Signs for your Maths Wall Display

Hello friends,

Maths week is sneaking up quickly and this is a good time to reflect on our classroom maths displays. Are they helpful to the students? Are they interactive? Do they show visitors the maths that is really happening in your classroom? There are so many 'pretty' maths posters on line that you can download for each area of your maths programme. I have files overflowing with laminated wall display charts and posters. But at the end of the day, I only used these seldom and with discretion, asking the question, "How will this help my students improve?"

When I sat down to write interactive maths games for each knowledge outcome from stages 4-8, I also thought about how students could be the masters of their own learning. Over the years of interviewing students for assessment I noticed how keen they were to come back and be interviewed on their next bit of knowledge, when they knew what it was they needed to master.

So I incorporated this into the pack too. Following an IKAN test to establish their knowledge and next steps, students get a stage tracking sheet for their maths book of the knowledge they need to master and the games they can play to master them.

There are also wall posters explaining each piece of knowledge, to put up onto your maths wall. Students names could also be added to remind them what they are currently working on. Students track their progress on their sheet in their maths book so that they know exactly where they got up to during the previous maths session. They can play a game as many times as they want to and when they feel ready to be interviewed, they let you know.

You can quickly do this at the start of a focused maths group session as you wait for the group to gather. Keep the teacher checklist pasted into the front of your group modelling book for quick reference. 

As the programme gathers momentum, and students realise that they set the pace of their progression, you will be blown away by how quickly they progress through the knowledge stages.

Another bonus of this is students can set their own maths homework goals by keeping a student checklist in their homework books as well. Once you sign them off in an interview, they can update their homework sheet themselves and move onto their next goals to practise with mum and dad - meaningful differentiated homework - bonus :)

This week I tidied up my wall display headers / banners for my knowledge displays and wish to offer these to you all as freebies. I have used super cute illustrations by Philip Martin which you will love.

Two options are included. One is a simple banner header which you can print to preferred size, another is a display mat version you can print A3 and laminate to group you knowledge signs or group names onto. This will help keep your display tidier. There is a colour set to match each stage of my Knowledge Games Resource.

 All games in this post and all Freebie wall labels can be found here

http://www.help-me-learn.com/store/c3/Mathematics.html

With love, as always

Thank you for visiting,

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Timea

Maths - Wondering and Noticing

Hello friends,

Annie Fetter at NCTM Ignite

For all you fellow maths teachers, here is a  little video full of great ideas. Well worth a watch. These concepts are  transdisciplinary so apply to all areas of engaging learners. Take a look.

Have a great weekend :)

Thank you for visiting,

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Free Math Game Worksheet to Help Consolidate Place Value

Sorting out Place Value Houses can be really tricky for young learners. Here is an activity we used at the start of this year. Download yourself a copy for free from the end of this post.

Here are some pictures of my students using them.

Students got to take turns to throw the dice. They had to make the largest or smallest number in the group by thinking about where to place the digit that they threw. I would say that the number had to be decimals only, or between ten thousand and hundredths, maybe it could only contain 2 zeros (where would they place these and why). We played several games of this. It was great to see students adjust their thinking based on experience.

Fold the grey section over and cut into flaps then glue into maths book. Work with the flaps open for the first few turns, then close them to challenge yourself as you learn where the houses are located.
Students need to put in the decimal point as needed, for each of their numbers.

Download your FREE copy here

If you are looking for a board game to teach place value, then take a look at this resource too...

PLACE VALUE Math Board Game Mats with base ten blocks game cards

What other teachers say:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 'Fantastic resource. Very well compiled. This was so helpful!

Preview this Place Value Board Game in my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey - HERE

or on my website - Help Me Learn - HERE

Thank you for visiting,

Timea

Dragon Art Lessons for Fantasy Literature Themes

One challenge that we may face when teaching art is to engage boys with this subject, without losing the girls. One particular theme I found quite successful these last couple of years has been that of dragons.

The cool thing about this unit is that it has links to maths through number, measurement, coordinates and enlargement.
You can also link it to a literacy unit on Fantasy.

Here is a link to our class blog where one of my students reviewed one of these novels

Here are some images of my Y4 class (8-9 year olds) getting started on their drawings. One pair of students were so inspired that they continued drawing and researching dragons for the rest of the year.

These sketches were cut out and mounted onto painted backgrounds like this sunset one. 

The following year we created moon-rise backgrounds, like this one:

If you would like to get this popular step-by-step lesson tutorial for How To Grow Your Dragon,  to engage your students, you can find it in my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey - HERE

Or visit my website - Help Me Learn - HERE

I would love to see how you get on with it so please link me in any social media posts where you share your amazing results:

You can add the product link from TPT or my Instagram link @timea_oneteachersjourney

So what have other teachers said about this lesson tutorial?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "What a fabulous resource. The creative thought and detailed picture references make this a brilliant resource for my class and is something I can use for years to come. Thank you so much."

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Excellent resource."

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "I really loved this project idea."

Update:

This lesson tutorial has proven so popular that I have created another lesson tutorial - this one comes with an instructional video guide, that is fully narrated and demonstrates all drawing steps in real time. Stream the video lesson on your large screen and free yourself up to support your students and children.

A perfect companion to a theme study on reptiles, extinct species and literacy units based on the legends genre.

Learning intentions include: Plan your composition, Add details that suit the context, Select colour schemes, Show an understanding for the elements of TEXTURE & FORM, Draw with tutorials, Draw from imagination, Develop technical skills for colouring with pencils, Respond to art created by artists and by my friends, Reflect on my own knowledge, skills, progress and artwork.

If you would like to get this popular step-by-step lesson tutorial for the Dragon Eye art project, you can find it in my

 TPT store - One Teacher's Journey - HERE

Or visit my website - Help Me Learn - HERE

Progress Photos ages 7-9

Progress Photos ages 7-9

Thank you for visiting,

Timea 💗

Maths - trying the fishbowl technique

Hello friends,

I am currently working through the tips and tricks for learning your times tables with my students. This week we gave the 'Fish Bowl' a go (see this previous post) and it worked brilliantly :)
Your classroom culture MUST be established though as it is a 'risk-taking' exercise for the students to share their thinking and feel comfortable about being vulnerable with with this.

 We all used different materials at our table groups and also rotated around between activities so that the kiddies got to experience a variety of ways to model their  thinking.

Prior to this, we had looked at multiplying with 0,1, 2, 3, 5 and 10. Now we were moving to 4 and 6. These 2 numbers are special in that they have factors that we have already covered.

I asked the students if they could create a number story they could model, that showed this idea (factorisation). I didn't call it that - I wanted them to discover the concept for themselves. They were very inventive with the way that they used colour to demarcate for place value where needed (including for decimals). I found it very revealing and the kiddies all learnt heaps about misconceptions and factors. Here is the first video showing a common misconception. This students was modeling 6 x 23 or 6 groups of 23 with coloured sticks. He used colour to demarcate the ones and tens and the groups into their sets as well. He self corrected just after this video snippet when he realised that his total as explained did not match the workings in his book.

This video shows a students who had the correct understanding and could even interchange the factors. His story was 6 x 5 or 6 groups of 5. He demonstrates 2 x 3 x 5 and 3 x 2 x 5:

Finally this student used coloured jelly beans to demonstrate multiplying decimals. His equation is 6  x 8.4 or 6 groups of 8 wholes and 4 tenths. He also uses colour to demarcate wholes from tenths. Please note that this concept was devised originally by the first student with the misconception and adapted by this student after the first one shared.  

This little resource is great with helping to remember the times tables tricks for both teacher and student. You can print them into little foldable booklets for student mathsbooks or homework books too. They have been grouped into the sets that tables are usually learnt.

I quickly added these images from our maths books. We are just up to the 4 and 6 times:

Available internationally from:

Available in New Zealand from

 

How do you teach multiplication tables to your students?

Thank you for visiting. Come again soon.

Flipped Classrooms - Maths

Hello friends,
Recently I had the privilege of attending the annual Maths Symposium at Waipuna Lodge. Many talented maths leaders and teachers gathered to present and host workshops for teachers from around New Zealand.

My first workshop suggested ways to teach number strategies through strand (Geometry, Statistics and Measurement). Teaching Y6 this year where weighting of time spent on Number vs Strand swings in favour of strand, I found this workshop encouraging. Providing students with 'rich' and relevant investigations where they need to be creative and engage problem solving strategies, is key. Cooperative skills really come into play and recall is no longer the big divide.

Later I found this video on Youtube from the Edutopia channel:

It was filmed in Chris Opitz' classroom at Bowman Elementary, USA. I think you'll agree that there were some really cool ideas raised and modeled in this video. Thank you Chris for sharing.

My second workshop was centered around teaching decimal concepts in a variety of ways. It again kept referring to investigative problem solving so that students formulate their own understandings as opposed to being TOLD the form and function of a math concept. One message that stuck with me was the verbalising of digits in decimal places. Say you write 2.345 on the board, when naming it, say: 2 wholes, 3 tenths, 4 hundredths and 5 thousandths instead of 2 point 345. This really emphasizes what parts of wholes the numbers represent  and leads to less confusion during number operations. I made a place value resource around this principle. You can view the video for it below.

This resource has Place Value boards and cards for playing dice games like first to 100, first to 1000 and first to a whole. It also has bingo games for whole numbers as well as decimal numbers. The bingo cards depict 3 ways for referring to a number. I have listed this resource on all my stores. The links are at the bottom of this post if you are interested in getting your own copy.

My final workshop was probably the most inspiring. Recently I had stumbled across the concept of flipped classrooms. Here is a video I watched.

This last workshop was presented by a young and enthusiastic junior high teacher who shared her journey with us. Judging by the audiences reactions - many tired and overworked teachers - it was not a concept that was going to fly but I was hooked. This was an idea I had been toying with too and had been using Educreate on our classroom iPads in order to record concepts that we were learning with the students in small group. I would then post these on our classroom GoogleSITE at the end of each day for the kiddies to refer to, revise and to share with Mum and Dad. The principle behind flipped classrooms is that you post videos of content that students need to familiarise with, prior to meeting with you for a lesson. This way the lesson can go deeper and further because the basic stuff is out of the way.

I hunted around a bit and came across LearnZillion, a treasure trove of video lessons compiled by teachers across America. Some are great and I have set them for students to watch. However, they are Common Core aligned, while this is great for our American colleagues, not so much for us and it can takes ages to hunt out the suitable material.

So...
I have started making my own. Its early days still...and feels really awkward listening to my own 'teacher voice' talking back at me through youtube, especially when my family are floating around and tease me about it. But...I am proud of the few that I have finished. I would love some feedback if you have the time. Please visit my channel and watch a couple. I have started with multiplication concepts as that is what my class is looking at this term. Here is one of them. The rest can be found through this link.  See store links below.

The first video (below) can me downloaded in high resolution from TPT for free. Just click here to be taken straight to the free video.

All the videos I make will be viewable on Youtube on a lower resolution (due to upload speed)

Now for the links to my stores:
International:

New Zealand


Thank you for visiting. Stop by again soon or follow this blog to get my post updates.

All the best

How to Teach Math as a Social Activity

Love this video. Will give it a go and post soon :)

Maths Knowledge #1 - What is it?

Hello friends,

Maths is one of those subjects you either loved or hated when you were in school. I'll bet that how you felt about it, strongly depended on the teacher you had and the lessons / resources that they provided, as well as their own attitude to the subject.

Having been the TIC (teacher in charge) of Maths at my school, I found it really deflating how many teachers held a negative outlook on this subject. Yet it encompasses daily skills necessary to function in our lives. Logic and reasoning applies universally to the choices we make...so lets make maths fun and REAL!.

One of the biggest gaps today is in the area of board games. The rich maths concepts that come out of them, not to mention the social aspect, communication skills, kin-aesthetic application, values examination, peer moderation and a competitive purpose to improve, to name a few of the benefits.

I see a lot of worksheet based maths lessons these days, and while there is definitely a place for this in your programme, it seems to have exploded since the accessibility of photocopiers and the continual growth of curricula that seems to cram more and more Learning Outcomes / Standards into a single year. No wonder the fun has been squeezed out - there is simply no time for it :(   . . . . . . . . or is there?

I am making it my aim to post a series of blogs about some ways to have fun while learning maths, but first, a little background about our maths curriculum for my international readers. I'm sure you'll see commonalities.

Over 10 years ago now, the NZ ministry rolled out the Numeracy Project in schools. This was a great way to up-skill teachers and get them all working from the same page, so to speak (because the programme came with its own set of teaching books (8) and many teachers would teach with these on their laps as a script, in the beginning).

Books 1-9 are viewable at NZ Maths.co.nz

One GOOD thing was it brought back emphasis on using concrete materials to model number concepts. YAY! Lucky kids. This meant that schools purchased math kits for all their teachers to use. Materials we didn't have before, like - counters, beans, film canisters, ice block sticks, array cards, fraction kits, 100 boards and large abacuses, etc. It was like Christmas.

The Numeracy Project focused of Number & Algebra at first. It divides up number into Knowledge and Strategy.

First of 8 levels - student profile sheet from NZ Maths

While different Strategies are the thinking processes one applies to solving problems, Knowledge is the content that is required to be instantly recalled and used when working with the different strategies.
Of course, as with any curricula, Numeracy is leveled and has 8 stages. Stages 1-3 cover the early basics and roughly equate to kiddies aged between 5-7yrs. These levels require students to spend a lot of time with manipulatives, exploring the concept of numbers. From around year 3 (age 7+), children are able to sustain focus on pair and groups games for more extended periods and group rotations are easier for teachers to manage.

Acquiring and practicing Knowledge expectations is an aspect that can be run through your independent work stations.

 

2 of my Year 4 boys from last year playing a game of Loopy to practice multiplication (Basic Facts Knowledge)

For younger students you might run it more structured for peer support, i.e. all kiddies working on the same activity for a week, then move on. For older students you can run it on individual goal based systems. This is how I have run it from year 4 up (age 8+) because it allows students to move at their own pace, be it slower or faster.

Finally, for today, each stage has several specific Knowledge learning outcomes that students need to acquire and demonstrate independently, most of the time. These fall into areas of Number Identification, Sequencing & Ordering numbers, Grouping & Place Value, Basic Facts and finally Fractions. I spent months and years sourcing games (both actual and virtual) to match each of these. In the end I wrote a set of games specifically for each stage and embedded it within a self-management and self-reflective programme for students.

I have used it for about 4 years now. Even when teaching in a digital classroom, I found that students loved the games centre, I suspect because of the human interaction aspect. While computer programmes are a great resource, the shine can wear off after a while and it can become just another worksheet type resource, whereas when you play games with fellow students, it will turn out differently every time :) I'll leave you with this video of a Bingo game in progress for practicing times tables.

Stage 4 and 5 are now available at my TPT store, my TNB store and at HML. 6-8 are in final proofing stages and on the way. Links are below.

Next time I will post about the ideas behind the resource so please link up or visit again soon :)

'Til next time