MATH STUFF #17
1/25/16
LEGO – Not Just for Playtime
Chances are that if you are a parent or teacher, you already know, at least in theory, that these sturdy plastic blocks have huge intrinsic educational value. Along with the obvious creative implications, while children play with LEGO blocks, they are also building their spatial and proportional awareness. Advanced LEGO kits are even used on the high school and college level for computer programming, robotics, and more.
Let’s face it though – many elementary school teachers are women who, like me, did not grow up as LEGO experts. And until you’ve had some firsthand experience playing around with the blocks, you may not be comfortable using it as a teaching tool. So, here is my plea: Find some LEGO bricks in a storage closet or basement, and take some time exploring how they work. Count the studs, explore the dimensions, build some towers. And I guarantee, you’ll now be thinking … MATH!
LEGO for Building Part-Part-Total Thinking
For younger mathematicians, composing and decomposing numbers is a key component of building the number sense needed for arithmetic operations. Students begin with small landmark numbers such as five (one hand) or six (a standard die,) and build towards the all-important ten.
LEGO bricks are awesome for part-part-total explorations! As with other popular part-part-total math manipulatives such as dominoes or dice, these bricks have clearly marked chits (on LEGO we call them studs) for students to count. The studs are often grouped in twos, which facilitate counting by twos rather than counting the studs individually. With practice, students will recognize arrangements of studs, and will not need to count them at all (subitizing).
Download the LEGO Part-Part-Total Six and Ten Frame template.
Download the LEGO Part-Part-Total Diagram template.
EMS-ISD "FIRST IN MATH" LEADER BOARD AS OF 1/25/16
ESTAR/MSTAR TESTING IS OPEN
January 11, 2016–February 12, 2016
Diagnostic Window:
January 18, 2016–February 19, 2016
3RD 9 WEEKS - SKILLS BLOCK 5TH GRADE WEEK 2
· Same Sized Pieces Activity - See eduphoria –Skills Block tab titled “same sized pieces.pdf”
· GCF to Simplify Fractions - See eduphoria – Skills Block tab titled “GCF to Simplify.pdf”
5TH GRADE PACING FOR 3RD 9 WEEKS: Weeks 1 to 4
Tackling Fractions with LEGO
Fractions always seem to trip up my students. Things get murky when we’re talking about different size “wholes” or when we switch from thinking about the fractions of one whole to fractions of a set. The only way to combat fraction-mayhem is to provide students with a LOT of opportunities to experience fractions with tangible objects. Pattern blocks are a popular fraction manipulative, but I like LEGO even more. (Pattern blocks can only be broken down into sixths when using the hexagon as one-whole. LEGO blocks have many more possibilities!)
Download my Equivalent Fractions Exploration with LEGO activity.
3RD 9 WEEKS - SKILLS BLOCK 4TH GRADE WEEK 2
· Measuring to nearest ½, ¼ and 1/8 inch and analyze data through line plots – see eduphoria- skills block tab titled “measurements & line plots2.doc”
· Order whole numbers to one billion – Teacher creates activities to review rounding
4TH GRADE PACING FOR 3RD 9 WEEKS: Weeks 1 to 4
RECOMMENDED WEBSITE USE
FASTT MATH
FIRST IN MATH
THINK THROUGH MATH
LEGO = Colorful Ready-Made Arrays
As a third grade teacher, I’ve spent hours and hours drawing arrays, modeling how to skip count with arrays, deconstructing arrays, and building arrays with a myriad of tiny things. (Raisins, pennies, grains of rice …) After all, internalizing why and how arrays work is a cornerstone of building multiplicative thinking among my budding mathematicians. (For more ideas about building multiplication concepts, see my blog post Total Recall: Helping Our Students Memorize Multiplication Facts.)
Having a collection of LEGO pieces on hand during multiplication lessons is so useful. I whip a few out to reinforce the area model, to demonstrate square numbers, and to remind my students about the commutative property of multiplication. Here’s a photo tour of some of the possibilities for using Lego to teach multiplication, and of course, its twin sibling, division.
Download my Multiplication and Division Exploration with LEGO for students to complete independently or with a partner.
3RD 9 WEEKS - SKILLS BLOCK 3RD GRADE WEEK 2
· Multiplication/Division Fact Fluency-each student is working on activities to support their individual goal
· Teacher created Area and Perimeter Projects (Could use the Closing the Distance Resource)
· Continue work on understanding story problems from all operations (+,-,x,÷ ) by reading, retelling, modeling/acting out, and choose the operation. Do a sorting activity in which students sort problems into the operation they would use, justify their thinking based on the action that is happening in the story (refer to action anchor charts for proof) and write the equation that matches. Then solve and record answers on griddables (if answer is griddable).
3RD GRADE PACING FOR 3RD 9 WEEKS: Weeks 1 to 4
MATH APPS
Tim D'Amico - Math Interventionist
Email: tdamico@ems-isd.net
Website: http://www.emsisd.com/Domain/4257
Location: Fort Worth, TX, United States
Phone: 3222
Twitter: @MathStuffNews