October 2GetherWeAreBetter

I’m so excited to be linking up with two of my favorite bloggers, Ashley and Angie, for a linky about one of my favorite subjects….math!



I am so excited to share 2 of my favorite math strategies for this month’s 2getherwearebetter!





Two to three times a week we begin our math time with problem solving journals.  I project a problem on the smart board.  I try to write the problems using my students’ names and they love when I find Melonheadz that look like them!

I give them quiet problem solving time.  While they are working, I make the rounds encouraging and coaching as needed.  The important thing is that we are working on our perseverance.  We are working on not giving up if the first strategy we try doesn’t work, we are working on checking to make sure our answer is reasonable and makes sense.  We are working on explaining our thinking and constructing viable arguments.  We work on modeling mathematics and use appropriate tools. Sound familiar?  Our problem solving routine covers 7 of the 8 mathematical practices!

 

During our quiet problem solving time students can use any tool available to help them.  I have bins set up with different kinds of math manipulatives and tools.  After quiet time we take our journals and walk around the room doing pair share.  They take turns explaining how they solved the problem.  If they don’t have a solution yet they talk through all of the strategies they’ve tried.  It’s amazing to hear them talk about their thinking with each other.  It’s also amazing to hear them coach each other through struggles and offer each other ideas!


My other favorite strategy is one of my favorite parts of our day!





If you never heard of Number Talks I highly recommend checking them out.  I am in love with them.  My kids are in love with them.  I had two groups of visiting teachers in my room this week to observe our Number Talks and they loved them and couldn’t believe the vocabulary my kids were using and how they were discussing their thinking! 


You can read about my love for Number Talks in a previous post HERE.


Here is what our board looked like after our Number Talk today.





We have been busy adding to our Number Talk Tool Box this week too. 





Again, this strategy hits 7 of the 8 mathematical practices.  And to hear your kids saying things like, “I decomposed the number 88 into 80 and 8….,”  and asking each other questions like, “Can you explain why you subtracted 6 at the end?”  is the most amazing thing ever! 


You can check out the Number Talks book HERE and be sure to check out my previous post!


I’m so excited to go read about some other great math games and strategies!

An InLinkz Link-up

Visual Plans (Tons of Freebies!)

It’s back to school this week.  We had a relaxing break.  The oldest made it back from her NYC trip, she had so much fun she didn’t want to come home!  We got our spring cleaning finished, visited my sister and nieces in Tucson, and threw a sweet sixteen party for the oldest!  Tomorrow is back to reality!

It’s always hard to get back into the swing of things and I know it won’t be any different for my 31 sweet kiddos tomorrow!

Here are my visual plans for the week.  Don’t forget that you have to click on them to download the pdf to get all of the clickable links to the freebies and on sale items!

 

The Gold Rush passage to go with the True/False sort is from Read Works.  Click here to download it.  You may need to register for a free account if you don’t already have one, and if you don’t already have one, I highly recommend it!  They have amazing lessons and passages with comprehension questions and they are all lexile leveled!  It’s a great sight!

I absolutely love starting our math time together with Number Talks.  You can check out my blog post about my love of Number Talks here.  After our Number Talk, we head back to our seats and do a little CGI style problem solving in our math notebooks.  I uploaded the problems that I will be using this week and you can download them for FREE by clicking the link on the visual plans!  We will also be using my March Madness Math centers.  You can grab those on sale for 20% off this week!

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway, it’s ending tonight!  And stay tuned for my new blog design!  I’ve been working with the amazing Lindsey from L. Paull Designs for All on a new custom blog design!  I can’t wait for you all to see it, I am absolutely in love with what she has done!!!


Have a great week everyone!

Number Talks {I’m a Believer!}

I posted earlier about my good friend coming to my classroom and modeling how to do a number talk with my class.  Since that day, we have used a number talk as our math warm up every day.  I am a believer…in love…sold.  My copy of the book finally came in and I can’t put it down.

After just two chapters, our number talks this week have already been so much better!  If you are looking for a way to build number sense in your students, to encourage them to think about numbers and number relationships, and to work with students on their communication skills and explaining your thinking, number talks is for you.  I found an introductory video on You Tube that was helpful and watched several others before trying one on my own.  Also, the book comes with a DVD that is full of Number Talks filmed in K-5 classrooms….truly amazing stuff!

Here is a picture of what our board looked like after our number talk last Thursday.

The things I love about Number Talks:

1. My students are looking more at number relationships and patterns and relying less on algorithms.
2. My students are able to explain their thinking more clearly and more precisely.
3. Having to defend their answers has helped them to see when they have made mistakes in their thinking.  More than one kiddo has started to defend their answer, got about a third of the way through, and said, “Oh, wait a minute….”
4. Number Talks use just about every single one of the 8 mathematical practices.
5. I feel like my students are improving at problem solving and persevering. They don’t give up as easily when presented with a challenge.
6. They are developing several strategies so that when one isn’t working for them, they have something else to try.
7. They have starting to look at whether answers are reasonable or not by using estimation.

I am sure as we keep going with our number talks I will have many more to add to the list!

In the meantime, I made these little cards to print and put on a ring that I have with me during our Number Talks and problem solving time.  I am having to train myself to take a step back and let my students do most of the talking.  Number Talks are about their thinking, not mine.  These cards have question stems for each of the 8 mathematical practices. You can click on the picture to download them for free! 

If you use Number Talks in your classroom, I would love to hear more about how they work for you!  If you don’t use them or haven’t heard of them I encourage you to check out the YouTube video and the book.  It is kind of pricey but I went in to my principal, told him what my friend had just done with my kids in my classroom and showed him the book.  He ended up buying it for me and telling me that he possibly wants a presentation on it early next year!  I can definitely see the benefits of having the K-2 teachers on board.  I can’t even imagine the number sense they would come to me with!  It makes my heart swell just thinking about it!