling game. The goal of the game is to “knock down” as many of the 10 bowling pins as you can, by creating number sentences from 3 digits rolled at random by the kids.  Students can use any operation, even exponents and brackets to create a true statement for each of the numbers.  This is a fun and engaging game – and students will work hard to practice and apply their understandings of “BEDMAS” or “PEDMAS” to get a “strike”… We did today – knocking down all ten pins with equations created with only the digits 1, 2 and 5!

order-of-operations-bowling-game

The game comes from Marilyn Burns’ website (www.mathsolutions.com) where she features sample lessons drawn from her extensive collection of teacher resource books – all free.  The tasks range from k-8 or 9 and are conceptual and fun.  Check them out at her site: Lessons from the Classroom

Enjoy!

Carole

Magnetic Tape November 2, 2008

Doesn’t SOUND like a math post, does it?  Except that I have shown this stuff off at so many workshops lately and feel compelled to share what this extremely useful tape looks like….

I have been buying Modern Craft Magnetic Tape on a tape dispenser at my local dollar store (Richmond, BC).  I stick it onto the back of all sorts of printed images (penguins, lips, red and yellow apples…) to model children’s solutions to open-ended math problems.  When a child tells me that there were 13 apples in a bag, and that 6 of them were yellow and 7 were red, I like to be able to model that solution so we can “check it” as a class.  Using magnetic tape on the back of a simple image (clip art is magic…) allows children to move the pictures and re-create their thinking on the white board in front of their peers in a representation all can understand – and see – from the back of the room!

Carole