Today in math we did our third Number Talk. This will be a routine that we will try to do everyday for 5 - 10 minutes as it will help us build our mental math strategies. Why do we do this? We are trying to look at math less as rules and memorization. We want to find more efficient ways to solve problems that eventaully we can use with larger numbers. This idea comes from Sherry Parish who is an educational math leader. Number Talks Article.
In each number talk, we are presented with a problem. Students then have the time to solve the problem and think of at least one strategy to solve it. They then share their answers and after our answers are shared, students have the chance to "defend" or prove their answer. With guidance from me, this allows the students to learn from each other and to see that our peers are teachers too. Having these kinds of conversations has many benefits including:
• Clarify thinking.
• Investigate and apply mathematical relationships.
• Build a repertoire of efficient strategies.
• Make decisions about choosing efficient strategies for specific problems.
• Consider and test other strategies to see if they are mathematically logical.
Although it is only 5 minutes a day, the students are already starting to develop more efficient math strategies, such as using doubles rather than counting all the objects.
We also played a fun math game to help us with the vocabulary of less than, greater than, higher, lower. We had a hundreds chart and in partners one person thought of a number. The second person guessed a number and was answered with "higher, lower, greater, or less than". Through this process students would find the correct answer. This game could easily be played in the car with or without a hundreds chart as a way to pass the time. Here are a few pictures of us having some fun while learning:
Coming up:
Photo day tomorrow!!! Dress in your best :)
Mrs. Jordan away tomorrow morning
Book exchange tomorrow morning
