Basic Facts

So I've been thinking about how my 3rd graders struggle with their basic multiplication facts. I'm also a private math tutor for a 3rd grader, from another school, who struggles with addition & subtraction facts but not multiplication. It has me wondering, do teachers really just give these students a list of facts and expect them to memorize them?

During our education courses, we took a course that taught us how to teach number strategies and another course that taught us how to access and correct. There are so many different number strategies or "tricks" we can teach our students; so why don't we?

I'm working to teach these students different relationships and strategies to help them remember their facts. If you can help students understand why, then they have a better chance of remembering.  If we help them understand how to work with the numbers and let them do things with them instead of simply drilling them (which is still important) they'll understand and remember.

I'll leave you with a couple of quotes/sayings that I like:

"Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Let me do and I understand."

 -Confucius

I do, You watch

I do, You help

You do, I help

You do, I watch

~Steph

The many ways of math

What's your favorite math topic to cover with your students? I honestly can't pick just one. I love math! I have been so blessed to be working in this position in an EIP math class. I think one thing I love most about math is that there are so many different ways to approach it. And I think that's one of the biggest things we need to remember as teachers, really in any subject. A couple of my students are English Language Learners so it's even harder for them to understand some ways that things are explained.

I love when I'm explaining a concept in class and everyone is on the same page. It's a great feeling. But at the same time, there are days when I realize I don't have everyone following the lesson. The great thing about math is being able to stop and explain it a different way to where hopefully they can better understand it. Sometimes we may not know another way to explain it, but it's ok have your students help you out. Choose a student who gets it and ask that student to explain what you're doing in his/her own words. You can even have a few students do this. Or partner students. This has really worked well for my group.

How do you feel about math? What do you do when you are losing students with your explanation?

~Steph

Review, review, review!

It's Monday again..we're getting ready to wind down the school year. My 1st and 2nd grade kiddos are getting ready to take the district's version of the CRCT (a really heavy, thick benchmark that encompasses the whole year basically) so I'm working with them to piece together any missing strings before then. My 3rd and 4th graders on the other hand are done with testing. We are working on reviewing the weakest areas for the group to help prepare them for next year. I wish we could get stuff together for the summer to bridge the gap, but the truth is it wouldn't do any good. I wish it weren't the case, but the students I work with don't have the support they need at home. They wouldn't be held accountable for doing it during the summer. The school is offering a paid summer camp for $15 per day which will include some summer school/tutoring sessions, but unfortunately none of my students will be attending this either.

On the math topic, my poor third grade babies are struggling with memorizing multiplication facts. They do timed drills daily, but this week we're going to work on delving into number sense and different strategies.

My second grade loves focused on reviewing money today. We will be hitting the different standards to refresh their memories.

I'm only with these kiddos three more weeks. I'll definitely be visiting the last week of school to participate in field day and end of the year programs. It's definitely bittersweet right now. Here's to hoping something comes along for next year!

~Steph

Place Value

Happy Monday friends! As you know, I work with struggling students. My second and third graders struggle with place value. What's so funny, I don't feel like struggle with the "place" part as much as they do the "value" part. There can tell me where the digit goes in the number, but struggle to understand that a 2 in the tens place has a value of 20. We've worked on reviewing it for the last two weeks with different activities. I decided they needed a bit more practice with the different forms of numbers and place value (standard form, written form, expanded form, and base 10). I searched and searched for what I wanted. I decided to make some task cards to use with them. I paired them up and had them work together to do the task card practice, but each student had a recording sheet to complete. Their partner was more so there to help if they were completely stuck. This way I could move around the room to help, but they could ask their partner too. They did a great job, and I feel like it really helped to put it all together.

Here's the packet you can check it out in our TpT store (click image below):

It has 4 task cards; each of the cards has one form of the number. The students have to complete the recording sheet by filling in the corresponding card number and all four forms of the given number.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! We're back to state testing tomorrow...two more to go!

~Steph

For the Love of Pi

Hey guys sorry its a day late but this week for Maniac Math Monday I want to discuss calculating with circles and pi. When I student taught last year circumference was a huge topic. One of the hardest concepts when discussing circumference or the area of circle is pi. Pi is such an abstract concept for students. Most just don’t understand why we have to use a random 3.14…blah blah… number to find the area or circumference of a circle. Well we did an activity that showed students why pi was “3…and a little”.

Students were given circular objects and given yarn. The students then had to take yarn and place it around the round edge of a circular object and cut it so that is it exactly the length of the outside edge of the circle. Then the students had to find the diameter of the round object with a ruler. Once finding the diameter the students take their yarn and measure off the diameter and cut the yarn into however many “diameters” they can. If done properly all students will get “three and a little” (pi = 3.14) to show why we use pi for calculations with circles.

I enjoyed doing this activity with my students. It helps pi make a bit more sense and helps them remember what number pi is.

Have you done an activity similar to this? 

~Manda

Probability Possibilities

 
Hey guys! We are both sorry for not posting last week but it was spring break here and it was a crazy week. Did anyone else have an insane spring "break"? We will be back this week so keep a look out for our daily post. To kick of the new week here is the new Maniac Math Monday!
Steph talked about her behavior system with Skittles recently and it has got me thinking about one of my favorite activities to do with Skittles. I have used Skittles when introducing and discussing Probability. Probability can be an abstract concept for students and it helps to have a hands on activity to discuss. In this activity each student would be given a certain amount of skittles (fun size bags work perfect for this) and they would sort them by color. As a class we would discuss how to calculate the probability of getting certain colors in a bag of skittles. I would have each student find the probability based on what they were given. Then as a class we would discuss it and find the probable percentages based on the class totals. It is fun to see what colors occurred the most and compare individual results to the classroom results. Students love this activity especially the part where they eat the skittles at the end! ;)

What activities have you done for Probability? What activities have you done with candy?




~Manda

Time and Time Again

Remember me telling you how all my kiddos were learning about time to some extent? If you missed it you can read about that in our Time post to see who is learning what this year.

Well, here's a question for you. What do you do when you realize you're 2 weeks away from the state standardized test and they know nothing? Yes my kiddos struggle, that's why they come to my class, but my 3rd grade babies are suppose to be dealing with elapsed time. They can't even remember how many hours are in a day. I was worried about my group so I met with one of the 3rd grade teachers at the school, and apparently mine aren't the only ones having a hard time with it.

I've been trying to review elapsed time with them like I was asked, but I realized they just weren't getting it...no wonder! During a whole group "quick review," I asked my 3rd graders how many minutes had passed if the start time was 2:50 P.M. and the end time was 3:20 P.M. None of them seemed to know where to start so I led them along by drawing a 'timeline' on the board and starting at 2:50 P.M. I asked them what time it would be if I added 10 minutes. After a moment or so I had one student yell out 2:60. My response was "Ok well yes that's close, but..." and another student says "Oh 2:75." So I decided we needed to back up for a minute and discuss clock/time basics really quickly. Only this "quick" discussion took the rest of our class time and I think only confused them more. These babies were so lost! I just didn't understand! So now I'm trying to get some stuff together to help them understand all the way from the basics to where they should be.

What would you do in this situation?

~Steph

Money, Money, Money

This past week one my groups of 2nd grade kiddos focused on money. We worked in centers (something new for them in this class). They really enjoyed doing these centers and I liked how well they ran too!

Here's the centers I used:
Click on the image to download from each TpT store!

This is a lesson I created and used two years ago, but I still really like it! The students completed two of the worksheets independently. Then I led a guided center with the cards, baggies of coins, and other worksheets. While this can be done independently by higher performing students, I find it is best to work with the students in a guided small group. 

This is from Carrie's Creations. I filled 12 plastic eggs with different amounts of coins and placed them in an Easter basket. The kiddos enjoyed getting to open the eggs and count the coins.

This is from Christie Uribe. I placed various coupons in a baggie. My students chose one coupon each and then they were to show 3 different ways to make the amount shown on the coupon.








~Steph

Time

Speaking of time, I feel like the day has flown by as did our weekend! We enjoyed visiting family and meeting our beautiful niece Cady this weekend, but now it's Monday and it's back to reality.

This week we decided to talk about time. More than likely you have to cover time this year to some extent. Especially if you are in Georgia (or use Common Core). For instance, my EIP math kids are almost all working on time. My first graders are learning to read and tell time to the hour and to the half-hour on analog and digital clocks. My second graders are learning to tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m. Then my third graders are learning to tell and write time to the nearest minute and measure time intervals in minutes. They are also learning to solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of time intervals in minutes.

What grade level do you teach and where? Are you covering time this year? How are you helping your students learn this concept?

~Steph

Math Challenge Review Pack

 Hey everyone it is the start of a new week and time for our second Maniac Math Monday! We have been working really hard on a project we would like to share with everyone this week. As we all know the end of the year can be very stressful for students and teachers with all the end of the year assessments. We have made a packet that serves as a way to review with your students and also allows teachers to see what areas the students are struggling with. We even used it in the place of weekly homework. It is a very useful tool to alleviate some of that end of the year stress.

We call this math packet the “Math Challenge” and it is aligned with the Georgia 5^th grade Math Common Core Standards. It covers many of the topics that are covered throughout the year. It includes daily practice as well as weekly projects. It is designed to take 4 weeks to complete but can be graded weekly in order to assess how students are doing. 

We have posted the full "Math Challenge" in our TpT store and we also have a free preview for everyone to check out. Lets us know what you think!

What are some ways you like to prepare your students for their end of the year assessments? Do you think a challenge like this could be beneficial for your students? 

~Steph & Manda

Review that gets your students moving!

 Our first Maniac Math Monday is here and we have been thinking all week about what to talk about with everyone. We want to talk to you about an exciting product we are working on but it isn’t quite finished yet. Therefore instead we decided to think about something fun that could be done in all math classes. 

I began thinking about ways for the students to review topics covered earlier in the year. As the school year gets closer to all those end of the year test teachers are constantly faced with needing review games and activities to keep students thinking as well as keep them engaged. When I was student teaching I used activities my supervising teachers called “Gallery Walks” to review with my students. These “Gallery Walks” were a great way for students to review any topic but I always enjoyed how they worked in Math.

The teacher would post up word problems around the room. Each word problem had a corresponding picture on the page as well. The teacher would give each student a paper with the pictures from each word problem; this served as a reference for how many problems they had to find. The students would then have to “visit” each picture in the “gallery” and solve the word problem. The students would be checked off by the teachers and be given a sticker or signature marking the picture they completed. The students were told that they were to act as if they were in a real art gallery and they could not talk. I never had a problem with this activity getting out of hand because the students enjoyed getting out of their seats and doing this type of activity.

I feel that this is a great review activity for students and it also allowed students to work at their own pace. It also gives teachers a chance to check the student’s ability in a wide range of topics.  

Have you done any activities similar to this in your classrooms? Do you think it could be beneficial for reviewing topics with your students? We want to know what you think!

-         - Manda

Schedule

We're not happy with the lack of posting taking place. So we've decided to design a schedule of weekly posts to keep us on track, as mentioned in the Excitement post. (We're determined to start getting organized in life!)

Our posts will consists of information, ideas, stories, etc from Steph's adventure as a long term EIP sub, our student teaching adventures, things from our TpT store, and general experiences.

Here's what the schedule will look like:

Maniac Math Monday will consist of posts of math activities, worksheets, ideas, etc that we have seen, used, or made. Being an EIP math sub will play a big part in this. Also, both of us have spent a lot of time with math in student teaching! 

Too Much To Talk About Tuesday will be our random day. We'll talk about whatever this day! For things that don't seem to fit into a subject category such as classroom management or just the funny, crazy, and strange things we've seen and heard!

Tech Wiz Wednesday will be where we share ideas of how to implement different technology into your instruction. We'll also have weeks where we share technology tips from our many adventures. Computers, tablets, Microsoft Office, blogging, various websites, etc if it's technology you can bet there's a chance you'll find it here!

Through Time and Space Thursday will be our day to talk about all things Science and Social Studies. We'll discuss different activities and resources we've come across that help make learning (and teaching) these sometime seemingly tedious subjects.

Friend or Foe Friday will be our day to discuss Reading and Language Arts. Many people either LOVE or HATE one or both of these subjects. Teachers struggle with ideas for instruction and students struggle with remembering all the rules. Each week we'll discuss various topics for these subjects and you can decide if it's your (or your students') friend or foe.

We will be starting these posts on Monday, March 4th, 2013! If you have an idea for something you'd like for us to discuss, we'd love to hear it! Comment below or send us an email!

~Steph & Manda