Math Warm-Ups: First Grade Version–Week of 12-1 to 12-5

For years in 5th grade I posted about Math Warm-Ups and how we used them to get our brains ready for flexible math thinking every morning. Last year I didn’t use them much–for one reason or another–and this year they didn’t make sense until just recently. So here we go–join us to see how Math Warm-Ups work with young mathematicians and how we use them to stretch our brains!

Week of December 12-1 to 12-5

Monday

Wait–Monday we didn’t have a Math Warm-Up. Partly because it was the first day after a really long weekend and also because we had some unexpected freezing rain during the morning rush and it took me 2 1/2 hours to get to school that day! I did anything but rush to school. Here’s a picture of how fast we were going at one point. And believe me, I was being really safe while I took this pic:

See that? I think it says 2 miles an hour. On the highway. Seriously.

Tuesday

This was the first day of Math Warm-Ups so I asked a question that I knew everyone could answer easily, as the point was to teach the purpose and procedure more than focus on a math concept. Still, we were able to pull in many things we’d been working on in math during our conversation about this warm-up.

Now that I look at that picture, I wish I would have taken one right after we put all the post-its on it, because it was much messier, and that’s actually part of the conversation we had about what we could do with the data we had collected: someone suggested that it needed to be more organized. I also asked them what question we could answer with the information we had up on the easel. There were several good ideas, one of which was “Do we have more 6YOs or 7YOs in our class?,” hence why we ended up with two columns of notes.

It was great to watch and listen when we started to analyze the notes and figure out how many of each age there were: they used what we’ve been learning about grouping objects to count, and recognized that I put them into the same shape as the 10 frames we’ve been looking at lately. They were similar to what our math racks look like, too, and they quickly and easily saw that there were 7 6YOs on this day and 10 7YOs. We talked about other questions we could answer, and also talked briefly about how this data could change based on the day (we had 3 friends absent).

Wednesday

Another one I knew most could answer easily, but a little harder than yesterday. The focus today was on making sure we followed all the directions of the warm-up: answering the WHOLE question and putting our name on our post-it. There were still some who did not, so we made sure to talk about that when we reviewed this question during math. The words LESS and GREATER were also a focus, as was writing the number the way it should actually look–with digits in the right places AND going the right direction (which is still tricky for some friends at this point in 1st grade!).

Thursday

We’ve been working on flexibility with combinations up to 20, as well as most recently practicing doubles and doubles +1. This was interesting, then when most kids put 10+9 as their answer (which is probably the easiest combination to figure out). I noticed many who wrote combos that DIDN’T equal 19, so the conversation was around accuracy as well as how they figured out their answer. It also told me that as a whole, we need some more practice on this skill!

Friday

This question was just one to see where we were with fractions, as we’re about to finish up that unit. The benchmark is just that kids understand 1/2s and 1/4s, but the “extending” on our rubric is 1/3s and I was pretty sure most kids could tackle that as well. And boy was I right! Now…I am not entirely sure if kiddos answered these on their own (like they’re supposed to) or if they worked together, so there’s more work to be done, but for the most part you can see that most of those rectangles (which is also part of this unit) are divided into 3 equal pieces! Even the way I worded the question gave me some information–info that I didn’t expect–when someone said, “I can’t just draw 1 line and make thirds. Can I draw more than 1?” Obviously that friend knew what was going on! I hadn’t done that on purpose, and so made the change on the chart for the rest of the friends who completed it.

This is our first try with warm-ups this year and I am excited to see where they go! Great job, Rm. 202 friends! You did an AWESOME job!

Teachers–What kinds of math warm-ups have you done with your class? Have you tried them with 1st graders? How did it go? We’d love to hear about what’s going on in your class! Parents–did you hear about Math Warm-Ups from your kiddo? What were they saying? 🙂

Cup Stacking Challenge

You may have seen a post floating around Facebook and Pinterest about a STEM Cup Stacking Challenge:

(photo courtesy of corkboardconnections.blogspot.com)

It’s similar to the Marshmallow Challenge that I’ve done several years with my 5th graders: build something really tall with your supplies and your team, using cooperation and problem-solving. Great idea for any group of kiddos, but I especially love it for littler ones who are just beginning to learn about what it takes to work together, try something and have it fail, then rework the plan to try again. This activity fits the focus we have on being gritty, as well as having a growth mindset and trying even when things are hard. And yes, the first time we did it, it was hard. 🙂

Cup Challenge Take 1:

The first time we did this challenge, kiddos had 30 cups, their small group and 12 minutes. Most thought they were done in about 2 minutes, and most used the same strategy. Do you see how all the towers look the same? One thing that also happened during this is talking. Loud talking. And much arguing about what to do next. So when we were finished with this first try, we sat together to talk about it. We talked about plusses (things that went well) and deltas (things we could change next time):

They noticed that our list of things to change was REALLY LONG and go busy thinking of ways to do things differently when we tried it again. (When I mentioned that we could do it again, by the way, there were many cheers from the rug!) Working on the floor instead of tables was suggested, as well as not being able to leave your own team’s spot. We also agreed that they would get one warning about their voices and then any teams that were still loud would have to work the rest of the time in silence. Oh, and one more change was more time–they got 18 minutes instead of 12 (which was really the original plan anyway, we just ran out of time).

Cup Challenge Take 2:

Check out our chart the second time around. They were SO EXCITED about how the columns had changed!

What a change that happened when kiddos reflected on what worked–and what didn’t–and then planned how to redo the challenge in a different way. I’m excited to see all of the many things they learned here, and how those lessons touched so many subjects at one time! Way to go, Rm. 202 kids! 🙂

Fractions with Fosnot and Flex Time

Remember last year when I told you all about Feast Week? Well, it’s that time of year again, for fractions at least, but not–it seems–for Feast Week. Instead, we’ve begun using some AMAZING new resources from Cathy Fosnot, that have helped our mathematicians think of fraction parts in a whole new way.

My favorite part of math right now is the addition of Fraction Flex Time (man, it seems like we need to add a cute name to every thing fraction related…). After we finished the investigations in our Fosnot unit (which included figuring out the Best Buys, Oatmeal Problems and Gas Tank problems), our team sat down to figure out how to divvy up our kiddos between the 7 teachers we have (Yes, I said SEVEN!! Isn’t that FABULOUS!! ??), based on the information we’d gathered during our first few weeks of study. We made the groups small and intentional, and we planned for intense teaching and practice.

Although the pacing and strategies are a little different based on the groups’ need, the goal is the same (based on our district rubric):

Just like I shared in my post about our visit from Kara Imm from Mathematics in the City, number strings have become our new best friend. I mean, honestly, before this year I really didn’t spend much time on them, but now I am not sure I can go a day in math without one–they just have such HUGE bang for their buck. Just the other day we spent 45 minutes doing a number string together. It sounds like a long time, maybe, but in that 45 minutes (during which my small group of friends was TOTALLY ENGAGED!), we were able to touch on the clock model, common denominators, reducing fractions, equivalent fractions, improper fractions and mixed numbers. So cool!

I have heard such positive feedback from my class since we’ve been doing flex time. Most mention that they love the small numbers, the focused nature of the lessons and the time they get to spend with the teacher. I agree, friends, I’m loving all those things, too!

My favorite thing from our lessons lately is all of the “lightbulb moments” that I can actually see happen. It’s so great to see that look of AHA! on a kiddo’s face, and how often these moments even have a sound. All of the “ahs” I’ve heard lately have definitely made my days.

What do you think about fractions? How do you think you would react to Fraction Flex Time? Do you think you’d like it? Please leave your feedback. 🙂

Mathematics in the City (in Kirkwood)

Mathematics in the City is an organization I learned about this summer when the fabulous Kara Imm came to Robinson to teach us about how to better teach addition/subtraction and multiplication/division of fractions using new units from Cathy Fosnot (another amazing math mind!).

Fast-forward to now: yesterday we (several 5th and 6th grade teachers and math specialists) were lucky to have Kara back again to continue to learn from her (and each other!) as we taught one of those units in our own classrooms! We spent the morning planning our lesson, digging into the mathematics, talking about how we’d introduce the scenario, anticipating what kiddos would do and say, and brainstorming questions we’d ask our mathematicians to help “lift their thinking.” Then our group (oh, did I mention there were like 15 teachers??) watched as Mrs. Hong taught the lesson in her room with her friends. We got to “kid-watch” and take notes on what thinking they used, how they explained their work and also practice what we’d planned during our earlier session.

At lunch we debriefed on how the morning had gone, planning for how we’d change things based on the information we gathered. Then it was time to plan for what would happen in my classroom later that day.

We decided that Kara would lead a number string with my students, focusing on fractions, but using the context of money. Her string looked like this:

See the red parts? Those are the problems she gave students to solve (remember when we did number strings together at our Curriculum Night? Same idea, only with a different concept). The black is documenting kiddos’ thinking, and the blue is how she was modelling their thinking. The story she told here (that gave kiddos an entry point and helped them make connections to what they know) was about how she’d found some money as she walked along this morning. What a great way to talk about fractions huh? TOTALLY made it less scary, and who doesn’t know at least SOMETHING about money? The thinking they were able to share was fabulous, and the kiddos who felt confident to share their thinking was great, too; some kids who don’t normally share during number strings were more than willing to do so with this one!

I know that pictures of this totally don’t do the fabulous thinking justice, but here are some shots I captured during our work yesterday. Check them out!

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What a fabulous (man, I say that alot, but it’s true!) opportunity to learn with such great minds! Can’t wait to see how this helps our math thinking progress as we begin a new investigation and more number strings!

If you’re a parent, be sure to share what your kiddos said about this experience. If you’re a teacher, have you used number strings in your room? Do you know Kara or Mathematics in the City? Do you use Cathy Fosnot units with your learners? What do you think of them?? I’D LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT IT!!

Rethinking Multiplication Strategies

First of all, I know. It’s been forever. Man, I’ve been saying that a lot lately. All I can do is apologize, though, and ask that you’ll kindly keep reading. Life is nuts these days. 🙂

So…we are just about at the end of a study of multiplication and this year I’m asking my friends to think in a different way about the word efficient when it comes to multiplying.

Based on our district rubrics, which have recently been rewritten based on work related to Common Core and an updated curriculum, the standard for 5th grade has changed. Instead of just being able to use the traditional algorithm, students are expected to be able to fluently use a variety of strategies. But get this: the strategy they choose to use should be based on the numbers in the problem, rather than personal preference or the strategy they know best. WHAT??!! I seriously have some friends whose heads might explode.

But it’s not really their fault, I guess, because for years the algorithm was the goal. And once they learned how to use it, that’s what they stuck with and used every time. For years, we (or they) saw the other strategies as lower-level–ones used by friends who didn’t yet “get” how the algorithm worked.

District Math Rubric for Multiplication

Now we’re thinking more about how mathematicians should be able to be flexible with their thinking, to use place value correctly and to explain their reasoning based on what they know about numbers. This doesn’t mean that the algorithm isn’t something kids should know how to do, but that it’s not the only thing they should know how to do. I mean think about it in the real world: there are times when you have to be able to do math in your head, in an efficient way–without paper. The algorithm doesn’t really fit into that model.

So what does this look like in our room?

First of all, here’s an anchor chart that now hangs in our room (made based on our knowledge of how to solve multiplication problems):

Classroom anchor chart for multiplication strategies

While I don’t have any pictures of the math warm-ups we’re doing right now, this is where many of our opportunities come to try out this thinking. The problem today, for example looked like this:

Math Warm-Up for October 14

There are obviously (based on the chart) multiple ways to do this problem. But based on the numbers (which were chosen on purpose), the strategy that makes the most sense is to either use splitting or a close 10 to solve the problem. That way, you can solve 75 X 20 and 75 X 3 and then add them together, which can easily be done in your head–without paper. If you chose to use the algorithm (which most would do–even most adults!) you’d have to do 5 X 3, then 70 X 3, 5 X 2 and then 70 X 2 and add it all together–many more steps than the other strategy.

So while this is still a little tricky for some friends, it will get easier with time. We just need some more practice. 🙂

What strategy would you have used to solve 75 X 23? Do you know more than one strategy to multiply? Is the traditional algorithm your “go to” strategy? I know my 5th grade mathematicians would love to hear your answers!

An Authentic Australian Audience

First of all, to my friends in 5SK, I’m SO sorry you’ve been waiting so long for this post! We ended up needing another day to get our presentations “just so” before we shared them.

And so for those of you who are not from 5Sk (a Year 5 class in Queensland, Australia), let me fill you in on what’s going on.

I have been talking to Ms. Scharf for a little while, and received an email from her the other day with a request. She also posted it on her blog:

The challenge from Mrs. Scharf for her 5SK friends.

The challenge from Ms. Scharf for her 5SK friends.

I was beyond excited about this question because 1) I knew my friends could answer it and help their Aussie friends, and 2) this was a REAL, AUTHENTIC audience with a REAL problem that we needed to solve–talk about motivating!

So after talking through what we needed to do first (which was research the Australian money system so we knew what connections to make and so we’d have some background knowledge), as well as all the things we needed to include in our responses.

And so, after two days of working, here’s what we came up with for our friends:

And last, but not least, one group made a poster to explain their answer:

Fiona, Anna K., Sammy and Rebekah chose to explain their thinking in a poster.

So what do you think? 5SK friends–did we help you? Please write and tell us what you think. We’d also love to hear how your Pocket Money Challenge went today! 🙂

I Speak Greek When I Teach Math–PART 3

Hopefully you’ve caught the first two parts of this story already. If not, they are here and here. 🙂

After we had our cooking lesson, we got back into our groups to do a re-try of our posters. Another thing that my friend Pam mentioned to me when we were talking about what could have gone wrong was that maybe the paper they were using was too big. What?! Something that simple? It’s funny, because I hadn’t really considered that before she said it, but as soon as she did, it made perfect sense. They only had a certain amount of information to share with other mathematicians, and many groups ended up with lots of white space they didn’t know what to do with. Maybe it wasn’t a factor in our troubles, but it was worth taking a look at. So as we started again, we used smaller posters. 🙂

We tried something else with this investigation, too–we invited another class (who didn’t know anything about our problem) to do our gallery walk with us. This, we thought (ok, well I thought) would give us an even better idea of how we could revise our first drafts, since it was a “cold read” for them–they could only use the information we gave them to make sense of our mathematical ideas, rather than the context of the problem or background knowledge of the process. So we invited Mrs. Hong’s class to work with us. This was a PERFECT situation, because they had just finished a big problem, too, and needed someone to help them revise, too. Match made in heaven, right?

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I mentioned in my last post that I’ve been thinking about incorporating more with cooking into math next year, and this whole trade-classrooms-and-do-a-gallery-walk thing is another idea my team is considering doing more of. We want to be more purposeful in how we create real-life, meaningful scenarios for our kiddos to solve, then use the knowledge and ideas of each other to help make the work even better. Seeing another version of a problem you’ve also solved is very different than looking at a poster that is completely new. The mathematician has a much bigger job to do for these new viewers; every word, number and symbol they write is a clue to help them figure out the puzzle.

So what have you done with posters, gallery walks or real-life problem solving in your class? What advice do you have for us as we work to continue these ideas with our mathematicians for next year? We’d love to hear your thoughts. 🙂

I Speak Greek When I Teach Math–PART 2

Wow–I’ve been doing a horrible job with updates lately! I’ve left this one hanging for over a week, and I’m sure you were waiting on the edge of your seat to hear the rest of the story, right? Well, thanks for being patient. 🙂 The “rest of the story” will actually end up being told in two more parts.

Remember how we were working with a problem about ranch dip and I was baffled by what was going so wrong?

Ranch dip problem, part 1

Part 2

Well, what I don’t think I told you last time was that I had a conversation with a colleague of mine, who happens to be a fabulous math teacher, too, and we agreed there could have been many reasons why this was trickier than I had intended. I decided to tackle these issues one at a time. The first one we thought of was related to the context.

I think I may have taken for granted the fact that my kids would know about teaspoons, tablespoons and just the whole act of mixing it all together. There were actually several kiddos who could not relate to what I was talking about with making the dip, so I decided to fix that problem. I hoped that using the recipe would help them better understand what I was asking them to figure out. So we got cooking!

First, we reviewed the recipe and talked ingredients so we made sure we knew what to do. See how handy our iPads are for jobs like this? 🙂

Sorry, this ones a little blurry, but we’re smelling the spices the recipe called for: onion powder, garlic powder, parsley and dill. Many hadn’t ever seen these before!

Oh, and there’s basil in it, too! Smells yummy already!

The recipe calls for sour cream, but I decided to use plain yogurt instead. Man, I must have been stirring fast!

We discovered another part that was important (and in many cases missing) knowledge–knowing the difference between the sizes of teaspoons and tablespoons. Knowing that there are 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon was necessary for use in the final answer, but this was hard for some kids to image without seeing it.

Spice mix ready to be stirred!

We needed a 1/2 cup of yogurt for every tablespoon of spices.

Looking good!

I forgot a knife. 😦 Cutting a cucumber with the back of a fork is harder than it looks! Eventually I made it happen, though. 🙂

Yum! Ranch dip with cucumbers and Triscuits for our morning Math snack!

So while my cooking class didn’t solve every problem we were having (which I’ll tell you about in Part 3), I do think it gave many of them the ability to make connections they were unable to make before. And there is so much math (and science) in cooking and baking, I don’t know why we don’t do more of it. TOTALLY wish my classroom had a kitchen! It has also made me and my team think about how we want to purposefully involve more of these types of activities into our classes for next year. We’re thinking it would be a great addition and preparation for next year’s Feast Week, too.

How do you use cooking in your classroom? What connections do you make for your kiddos to math and science? Or maybe even reading and writing? We’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions as we make plans for next year. 🙂

I Speak Greek When I Teach Math

Or maybe it’s Spanish or Chinese or Pig-Latin, but today I felt like I was definitely not speaking English to my kiddos during math. Meaning no one understood what I was trying to explain, and many kids ended up more confused than when we first started. WHAT? It’s not like I’m new at this, nor to the topic. We were even working on a problem that I made up! Needless to say, we all wanted to throw in the towel, or rip up our papers and start over. Or something else that you shouldn’t do when you’re frustrated. And no, in case you’re wondering–we didn’t. But we did put the problem away until tomorrow when we’re fresh and can tackle it again. And I am already armed with a different plan for how to address it, but am hoping you can help me, too! (And by the way, after how fabulous the first round of problems-with-posters went the other day, this was all the more mind boggling!)

Ok, so I’m hoping that you can help me figure out what might be making my friends so confused. Here is the problem that we were working on yesterday and today:

This problem is 1) based on a real-life problem, 2) uses math skills we already have (or at least that are not new!), and 3) really just focuses on making sure they use clear and concise notation to record their solution and thoughts.

Part 2

PLEASE give me feedback on parts you see that may have tripped them up. After working on it for two days, I see a couple of things, but I really expected this to be a rather simple fraction problem; the difficulties they were having were not ones I had anticipated. My hope was they could focus on the poster part, as a prep for how they’d answer questions as we start testing next week. Instead, now they’re all convinced that math is hard and confusing. Pretty much a teacher fail, huh? 😦

Thoughts? Oh, and I guess it’s a given that I want you to be nice. Truthful, but nice, please. 🙂 And maybe you could even tell me what you think the answer is. That might help me see if the problem reads the way I intended it to. THANK YOU, FRIENDS!

Math Warm-Ups April 8-12, 2013

Wow–how has it been a whole month since I last posted math warm-ups? Oh, yeah, because MARCH was crazy–including a SNOW DAY and SPRING BREAK right next to each other. And not that April is any less busy, but at least this week could be considered somewhat normal. Oh, not it wasn’t–I had a sub on Tuesday. But hey, what’s normal anyway, right? Regardless, here are some recent math warm-ups I haven’t shared yet.

First of all, a couple from last week:

$This one was to help discuss fraction place value, and also to help us talk about writing clear and concise answers to questions like these (in preparation for MAP testing in just over a week).$

This one was to help discuss fraction place value, and also to help us talk about writing clear and concise answers to questions like these (in preparation for MAP testing in just over a week).

$Can you tell I ran out of paper and didn't have a chance to get more for a couple of days? Sorry. :) This one is another place value one, hoping that students would see the relationship between money and fractions, and how they can just "move" the decimal (by multplying by 10), rather than having to use the algorithm to solve the problem.$

Can you tell I ran out of paper and didn’t have a chance to get more for a couple of days? Sorry. 🙂 This one is another place value one, hoping that students would see the relationship between money and fractions, and how they can just “move” the decimal (by multiplying by 10), rather than having to use the algorithm to solve the problem.

This week’s warm-ups:

Wednesday

$We needed to reminded (again) about equivalent fractions, as well as their tie to decimals.$

We needed to reminded (again) about equivalent fractions, as well as their tie to decimals.

This one came right off of our Edison benchmark practice from this month. We’re using the problems on that assessment to help us analyze the “why” of the ones we get wrong. This can help us not make those same mistakes again the next time we encounter them.

This is another Edison problem, but I changed the numbers. Many students are still not remembering to make the denominators the same before they add. This one also elicited great conversations around simplifying answers–both how and why here as well.

I’m hoping I’m back in the routine of posting warm-ups. Sorry if you’ve missed them! 🙂

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