This week seems to have
FLOWN by! I have been in my class a few
times and it seems like every time I go back I feel the need to re-arrange the
furniture and decorate something new. It
is a much larger classroom than I had last year and I am moving from Grade One
to Grade Seven so I keep second guessing what Grade Seven should look
like. But {knock on wood} I think I got
it yesterday. I even settled down and
photocopied a bunch of work. I am proud
of me.
Although last night I
did go buy some new bulletin board borders {chevron and zebra - how could I
not??} I also bought some black butcher paper so I can make some scrunched
borders and cover the ugly purple one I have going on right now.
I went to a really good
math in-service offered by the province of Manitoba. I learned a lot of things
but the two that stuck with me the most are using base ten blocks {extended to
makes a base 100) as a basis for making a dot chart or array model. Dyslexic students benefit from this type of
manipulative but so will any visual learner, myself included. Using the base
ten dot model you can work with any math algorithm. We practiced with long division and multiplication
and it worked like a charm because it works with place value in a way that kids
can understand.
You start with array
model, move to vertical extended and then finally to vertical compact when you
start working with them on, let’s say, long multiplication. First you draw the array for 37 by 68. There are 30x60 ten by tens {1800 or 18 one
hundred blocks}, there are 60x7 ten rods, 30 by 8 ten rods {420 and 240} and then 8x7 ones {56 ones}. Adding them together you get
1800, plus 420, plus 240, plus 56 which equals 2516.
When they understand this – the visual of groups of hundreds, tens, and ones and what they
each represent you move on to extended model.
37
X 68
56
{8 times 7}
240 {8 times 30}
420 {60 times 7}
1800 {30 times 60}
2516
When our students
finally master this we can move them up to compact model.
37
X 68
296
2220
2516
There are three scavenger hunts. Groups are prompted to decipher the numbers using 5 to 7 clues. The third set of clues includes decimals.
The last portion of this download is the integer relay. Teams are challenged to match equations with right answers as they race to get their group across the finish line.
As part of this post
I am giving away three of the individual challenges from the Beat the Clock
challenge for you to use and check out.
You can grab it here
----- > https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B67NPFRFcB3tcDRJcDN6dEg0SWc/edit?usp=sharing
