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Good morning! I have 2 new book studies planned for this winter and wanted to share the details with you! Coming up next week we will be taking a look at Children's Mathematics .  This is a great book about cognitively guided instruction and will help you help your students construct their own knowledge and develop their own strategies.  This book is full of great ideas for teaching kids addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  This book includes QR codes and URLs to take you to videos of the strategies described in the text.  If a picture is worth 1000 words than a video is priceless!   Starting in January, we will be taking a look at Number Talks which is another resource you will keep going back to.  This book includes a DVD with examples of number talks at each grade level.  If you are a K-5 teacher this will be a  must ready book!   If you are new to my blog or haven't seen one of our book studies before here is how it works...

Recently I have been reading books about play including The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally and Learning Through Play . I have also been following several blogs on Facebook that have inspired me to include more play with learning.  Today I want to share with you one of my first attempts at including more open ended play in math class.  I put together this tray of items and sat with kids as they explored the materials and thought about math.  I tried this out with kids ranging from age 4 to age 8.  The pictures below will show you some of the ways the kids used these materials. Materials List Bingo chips Colored match sticks Number buttons Assorted number dice Dot dice Foam beads Coins Play Dough Ready to go!  I grabbed this sectioned tray at the Dollar Tree Representations of 5.  I love the tally marks and the way they used the dot dice to leave an impression on the dough A student asked me to draw a 10 frame for them.  Then he pl...

Today I want to share with you one of the newest additions to my math literature collection.  This one is great for grades 4-6 or anyone interested in equivalent fractions. Fractions in Disguise   This book is part of the Charlesbridge Math Adventures  series which includes other great upper elementary picture books such as the Sir Cumference  books.  This book is the newest one and was just published this spring. In this story, a young boy by the name of George Factor collects fractions of all types.  He goes to an auction to purchase a rare fraction for his collection but it is stolen before he can bid on it.  He thinks it is the work of the evil Dr. Brok who has been known to steal fractions and disguise them so they can never be found.  George puts together a ray gun using an old keyboard, a whisk and other spare computer parts.  The ray gun is able to reduce fractions and rid them of their disguises.  He goes to Dr. Brok's house and...

Do you have an impressive collection of craft sticks in your classroom?  How about some rubber bands and a sharpie?  If you have this basic supplies you have everything you need to make a fun and easy game that will help your primary students practice a few important skills. I actually use craft sticks a few different ways in the classroom but today I want to share with you how I use them for 10's and 1's.  Each kid or pair of kids needs 10 craft sticks (any size or color).  On one side of each stick, make 1 dot in the middle. On the other side of each stick, make 5 dots on either end.  Now each stick has a 10 on one side and a 1 on the other.   Now you put all of the sticks in your fist and hold them a few inches above the surface of the table or floor and drop them.  Some will land with the 10 side up and some will land with the one side up.  Kids need to figure out how many dots are showing.  When they first start doing this activity, the...

As a teacher, I have always appreciated receiving an extra thanks around the holidays.  Whether it is an extra hug, a smile, a hand written note, a Christmas card or something else it has always been held close to my heart.  Now I also sit on the other side of things and have kids whose teachers I would love to thank around the holidays.  I have already started thinking about what I would like to give my son's teachers this season and started thinking about my favorite gifts from the past 10 years.   Praise for a Job Well Done Two years ago, I received the most wonderful holiday gift and it cost the giver nothing but a few minutes of her time.  It was an email addressed to me and copied to the principal and school board explaining how this family's child benefited from my services and what a difference I had made in this child's school experience.  This is something I treasure to this day and I can refer to when my job seems overwhelming.   Group Gift ...