sutton034

Welcome to week 4 of our book study on Number Talks .  This is a great book for K-5 classroom teachers, special educators and math specialists.  It is also a great book for administrators and other educational professionals to read to learn more about what good math teaching looks like.   Join me each Sunday as we discuss the week's reading and make connections to our own teaching practice.  Leave a comment on this blog post or head over to Facebook and leave your thoughts there.  If you have your own blog and want to write a post about it on your own blog, just leave the link in the comments section.    Posting Schedule Part 1: January 11th Chapters 1 & 2 Part 2: January 18th Chapter 3 Part 3: January 25th Chapter 4 Part 4: February 1st: Chapters 5 & 6 Part 5: February 8th: Chapters 7 & 8 Part 6: February 15th: Chapter 9 This week we dive right into the grades 3-5 section, looking at strategies and ideas for number talks around addi...

Anyone working on fractions with kids in grades 1-3?  I recently found a fun and free computer game that is great for students who are working on exploring part whole relationships.  It is called Fraction Flags  and it a lot of fun.  Check it out! A peek at the home screen.  By using the arrows near the bottom of the page, you can select a few options for students.  They can design flags using different combinations of halves and quarters. Students can be as creative as they want.  While enjoying the creative process they are also being exposed to some of the bigger ideas around fractions like part whole relationships and equivalency.   By giving kids multiple designs to make and allowing them so share their designs with others, students can see many ways to make fractions such as one half.   I love having students build this one with all fourths because it is a great way to expose kids to the idea that the pieces do not have to be congruent ...

Happy Monday!  Today I am joining up with some new blogging friends to bring you the Snow Much Fun blog hop.  This blog hop is a way to share with you some new ideas to keep you kids engaged and learning during those long winter months.  We have kept this a short hop so it is a great way to get some new ideas and check out some new blogs without being overwhelmed.  If you are new to my blog, welcome.  I am The Math Maniac and I love teaching math.  I am a K-6 math specialist and believe in the power of conceptual understanding.  I have a lot to say about math teaching and post frequently on this blog about all kinds of math subjects.  You can also find me on Facebook , Pinterest and TPT .   . Today I want to share with you how I try to bring winter fun into the classroom with math story problems.  No matter what grade I am working with and what type of computation my students can do, it is always more fun to use a context.  Using a...

Welcome to week 3 of our book study on Number Talks .  This is a great book for K-5 classroom teachers, special educators and math specialists.  It is also a great book for administrators and other educational professionals to read to learn more about what good math teaching looks like.   Join me each Sunday as we discuss the week's reading and make connections to our own teaching practice.  Leave a comment on this blog post or head over to Facebook and leave your thoughts there.  If you have your own blog and want to write a post about it on your own blog, just leave the link in the comments section.    Posting Schedule Part 1: January 11th Chapters 1 & 2 Part 2: January 18th Chapter 3 Part 3: January 25th Chapter 4 Part 4: February 1st: Chapters 5 & 6 Part 5: February 8th: Chapters 7 & 8 Part 6: February 15th: Chapter 9 Thank you to all who participated last week!  We certainly had fewer comments than the first week but I am s...

Clip art by Whimsy Clips This fall, I shared with you 10 different ways I use 10 frames in the classroom .  Today I want to share with you 10 different ways I use 20 frames with students.  From helping kids identify teen numbers to working on addition and subtraction 20 frames are a very useful tool in the classroom.  Any set of 20 frames will work for these activities.  If you want the ones featured in this post, you can get them here . Most of these activities work well in whole group, small group or individual situations.  The visual model of the 20 frame can support kids who have a fragile understanding and lead to a conceptual model of numbers that they will take with them as they learn more mathematics.  The flexibility of the 20 frame makes differentiating these activities easy to do.  It might look like everyone is working on 20 frames, but the difficulty of what they are doing can range greatly. 20 Frame Flash This is probably the simplest way...

Welcome to week 2 of our book study on Number Talks .  This is a great book for K-5 classroom teachers, special educators and math specialists.  It is also a great book for administrators and other educational professionals to read to learn more about what good math teaching looks like.   Join me each Sunday as we discuss the week's reading and make connections to our own teaching practice.  Leave a comment on this blog post or head over to Facebook and leave your thoughts there.  If you have your own blog and want to write a post about it on your own blog, just leave the link in the comments section.    Posting Schedule Part 1: January 11th Chapters 1 & 2 Part 2: January 18th Chapter 3 Part 3: January 25th Chapter 4 Part 4: February 1st: Chapters 5 & 6 Part 5: February 8th: Chapters 7 & 8 Part 6: February 15th: Chapter 9 Thank you to all who participated last week!  We had a great discussion and many folks left insightful comme...

Today I am linking up with Buzzing with Mrs. McClain for the You Oughta Know blog hop.  I am so excited to share this treasure of a math site with you today.  This is going to be one you don't want to miss!   In the last few  years, my school has shifted from having overhead projectors to having digital projectors and/or smart boards in every room.  This new technology has been amazing and I am always on the look at for more ways to use this technology with students.  This past summer, I discovered Matific , a website designed to help teachers of K-6 math.  The site is free to use (you do have to sign up for a free account to access it all). The website (there is also an app) consists of mini interactive games designed to teach a specific math concept in a fun and engaging way.  The mini games, called episodes are organized by grade and Common Core strand.  There are also "worksheets" which are easy for kids to fill out on the computer a...

Welcome to week 1 of our book study on Number Talks .  This is a great book for K-5 classroom teachers, special educators and math specialists.  It is also a great book for administrators and other educational professionals to read to learn more about what good math teaching looks like.   Join me each Sunday as we discuss the week's reading and make connections to our own teaching practice.  Leave a comment on this blog post or head over to Facebook and leave your thoughts there.  If you have your own blog and want to write a post about it on your own blog, just leave the link in the comments section.    Posting Schedule Part 1: January 11th Chapters 1 & 2 Part 2: January 18th Chapter 3 Part 3: January 25th Chapter 4 Part 4: February 1st: Chapters 5 & 6 Part 5: February 8th: Chapters 7 & 8 Part 6: February 15th: Chapter 9 If you are looking for a general overview of what Number Talks is all about, check out this short article from t...

If you are a regular follower of this blog, you might be tired of me talking about combinations of 5, 10, 20 and 100.  I spend a lot of time making sure students are fluent with these ideas and am always coming up with more ways to make sure students get the practice they need with these facts.  Today is no exception.  Over the holidays, I spent lots of time with my nieces and nephews and one of them had a fun looking paper cup they were playing with.  All it is is a balloon that has been tied off and had the tip snipped off.  Take a paper cup and cut the bottom out of it.  Stretch the balloon over the cup and you have a little popper.  I used the regular 9 oz paper cups for this but depending on what objects you want to pop and if you are working on numbers to 5, 10 or 20, a bigger or smaller cup might work out better for you. Let's say you are working on combinations of 10.  Give each student a popper cup and 10 pom poms.  I made sure ...