Math Rocks!!

Hello everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a busy year! 2 grand babies ( 3 months old and 10 months old now), my mom moved next to us, my daughter moved back home with us, and I changed school systems after 11 years in the same one.

Whew!! Great times. 🙂

I am now teaching 6th grade math. YES- math! And I LOVE it!!!

1 prep- 3 classes each day. Life is good!

And I have a lot to say about math and a lot of changes I’m already wanting to make.

Don’t want to keep you too long with this post, and I promise I’ll post some pics of what we’ve been doing in math, but anyone out there dabbling in a standards based classroom or self paced learning????

My wheels are turning………….

1st grade Place Value

Tens and ones. Pesky little things in 1st grade. So we needed a little hands on practice. 

  
 
Rods, cubes, and a hundreds chart. And one of the great things about using construction paper was that they eventually took it home. More practice. 🙂 

Number Sense Everyday

I worked in my classroom some yesterday. Gah- I’ve got SO much to do!!! One thing at a time……….

I’m wanting to implement a 10 or so minute number sense routine each day to help build their understanding of number quantity and decomposing numbers. Here’s the area on my board that we will work with. I’m also going to put some little posters around the 100 chart of math strategies. For example, draw a picture, use manipulatives, etc.

Does anyone else do this or something similar to this?????

Guided Math Small Group Beginning

I’m diving in tomorrow. Well, a little bit anyway. 🙂

It will be my 1st official day of math small group instruction. I’m going to keep it simple tomorrow so that we can all get used to this type of environment. So no new skill tomorrow. Just a review of ratios/rates.

But I will be showing them how to problem solve by showing some LOVE. I got this idea from a teacher who blogged about how she taught her students to problem solve this way.

You can read her post here:

http://teachingtoinspirein5th.blogspot.com/2012/11/teaching-math-through-cognitively.html

Our 3 rotations are going to be:

1. Mobymax.com

2. Small group with me

3. Practice sheet on current skill-they will work as a group to complete this. IF they finish, they can play a game.

For my small group instruction I am going to keep it somewhat simple.

First, we are going to work up with some multiplication facts. I just printed an entire set from this website below. Thank you to the angel that created these!! 🙂

Multiplication Flash Cards

http://www.mcps.org/FBE_Files/MULTIPLICATION%20FLASHCARDS.pdf

After that little warm up, we are going to self correct the math test from last week and discuss. Then, if we have time, we are going to problem solve 1 problem from the math test using our new LOVE strategy. At the end of small group time, they are going to put their name card in the appropriate place on the MATH bulletin board.

I NEED MORE PRACTICE               I’VE GOT IT                   I COULD TEACH SOMEONE

This is IF I have time to redo a bulletin board. 🙂

I’ll be reporting back during the week to let you know how it goes! 🙂

 

 

Math Routine Notes

I’m at a conference right now and couldn’t go to sleep last night because my mind was spinning with ideas on how I can change our math routine to fit the needs of my 6th graders.

This is the deal. They are all below grade level. It’s my job to fix that. Or work towards fixing it. They have so many gaps in their math skills. The four basic operations haven’t been mastered for many of them.

So we are plugging along learning 6th grade math concepts and still have so many deficiencies.

Time for a change. A big one.

Which leads me to small group/individual instruction. It’s going to have to happen! Otherwise we are just spinning our wheels.

I’m too tired to write much more, but let me say that moby max.com is about to become my new best friend!

My plan is to block off 90 minutes for math and have 3 groups that rotate to 3 stations.

Me, moby max.com, and group practice sheet.

Sounds easy right? Hahahahaha!

THIS is what was inside of my head last night and IT IS NOT THE FIRST DRAFT! 🙂

Yes, I realize I don’t have to have it ALL in place to start, but there’s still A LOT I need to do!! OMG! 🙂

Now hiring. 🙂

Will I be able to pull it off for this Monday?

What do you think??

Math Laughs

This post is for anyone who needs a good laugh!

First of all, they were working with partners and in groups throughout math today. At one point one student summons me over by raising his hand and saying VERY excitedly,” Mrs. Shannon , come here- I got it, I got it.”

I head over to him. Bend down and ask him what he’s thinking, to explain it to me. He stares at his whiteboard. Doesn’t say anything. So I say again-what are you thinking. He starts laughing. Says I’ve put him on the spot. I start laughing and say,”You’re the one who called me over here!”

We both laugh a good one at that.

Then I start videoing them working in groups. I have to say this is the funniest video I’ve gotten so far this year!

Notice the last boy on the right. So. Matter. Of. Fact. 🙂

Math on Whiteboards

Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!
Say it with me!
Oh yeah!

Guess what we got?????

THIN dry erase markers to use on our whiteboards!!!

The kids LOVED THEM!!! 🙂

I LOVE THEM!!! 🙂

Oh yeah!!

Math Comprehension

I’ve started reading an awesome book- Building Mathematical Comprehension by Laney Sammons.

I can’t wait to get further into it- it’s all about using literacy strategies during math.

I was doing this as my husband was working on the gates for the cow lots.

This is one of the things I love most about him! Hard working!

I had a nice relaxing day reading and watching him. I DID carry 2 boards when he asked me. 🙂

This was after 3 days taking care of my 19 year old daughter after she had all 4 wisdom teeth taken out. 🙂

She was pretty miserable in that picture. 🙂

Of course when she felt better, I had the pleasure of babysitting Sophee- her precious little dog!

Now it’s time for bed! Or reading. Wink-wink. 🙂

Math, math, math

I have officially decided to start using the math textbook on Monday and ditch the teacher made curriculum I had been using since school started. Here are the reasons why:

Common core, analyzing, common core, reasoning, common core, applying, solving, common core, etc….

Need I say more?

However, I’m feeling overwhelmed, agitated, and frustrated. Look at what 1 page of our 800 page textbook looks like. Eeeeek!

Does anyone else out there use Glencoe McGraw Hill Math Connects??

Please help a girl out if you do! Would love to collaborate!! 🙂

OREO Project

Today we reviewed finding mean, median, and mode through our OREO Project!

I got beat by one of my students!! I stacked 21, and she stacked 23! 🙂

It was LOTS of fun, and we are the untouched leftover Oreos! 🙂

Nothing like good and building to to get the kids engaged!

As students were stacking, here are some great words I heard as we all watched and made comments:

Staggering
discard
Leveling

A very fun day!