Tuesday Teacher Tips
Focus on Math - activities, books & technology ideas
Ideas for Daily Math Practice
After our last faculty meeting and a discussion of searching for ways to implement more math practice, I went on hunt for ideas. Here are a few that I found, that you might want to explore.
Activities:
- Math Talks - this post at Mrs. McFadden's Classroom Blog is full of example ways you could visually display math expectations for students. It includes anchor charts, free printables for Math Talk Expectations, I can statements, Interactive Notebook reference sheet and a link to a helpful Leveled Math Questions that helps you, as a teacher check for accuracy, understanding and clarity
- Four Strategies to Ignite Math Instruction by Bill Smith identifies four things you could quickly do to help practice math daily. In the section on Daily Math Warm-ups, Smith discusses having a bulletin board in your classroom and a "Fact of the Day". With the fact of the day students spend some time discussing the number in as many different ways as they can. Smith also discusses using vocabulary, drawing and math workshops.
- Number of the Day - With the "Number of the Day" format, you can give students a number and then as a warm up ask them to do different tasks with it, like add and subtract 3, spell it out, create a problem where the number would be the solution. Just enter "Number of the Day" on Pinterest or Google, and you will get all kinds of helpful worksheets and posters that will help you integrate the number of the day practice as a daily warn up. Here's an example of how you could use it at the Intermediate level on Teachers Pay Teacher (freebie) and for Primary, scroll through the ideas here on the Original Math Maniac
- How To: Improve Proficiency in Math-Facts Through a Self Administered Folding-In Technique to help students acquire fluency in math facts you might try the technique described from Interventioncentral.org. In this technique students are given, or create math facts flashcards and then using a dry erase board practices writing answers to math facts. They sort their flashcards into piles of known and unknown and record their progress on sheets. The strategy here includes a checklist with directions and forms for students to log their work.
- Figure Me Out Math Activity - this is a fun one to add to your "Student of the Week" as a challenge. In this activity you can help students develop pre-algebraic thinking by having them create math problems that their classmates can answer to give them information about a particular student. For example have them create a math problem to help people discover their shoe size, height, birthday etc.
Math-inspiration in Books
There are plenty of ways you can introduce math concepts with picture books. Check out some resources below for ideas:
- Teaching Math with Picture Books Part 1: from Scholastic, lists a number of picture books you could incorporate into instructional practice
- As Easy as Pi: Picture books are perfect for teaching math - this School Library Journal has some great suggestions for books you can use to teach specific concepts
- Math Picture Books - includes a great list of ideas for K-2nd grade
Number Talks
- Number Talks - by Sherry Parrish is a professional development book you can use to help children build mental math and computational strategies
Cindy Neuschwander
- Sir Cumference Math Adventure series - help students understand concepts like circumference, radius and diameter. Check out this packet from For the Love of Teaching the Circumference of Circles for a few ideas.
Greg Tang
- Greg Tang books like Math-terpices and The Grapes of Math include puzzles and problem solving inspiration
- Don't miss Tang's website - there's a Thanksgiving Math challenge, word problem generator, math games and materials
Math & Tech - Beyond the Drill and Practice App
If you want to work in some use of technology to your daily math practice, some of these ideas might be useful.
Smart Exchange
Don't reinvent the wheel, you can find inspiration for your next math lesson at Smart Notebook's Smart Exchange. For example check out these lessons for Number Talk Activities. Use the search box on the left to search for other lessons and limit it by grade level to further narrow your results.
Practice Math with QR Codes
The Math Maniac describes a great lesson using QR codes to inspire a math based scavenger hunt.
There are many ways to use QR codes in math, if you're looking for something else search for "Math and QR Codes" to see many different examples.
Hopscotch & Coding
You can help students understand difficult math concepts like angles, x/y coordinates, negative numbers and even decimals through coding apps such as Hopscotch. Check out their curriculum here. See a little more about the app and it's uses on Fractus Learning
A Little More on Coding
Coding can be an excellent way to help students apply math skills. Using coursework in Code.org for example, students can learn about angles in a hands-on way, they have to calculate things in pixels and problem solve.
A few basics on coding and math:
- The Hour of Code this year is December 7-13. Check out some of these resources below that are specific to math that could get your kids practicing math and coding.
- Tynker - math projects
- Coding in the Common Core - Edutopia article with specific common core tie-ins to coding
MinecraftEDU and Math
The use of MinecraftEDU to help teach math skills is really exciting. For ideas, skim through the MinecraftEDU World library (all of which we can add to our server). Students do mental math constantly to craft tools and build in the game. To get started, you can harness the enthusiasm they have for the game by giving them simple math challenges such as using a certain number of blocks to build, figuring out the area of something based on Minecraft blocks, or practicing measurement by shooting arrows or throwing snowballs and calculating how far they traveled under different circumstances. Make the most of your lab time by having students plan ahead of time with graph paper. Check out the YouTube videos below for some ideas.
Minecraft Math: Grade 3 Surface Area
Teaching Math With Minecraft (an Education Experiment)
Minecraft Math Lesson: Volume!
Johnson Elementary Library
For questions/comments or to have your name added/removed from my list, email me below.
Email: heidi.neltner@fortthomas.kyschools.us
Twitter: @heidinelt