calendar math

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Home : 2003 : July : 17

calendar math
By E

This isn't a site...but here are some activities that I used as part of my opening last year that gave me amazing results. First after figuring out the number of days of school we wrote the number in as many ways as possible
for 5-10 minutes. I was the recorder on the blackboard (to keep things moving) and students told me a way to make that number. For example: 30 can also be written as 29+1, 2 tens, 10 ones, 50-20, 15x2, 1 quarter and 1 nickel. My second graders came up with such creative ways and as better students shared their ideas, my poor math students began picking up on them. We even got into negative

numbers and numbers in the millions(only if the student could tell me how to write it and could explain why it was correct)Students were really in tune to what ways others were using and would challenge them if they thought it didn't make the correct number. We did this daily for the entire year. I also had students take home 2 peanut butter jars. The student filled one jar with whatever small item they wanted and 10 of the same item went in the other jar. Students wrote down their estimates as they came in after seeing how full the jar with 10 items. During calendar time the students that brought in the jar picked a friend to help him/her count the items. It was fun to do and we got better and better at it. We also had a word problem a day to solve. Everyone recorded the problem and solution in their learning log and 2 solved it on the board. I thought all of these activities helped my students understand numbers and operations. Good luck.