The Greedy Triangle

I found this book on YouTube. After listening to the book I thought it would be a great book to share with a classroom of k-3 kids. There are two things being covered in this book. A triangle who over times keeps adding one side and one angle to become a new shape. Students would be learning about the different shapes through out the book. Also there is a lesson her on being greedy and always wanting more and something different. Being greedy for the Triangle got him into a mess and he wanted to be back to his original triangle form. I think students would enjoy this book and it could lead into some fun lessons.

Lesson Idea:

Find my shape!
Each student would get a worksheet that had a list of pictured shapes. Students would have to go around the classroom and find objects in the classroom that have the shape on there list. Students will draw the things they find in the classroom that matches the shape they were looking for.

Lattice Method for Mulitpilication

           One of our video's this week for my Math Methods class was a tutorial YouTube video on the Lattice Method. The video I have included is similar but a little bit shorter and a better understanding of how it works. (Especially for carrying the numbers)

 

Each box that is divided holds a tens spot and a ones spot. If there is a larger number that is when you would carry the hundred to the next diagonal as the video shows. 

You must always fill the tens and ones box even if the number is less than ten. If the number is less than ten you would put a zero in the tens spot and the number in the ones spot.  Once you've filled in all the multiplication to the table its time to add the diagonal lines up. The answer is read from the top left down and to the right. 

I found a really kid friendly, bright and fun website that explains the lattice method in simple terms and from the very core. I think this might be a great website to pull up on the projector during this lesson to assist me. Let me know what you think about this websites take on the lattice method. 

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/times-tables/times-tables-lesson-lattice-multiplication-1.html 

 

           Before this semester in college I had never seen or heard of the lattice method. The lattice method is an alternative way to do long multiplication. With a grid like system and diagonals you are able to find the answer to a multiplication problem. It's actually pretty cool that this system works for all numbers to be multiplied together. I think that it is another way for students to check their work if they are unsure with their standard algorithm multiplication answer.

Tips for Teaching Elementary Math

I came across a website that listed their top nine tips for teaching elementary. Worksheetlibrary.com lists nine tips and I have included eight of them below with my thoughts on each.

1. Keep a positive attitude.

Attitude is so important in school and as a life skill. Our attitudes are something WE can control and to have a positive attitude can make any situation better. As teachers we are the role models and we should be going into all of our lessons with a positive attitude. Students can tell if you have a negative attitude towards something.

2. Make sure the child understands the assignment.

This seems like an obvious tip but I feel like it is over looked to often. Many kids can pretend to understand or don't want to admit they don't understand something. It's important to check in with students as they are working to make sure they understand how to do the work.
 

3. Explore math in your day to day routines.

 Math doesn't just have to be in a book or on a worksheet. The classroom and daily routines are full of opportunities to help make math "real". Worksheetlibrary.com gave the examples of using the clock minutes for adding and subtracting or the boys and girls in the classroom. Even dividing a classroom up in "half"- that is a visual for students as to what is "half" of something.

4. Get kids talking.

We recently read about cooperative learning in my Math Methods class and I think that cooperative learning can be very beneficial for students.  When kids work together in smaller groups will be exposed to working together, seeing other views besides their own and realizing they can learn from each other.  Communication in the classroom is very important! (That could be a whole other post!)

5. Teach time.

Using time as a free tool to help students understand adding and subtracting is great. Time is something that will be used for their whole lives. Not only can it help with help with time but also time management. 

6. Make math fun.

Math can be a dreadful thing for people. With the help of the amazing technology there are a lot of tools available to us to help us make our lesson's more fun! Math can be fun and especially with younger students you need to keep their attention.

7. Computers make useful tools.

Back to the technology! Computers are so great for many things but with math as well. Today their are many free games for computers that are math friendly and fun. Kids seem to really enjoy them. One site the kids from my middle school loved to play was www.coolmath-games.com .

8. Parents and teachers should maintain communication.

Lastly, an important tip for teaching elementary math is keeping a good connection with students parents. Many times the students will have work that will need to be brought home to finish or a test to study for. If students are kept up to date with what is being taught they will have an advantage of helping their students in any way. This is where a blog might be helpful. By updating the blog with what's going on in the classroom, parents can check in and stay on track with you as the teacher.

Teaching elementary math will be a learning experience I think. At first we may find it to be overwhelming but with time and finding great resources I think we can all be great elementary teachers! 

Cooperative Learning

         Cooperative learning is learning together in groups. I think cooperative learning can be a great approach to teaching many topics and kids have fun interacting with each other too!
          Instantly after reading about cooperative learning I thought of my mentors classroom at Diamond Middle School. A few times a year she does a cooperative learning exercise that the kids LOVE. It's her version of Family Feud. Mrs. Crowne breaks the students into two groups of 12, and the desks are set up facing each other in two long rows on both sides of the classroom. Mrs. Crowne sits in the middle of the two rows and reads aloud a math question. Students are to solve the problem as a "family." Everyone must show their work and understand how to get to the answer before raising their hand to lock in the answer.
         This activity was so much more than I expected! The students were so excited about playing and after Mrs. Crowne gave the questions students jumped into solving in small groups amongst their bigger groups. Once a few students got the answer they started to circulate around their bigger group and ask if anyone needed help. Students who had no history of being friends were actively engaged together working on the problems. It was so awesome to see! It is a game I will definitely be using in my future classroom.
         After research I found that some pro's to cooperative learning are: alternative points of views are being shared, students thinking is broadening, it helps social and personal development by communicating with others. It can also be a lot of FUN!

Rules to Crowne Family Feud 

• Desks completely cleared. (Facing each other in two rows on both sides of the classroom)

• Each student can have a pencil, eraser and scrap paper provided. 

• Teacher separates group to keep things even as far as math skill level.

• Every student must have the problems work written on their paper and be able to explain if called on. 

• Once everyone in the "Family" has the answer and work to be shown everyone must raise their hand. 

• The team that has their hands all raised first gets to go to the board and show their work to the answer. 

• If the team who goes to the board first gets the answer wrong, the other team gets a chance to steal the points by going up to the board and showing the work to their answer. 

• Points are made by the teacher based on level of difficulty. 

Mrs. Crowne takes full advantage of the point system! Depending on the day she may take points off for talking out of turn, not paying attention, being too silly, etc. But boy, does this really get students back to reality! No one wants to loose points for the team! 

 

Using Number Lines

Using number lines is a great way to introduce adding and subtracting numbers. It’s a fantastic visual that students can have in front of them and physically move a marker to add more or take some away. Number lines will be extremely helpful when you get into adding and subtracting negative numbers as well. 

 

A number line is a straight line with equally separated dashes. Each dash represents a whole number in this situation. Numbers go from zero to… “Infinity and beyond” as Buzz Lightyear would say, in both the positive and negative directions. The arrows show us that it continues on.

Now, I stumbled upon a really neat and FREE application or “App” for elementary kids on Ipads. Ipads are becoming more popular in schools. As teachers we should take full advantage of that opportunity and become familiar with the technology and find some helpful resources for our classroom. I found an app called “Little Monkey Apps”. (You can download for free on Ipad or Iphone) I’ve attached the youtube tutorial video below so you can get the full feel of this application. Basically, it’s a kid friendly number line that uses frogs as moveable markers. There is a variety of things you could do with this app: Adding, subtracting, and counting by odds or evens are just a few things. It’s really fun and I think that kids would love it. It makes cute little frog noises too when you move them.  Thankfully for us teachers there is also a tutorial for teachers to read the full advantages of this Ipad/Iphone application. 

Check it out:

http://youtu.be/kZ33tdmuDcM