Skeletons vs Nets

Sounds kinda like my son's fave game "Plants vs Zombies.." lol  This, however, was a math activity that I did with my 2/3s. We made a cube using toothpicks and little bits of plasticine (I have used mini marshmallows before and they also work really well) and a rectangular prism net from my math resource book. The kids had to assemble each shape. We talked about why one was called a skeleton...lots of talking in groups. The next day, the kids made a Venn Diagram in their Math Journals and compared them.
This was a challenge, as they had to use math language (edges, vertices, angles) so we made a diagram together to get started. Students could then either add more of their own ideas independently, or keep working with the group on ideas together.
My computer has decided to be difficult and won't let me upload the pictures I have of this activity. It turned out to be full of rich, hands-on learning. And, best of all, no injuries from the toothpicks!

Since I am unable to upload the real deal, here is a picture just to give you an idea. The prisms were made out of paper. Kids decorated them and then glued them together.

The skeleton cubes were made from toothpicks and plasticine.

What hands-on learning have you tried with Geometry? I'd love to hear about it!

Adding by Grouping Friendly Numbers

So I've signed up to be part of a project for Math. This time, unlike the TLT that I did a few years ago, I am the test subject. Yup, forty teachers across primary, junior and intermediate grades are coming together to see how we can improve our math teaching abilities.
Hmmmmm....I forsee Math on the Brain. 24-7.
I used this Stuart J Murphy book this week to help introduce the concept of double digit addition with regrouping. It is another great math book by Murphy and the kids LOVED it. After we read it, I displayed one of the pages on my SmartBoard and we discussed math involved in the adding. The next day, I broke the kids into like-ability pairs and gave them a problem like in the book. This way, I could differentiate the difficulty of the question, and help the kids who are struggling in reading to read the question. Wow! What a fun, engaging activity.

I asked kids to pair up with another group to explain to them how they got their answer. This worked really well and gave the kids a chance to talk about their learning.

Odds & Evens

For whatever reason, my class has had a difficult time with odd and even numbers. So, I rolled up my invisible sleeves (it has been HOT here: ergo t-shirts) and got Pinning. I tried poems (which they loved), our colour coded number lines (hmmm), and cooperative games but there were still a large number of kids who were confused. I noticed a lot of teachers use the book Odd Todd and Even Steven, which looked great. No luck finding it in our school library :(  Argh!

As a last resort, I raided my own Stuart J Murphy read alouds. I bought several of his books from Book Closeouts, for a fraction of their list price, a few years ago. Cue dramatic music-I found a perfect book! Imagine that...in my very own collection. {head smack and sigh}

A little ironic to be reading it in capris and sandals, but the kids LOVED it. In a nutshell, it's about a farmer who is looking for his missing mitten. As he goes around the barnyard, he notices that many of the animals are also missing a mitten. The story goes through even and odd all the way up to ten. It is a predictable pattern book, both in the pictures and text. After discussing the book, I called up two kids and asked them to make a pair. Then did the same with three kids. Right away, the class wanted to make a group of three, but I explained that there can only be two in a pair. We did this all the way up to six kids, with the class deciding which numbers were odd and which even. We then made an anchor chart with the definition for odd and even. Which is at school on my blackboard. I forgot to take a picture of it on Friday. Basically, even numbers can be made into pairs with zero left over. Odd numbers can be made into pairs with one left over.

Next lesson, kids were given a sticky note with a number (1-21) on it. They had to show whether the number was odd or even using our anchor chart rule. I handed out the numbers so I could control who got which  one.

click the picture to get the page

I gave each child an enlarged sheet (11 x 17) and a sheet of mittens to decorate, cut out and use to model whether their number was odd or even. I got the mittens from Giving Up On a Clean House (wonderful blog) 

click the mittens to go to the page

...which I shrank on the photocopier so that I could include more on a page. This was a really fun, interactive lesson that incorporated lots of different ideas, inspirations and learning styles. We are making our Odds and Evens sheets into a class book for the kids to refer to as we have the numbers 1-21.

Whew! Hope this made sense.

Top 3 Things Linky Party

Becca at Simply 2nd Resources is having a Top 3 Things linky party. So, what three things am I going to concentrate on this year?

1. Math
Our school board has been concentrating on Literacy for the past five years or so. Our Literacy scores have increased significantly and now I feel that Math needs some TLC. I've noticed that many teachers have been blogging about Debbie Diller's new book, and I am going to buy it! I am also going to go through the new resources that have been purchased by our board (ie read alouds) to supplement.



2. Poetry
I've had an incredibly hard time teaching poetry. I admit that it is one thing I REALLY have to work on this year. I have purchased a Unit from TPT on poetry and am looking forward to using it. I also have to find more poetry browsing books and am on a mission.


3. Start a Book Club
I have been inspired by the online book club for "The Book Whisperer" that has been going on this summer in Blog Land. Therefore, I am starting a book club at my school with my coworkers. Yes, you guessed it, the first book we are going to read is "The Book Whisperer." I hope to do one evening every couple of weeks and take turns hosting the club meeting. It will be a chance to get together, eat appetizers, and chat while reading a wonderful book. SO EXCITED!


It's going to be a very busy year! What are you going to work on? Link up and share.