Beautiful fall and festive October gave us many opportunities to incorporate the season into our mathematics classroom. Students took a trip to the pumpkin patch and the talk of the classroom was pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins! We talked about all the wonderful math we could do with pumpkins. I loved hearing the great ideas our kindergarteners came up with!
I strive to help students find the many uses of mathematics all around them. I can see them being curious, excited and engaged about numbers. I want them to be able to think flexibly - coming up with their own questions and plan to solve, rather than simply answering questions I pose for them. When the questions are authentic and student-driven, learning is maximized. On a daily basis, they tell me where they see shapes, what objects look like the mathematical tools they use and they are constantly counting and comparing! To celebrate October, we made estimates and measured the height and weight of our classroom pumpkin, counted its lines, and even cut it open to see how many seeds it had. This gave us many opportunities to make reasonable estimates based on evidence and our knowledge of numbers, and attend to precision as we counted each and every seed. The students were diligent in their work, and when they miscounted, they worked as a team to recount them, striving for accuracy. These are mathematical practices at work! We found 227 seeds in our medium-sized pumpkin! After our pumpkin investigation, we used our counting, number recognition and our developing understanding of probability to create silly pumpkin monsters. Students got a kick out of being able to spin a spinner to add different body parts to their pumpkin. They used their picture to help them figure out "how many more" spins they had left before their pumpkin was finished. Take a look at their beautiful work below - what creativity and talent! As we enter November, we are starting to solidify our work with combinations of 10 and 20. Students are now thinking about thinking, and learning to use mathematical reasoning to explain using words, symbols and pictures. For example, as we count the days in school, I might ask students "How many more days until we fill up another ten frame?" Students are now given whiteboards and markers to draw a picture to show how they figured out their answer. Metacognition is extremely tough for young students so I encourage you to continuously ask your child to be more specific and descriptive about their ideas. Ask them why and insist that they explain. Here are some other indicators of metacognition. Students can:
Example questions to ask your children (about the work we are doing in class):
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June 2016
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