Category Archives: Math

First Grade Math Warm-Ups: Week of March 24-27, 2015

I think I mentioned last time that we had been gone for our Spring Break for a while, and this week we were back in the full swing of things!  Vacations are great, but being “home” again in Rm. 202 is also a nice thing. 🙂

This week started on Tuesday, and one afternoon we didn’t get to review the warm-up, so there are only 3 (instead of 5).  Since we’re in a new quarter, we’re also working on a new topic: right now it’s data collection and analysis.  Here we go!

Tuesday

OK, so as soon as I said it, I guess I found a warm-up that didn’t fit–this one was a leftover from last quarter, reviewing how to use groups to add and solve problems.

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Wednesday

I probably should have taken a before and after of this chart.  It started out like most of the other warm-ups: a big jumbled mess of post-its.  This was the first survey question of the quarter, and because it was the first, the conversation around it was a little longer than most.  We talked about the definition of the word “survey,” as well as the steps and focus of data–we collect, then organize, analyze and answer questions about the data.  From this day on, we’ll go back to this focus with each set of data we discuss.

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This one seemed like an easy question.  Then I realized that I asked it in a confusing way, and many kids didn’t understand what it meant.  I guess I could have just asked “When is your birthday?” instead.  This one was organized going horizontally instead of vertically because we had to many options.

CAM01802What survey questions would you give your kiddos for math warm-ups?  What things do you focus on when talking about data collection and analysis with your students?  Leave us a comment–we’d love to hear about math warm-ups in your class! 🙂

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Sticks and Dots, Compensation and more!

Yesterday I posted last week’s (or at least the LAST week that we were in school’s) math warm-ups.  I mentioned that there’d be more about the strategies on which we’ve been focusing.  Well, that time is now.  Hope this makes sense and gives some insight into the work we’ve been doing for the last few months.  Well all quarter, really…but I digress.  Here we go. 🙂

Screen Shot 2015-03-25 at 8.46.12 PMOne thing I wanted to do was to be able to SHOW how these strategies work, and even better, have KIDDOS involved in that work.  So, just before we left for our break, many of them volunteered to help me with a project.   I have a Tweep (that’s a friend you know from Twitter, for those who might not know) named Shannon in Alabama who was interested, too, so this is for you and your friends, lady! 🙂

Ok…so here are some videos of our Rm. 202 kiddos explaining more about how to add 2-digit numbers using place value strategies!  (I will mention, though, that they are a little rough, so ignore the bumpy parts and see the big ideas, ok? THANK YOU!! 🙂 )

Sticks and Dots

Splitting 10s/1s

https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/splitting-strategy/29975225/?ref=link&s=9kPtgk

Keeping 1 Number Whole

(This one’s a little long, and shows more than 1 strategy, so be prepared for that!)

Compensation

Hope this helps–and WAY TO GO, RM. 202 KIDDOS!!  You are ROCKING mathematicians!! 🙂

First Grade Math Warm-Ups: Week of March 9-13, 2015

Sorry, I’m a few days (ok, weeks!) late with these warm-ups.  Spring Break happened and I had forgotten to snap pictures of them before I left for my vacation.  Oops.  But alas, they were still there when I got back today, and so here they are for you.  And man, are they worth the wait. Hee hee. 🙂

Monday

This week was the last week before the end of our quarter, and so we were wrapping up our work with addition and subtraction.  There were a couple of things that I wanted to highlight with our problems–the connections between adding and subtracting strategies, and using mental math for quick facts up to 20.  This one again helped lead them to see how what they know about addition can help them with efficient subtraction. More about all of those strategies listed there later…

CAM01767Tuesday

Yeah, somehow I didn’t get that “y” on the end of strategy in the picture (I promise I wrote it there correctly!)…again, more on that practice we did later…it involves some pretty great explanation videos.  Worth the wait (but isn’t everything I write on this blog?! Kidding, just kidding!).

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Again, with our focus on strategies, I wanted to point out that good mathematicians know when to use a strategy as well as why to use it in that situation.  This one didn’t really have a “right” answer (many strategies make sense with these numbers), but it was important for kiddos to explain their reasoning for which strategy they chose to use.

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Wanted to get a quick temperature read on kiddos and their ability to do these facts quickly.  Most could do them quick and painlessly, using what they know about other problems to help (like tens and doubles), which is exactly what I was looking for!

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This last warm-up before the end of our quarter (and what I considered a well-deserved break for everyone!) gave a sneak peek to next quarter’s work with graphs, charts and measurement.  Needless to say, since it was a preview, not many kiddos knew what to say to this one…

CAM01766You know, seeing all of these charts reminds me of the suggestion I got from a reader once about using Padlet to do this electronically.  Does anybody have any personal experience they can share?  I’d love to hear about how it’s working (or I guess not working would be helpful, too!) for you.  Appreciate the help and advice, friends! 🙂

First Grade Math Warm-Ups: Week of March 2-6, 2015

This week there are 4 warm-ups; we had a special parent visit on Friday morning and so didn’t get to one that day.  We’re still working on addition/subtraction and using efficient strategies.

Monday

The hope with the numbers in this problem was that kiddos would recognize the most efficient strategy was to use compensation (and so make the easier problem of 30+61 that they could answer in their heads), but any strategy was fine as long as they could pick one and explain it.

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The other day, we discussed all the strategies we know how to use and tried them on the same problem.  We also talked about what we could call them so that everyone knows what we’re talking about (this was in response to a question I asked last week with our warm-ups).  So I decided that we’d try a specific strategy on a series of problems this week (but it should be noted that, as with the last problem, compensation is the BEST strategy for the numbers as you can create 81+20 and quickly answer using mental math).

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Besides talking about how to accurately use the strategy, we had a discussion about the difference between how you solve the problem (the strategy) and how you SHOW how you solved it (the model–in this case an open number line).

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The thinking behind this problem is helping kiddos connect strategies they know for ADDITION with SUBTRACTION.  Many first graders need to be explicitly shown that what works for one works for the other.  Practicing using these known strategies can help stretch some past the draw-all-then-mark-off or counting backwards strategies.

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These warm-ups got kiddos’ brains really moving this week!  Hope they work well for yours, too! Please leave a note and tell us about how you’re using them in your classroom, or how you’re sharing them with others. 🙂

First Grade Math Warm-Ups: Week of February 23-28, 2015

More addition this week, friends!  We’re still working on choosing efficient strategies (which actually makes me think of a blog post I need to write about the strategies we’re focusing on!–stay tuned!), so these will look similar to warm-ups we’ve had lately.

Monday

The benchmark for subtraction this quarter is the same as last (within 20),  only we’re hoping for kiddos to have some more solid strategies for how to do that subtraction effectively and efficiently.  Using strategies they already have been using for adding (like counting on by 10s or splitting 10s and 1s) can be helpful as they work more on subtracting.  Helping kiddos see the connection between addition and subtraction is also a goal here.   CAM01673Tuesday

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Wednesday

One strategy some kiddos have been working on is compensation (in short, it’s moving numbers around to make an easier problem that can be done with very few steps or even in your head).  Even though some kiddos aren’t yet “there” as far as using it independently or correctly, it’s good for all to see/hear the possibilities for putting numbers together.

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Friday

We have been working with “bare” problems for a bit now, and I wanted to throw another story at them.  I know, this one’s easy. 🙂

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Ok, friends, as I finish up, I have a math question that my team and some others have been chewing on this week: is it important that kiddos know the names of the strategies they are using, or just that they understand how those strategies work?  And if the strategies are to be named, does it matter if all kiddos (like in a grade level, for instance) use the same names?  I’d love to hear your thoughts! 🙂

 

First Grade Math Warm-Ups: Week of February 17-20, 2015

I feel like I keep saying how short the weeks are lately, but hey, I’ll say it again–this week was another short one, where I only have a few warm-ups to share.  They were particularly good ones (in my opinion, of course!) because they really got my kiddos thinking about strategies.  We’re still working on addition, but the focus has now shifted a bit to choosing the strategy most appropriate to the numbers–not just the strategy that is your favorite one.  Compensation was a particular one we worked on over the last few days.

Tuesday

CAM01613Ok, so I misspoke a little bit–we’re mainly focusing on addition, but continuing to tie our work to subtraction, so that kiddos can see the connections.  This one was also meant to introduce them to the word DIFFERENCE (we did SUM last week).

Wednesday

CAM01642We’ve been working on flexibility, too, although for most kiddos, one strategy is as far as they’ve gotten so far.

Thursday

CAM01643While they only have to add within 100, there are many who are ready to apply their strategies to bigger numbers.  This one gave them the chance to try it out!

Friday

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I mentioned choosing the strategy for the numbers, and this one was made for using compensation (making one number a “friendly” one–like a 10–so that it’s easier to answer.  Usually you can use mental math.)!  And can you tell I got a new box of markers in the mail this week?  🙂

Also, I’ve been toying the idea of finally moving my warm-ups to Padlet, as we all have iPads now.   I’ve always valued the way we can save the post-its and charts by doing it this way, and refer to the problems again if we need to, but I might be rethinking my previous choice.  With 1st graders, I wonder if less “stuff” around might be a better way to go.  We could still refer, and it might be easier to share with others.  Any ideas, friendly blog readers? 🙂

First Grade Math Warm-Ups: Week of February 9-12, 2015

Is there ever a week in January or February when we have all 5 days?  This was another short one (and one filled with a party), so there are only 3 warm-ups this week.  As I’ve mentioned previously, we’re continuing to work on addition within 100, grouping around place value and making sense with our explanations.  Enjoy!

Monday

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Tuesday

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Wednesday

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First Grade Math-Warm Ups: Week of February 2-6, 2015

Seems like I am always giving a reason for why our week was crazy.  This week was the same way!  Wednesday we participated in Global School Play Day, so didn’t have math, and yesterday my 3-times-longer-than-usual commute (because of snow and ice on the road) meant that I didn’t get to school in time to write one, and then add in our first day with our iPad Minis yesterday as well and VOILA, you’ve got crazy!  See what I mean?  But hey, there were 3 warm-ups this week, so here we go!

Monday

It only seemed right to have a Super Bowl themed warm-up the morning after the big game!  Still working on adding 2-digit numbers efficiently with this one. 🙂

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Tuesday

The problem yesterday actually brought up a great (but unexpected question) as a friend only read the first sentence and then assumed she knew what it was asking.  She thought that it was asking her to SUBTRACT the numbers because she figured the last part asked by how many points the Patriots had won.  We were able to talk about how important reading the whole problem was, as well as how different bits of information can produce many different kinds of problems depending on the questions you ask.  They’re not quite ready to think this way yet, but I gave them a challenging warm-up on Tuesday asking them to think about the questions they could ask (oh, and thanks for not commenting on the ages mentioned in this problem–thankfully no one said anything about how OLD Mrs. Bearden is!!).

CAM01521Friday

You’ll notice that this one doesn’t have any post-its on it.  I was actually home with a sick little girl on Friday, but snapped a picture as I put it up to leave for the sub to talk through with my friends.  This one was based on both our 2-digit addition work and a conversation we were having the other day about how many 1st graders there are.  How would you solve it?  What model would you use to record your thinking?

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