Mr. Giso's Ways to Learn at Home #8

"Math Curse" 

Read Aloud, Draw It, Place It & Read It! Game, and Numbers All Around Us Journal

Hello, hello mathematicians!

This "Ways to Learn at Home" is about mathematics.  To get us thinking about how mathematics is all around us ALL the time, I have picked an animated version of the fun book Math Curse written by Jon Scieszka (below) and illustrated by Lane Smith.  This adventure begins with Ms. Fibonacci announcing in class that "You can think of almost anything as a math problem."  Click HERE

to listen and watch the story.  As you listen, be thinking about your home and the world around you.  Where do you see mathematics?  Think numbers, shapes, patterns, measurements and fractions, OH MY!

                                                

                                        

Play Draw It, Place It & Read It! 

With Your Family

After listening to Math Curse, I bet you are ready to play around with some numbers.  I have a really fun game.  To get ready to play this game you need about 3 sets of cards with the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 written on them (only one digit on a card).  Mix the cards up and place them in a bag, bowl or even a pillow case.  Before you cut the cards, they could look something line this.

Once you have the cards, you can either make a chart for each player to record your numbers like the chart below, or print out a chart for each player by clicking HERE.

To play the game:

1.  Choose one person to be the caller.  For each round, the caller draws 3 numbers for a digit in the    

         hundreds, or four cards for a digit in the thousands etc.  Decide this ahead of time.  Place an "x" 

         in the spots you will NOT be using.

2.  After each draw, players record the digit that was drawn in any column on the first row of the place value chart below.  Once a digit is recorded, it can’t be changed. Use a marker.  Strategize!

3.  After all the places are filled, the person who makes and reads the highest number earns a point.  Move to the next row on the place value chart for the next round.

4.  Keep playing until the paper is filled.  The person with the most number of points wins.  As a challenge, play again.  This time award points for making the smallest number.

In the comments section of this post, let me know who is the winner.  Of course, learning a strategy for making the largest or smallest number is the point.  Having fun is a lot more important than winning.

Write in a Daily Journal after Reading

Mr. Giso's Journal Idea #8

After reading and listening to "Math Curse," search around your home pretending that you have "caught the curse!"  Where do you see mathematics?  Describe what you see and how you know it's connected to mathematics.  What do you realize has a little bit of math in it, after listening to the book?  I can't wait to hear your thoughts.  You can also write me to explain the strategy you discovered in the game.  Be specific and use an example.

Print out my "Journal Pages" by clicking HERE if you'd like to have some paper.  There's a spot for an illustration, too.

Diary of My Mathematics Center Makeover

An itch for spring cleaning combined with the new Common Core State Standards for Mathematics put me to work throughout the month of February.  My goal was to give my Mathematics Center a makeover consisting of the following.

               1.  Updated Content:  The Common Core requires that I teach some new terminology and concepts such as the associative property of addition, and that students utilize a 120 Grid as opposed to a Hundred Grid, for example.  Also, some concepts are now deemed no longer appropriate for the first grade.

               2.  Less Clutter:  My bulletin board in my center-- although colorful and rich in appropriate content-- was very busy.  I found that my students rarely used the visuals without me prompting that helpful content was up on the board.  Furthermore, the table had hardly any room for the students to write on it or use it for centers.

               3.  Better Storage:  I wanted to be able to house more manipulatives in an organized, uniform way that was easy to identify where each manipulative was located.  I wanted a clean look.

               4.  More Usage:  I wished for there to be a way for my students to access the information on the bulletin board other than trying to see it from their desks or getting up and down, and up again, to find what they were seeking.

The results are finished!  Check out these two before pics.  I loved the center as is but wanted it to be even better.  Notice the busy bulletin board and crowded table.

Mathematics Center Before

Table Before

Here is my Mathematics Center after...drumroll please...

New and Improved Mathematics Center

One of the things that you may notice is how I tossed the mix and match bins and bought matching bins.  This made the same amount of "stuff" look less cluttered.  Here you see my find at a local Big Lots.  Gotta love those closeouts!  By creating labels for the bins, everything has a spot and everything is easy to locate.

Each of the posters you see on my bulletin board is now copied and laminated multiple times and stored in our Math Tool Box.  This way if someone wants a money or greater than and less than poster, they can just take the visual and bring it to their seats.  In the Tool Box are my new colorful 120 Grids, too.

I also updated my Estimation Station which includes a jar, a binder to record past estimates (for students to use for strategy purposes), record sheets for student estimates and a bin in which students place their completed estimates.

I also made a banner for the Math Center and used colorful clothespins and ribbon to hang it.

All the posters, labels, banner, 120 grids, estimation materials and more are featured in my newest item.   I cleverly titled it Common Core All in One Math Center.  You can click here to get it.  Now that my Mathematics Center has had it's makeover, I'm off to tackle the supply cart--the Mathematics Center's neighbor.  Wish me luck.

Solving Number Stories

As part of our new system of teacher evaluation, teachers in my district were asked to create a SMART goal based on "student achievement."  This is quite new and daunting for a lot of reasons. We all know that the effective teacher has high expectations for ALL his or her students.  Conversely, we also know that there are many barriers that we as educators must overcome to get all learners to meet our high expectations.  Typical hurdles include different cognitive abilities, different levels of parental involvement, different levels of English-speaking, different levels of support staff and materials at hand and different socio-economical statuses.   These are just a sampling of what we as teachers encounter daily.
Since literacy is definitely "my thing," I chose to focus my student-achievement goal on mathematics--solving number stories-- in particular.  I used data from my previous first graders' end-of-the-year mathematics assessment results which indicated to me that the number of my students that were able to solve number stories had room for improvement.
From there, I needed to make a principal-approved action plan to boost student achievement.  My plan roughy included the following steps.
     1.  Create Number Story Journals:  I made one out of a small blue exam book for each of my students.  In this book, I glued our strategies for solving number stories visual that had been previously taught.

     2.  Develop a Rubric:  I devised a rubric to measure each of my first grader's responses to solving a number story.  Consulting our state's open response rubrics, I created my original, student friendly version.

     3.  Get Baseline Data: I glued a number story in the journals and let my students answer the first story problem "cold turkey."
     4.  Introduce Rubric:  I graded the first responses according to a scale of 1-4, and went over my rubric that had been glued into their journal.  I went over the scores and the rubric.
     5.  Introduce Checklist:  My students were concerned about having so much to remember to "get a 4."  They were pleased when I showed them my checklist to help them come up with the best solution.

     6.  Get Round 2 Data:  I glued in a second number story and students solved it using all three visuals (the rubric, the checklist and the solving number story strategies reminder).
     7.  Score Round 2 Responses:  I scored and noted differences in my students' responses.
     8.  Repeat:  Continue to showcase exemplars of high quality responses using my ENO Board and document camera and keep track of my data for the remainder of the year.  In addition, it will be necessary to make some small groups of students who need further support and interventions with solving number stories successfully.
So far, my results have been quite impressive!  My last record shows that 51% of my first graders had their score (1-4) increase since the baseline assessment.  How's that for results?  Check out these before the checklist and rubric and after the checklist and rubric pics. BEFORE Notice the brief, limited responses and poor record of thinking.

AFTER Notice the elaborated, detailed responses and use of multiple thinking strategies.

Grab all three Solving Number Stories visuals by clicking here.  Overall, it's pretty neat that I was able to set this goal, specifically fine-tune my teaching based on a need and see very quick results.  I'm happy, and my young mathematicians are happy!  I'd love to hear any goals you have created based on student achievement too.

A Number Story Solving Guide Visual

Happy Monday, friends!  Today I introduced solving number stories with my first graders.  It was after lunch. They did pretty well.  I immediately made a note that some of my students relied on their fingers to solve the number stories.  This may be all well and good, but they need to move on to a more practical way, as not all number stories involve numbers ten or less.  I also observed that some students knew very well that when "Frank caught 7 fish and threw 6 back, he was left with 1," but did not have a strategy to explain their thinking or to show their work.  Before I head to bed, I quickly made up this visual.  Click here to see this visual in my Tpt store. Look forward to an update when I use this product tomorrow afternoon.

Happy October!