If you’ve been around here for a while (thanks!), then you know that one of the “regular” posts I do is to share our math warm-ups each week.  For many reasons that hasn’t happened for the last few months.  So this post is to catch up on some of the best ones from recently. 🙂

Measurement

Before the holidays we were working on measurement (mostly length) and had some questions at the beginning to get minds thinking about how and why we should know how to measure.  The last one also addresses being able to visualize the size of a unit (centimeters) and apply it to appropriate situations.  In between and after all of these, we did lots and lots of measuring with different units, tools and objects.

Measurement (Time)

I only ended up with one picture (sorry!) of this round of warm ups, but after we came back from Winter Break we were still working on measuring, only with time!  There were several days of questions related to where the hands would fall on the clock, how many minutes would have passed if the minute hand were on a certain number, as well as one where the had to tell all the ways to describe a certain time (4:30, half past 4, etc.).

Measurement (Money)

Now we’re on to money, and so we’re working on some foundational questions that get kiddos thinking about the numbers behind it first.  Then we’ll work more specifically on counting amounts, giving change, etc.

This first one was just to get kids thinking about groups.  What was great (and what happens often when we discuss the problem later in the day) is that while I never mentioned anything about money, someone used that model to help them figure out the answers and then once we made that connection, it made sense to other friends, too.  Then we could explicitly connect the numbers to coins and amounts we knew (or needed to learn!).

This one got kiddos thinking about combinations that make 25 (which I knew meant a quarter, but wasn’t saying that yet)…

…and then the next day I asked that same question with new parameters (which again I knew was connected to money) to connect to that previous thinking:

As with most everything else I throw at them, kiddos are doing great things with making connections to previous knowledge and incorporating new concepts.  It’s great to watch them think like teachers and figure out the method to my math warm-up madness–often kids will say “Hey, you asked this question because….”  Good stuff!

If you’re doing math warm-ups, do you have any to share about measuring length, time or money?  We’d love to try them!