Estimation Jar Slips
Above are the two estimation jars we used at a recent family math night event. Below are the estimation slips students filled out. Click on the image to print a copy.
Family Math Night – Estimation Jars
A great activity to include during a family math night event is the estimation jar. Kids love to make predictions and they get so excited in the hopeful anticipation of being the winner. Including an estimation jar is also a great marketing tool. Kids will want to come to the event so they have the opportunity to make a guess, so be sure to advertise it. I like to include a jar for K-2 and another one for 3-5/6. The…
Family Math Night – Posing Thinking Questions
Our most recent Family Math Night event was done at an International Baccalaureate (IB) elementary school. The two teachers I was working with to organize the event wanted to find a way to include an inquiry-based question for students to answer. Their students have had a lot of practice with inquiry-based curriculm, which is a heavy component in the IB program, so it would have been a missed opportunity had we not tied IB in with math night. We decided…
A Yummy Way to Practice Number Facts
How yummy is this activity! Oh yeah…and it’s a fun way to practice beginning number facts. I use the double six dominoes, but it’s easy to diferentiate by providing only dominoes that represent the facts you want students to work on. In other words, if you have a student who is still struggling with adding one to a given number, then use only the dominoes that have one dot (pip) on one side. For example, five dots on one side…
Halloween Literature in the Math Classroom
This book is TOO FUN! The illustrations alone are priceless. It’s a Halloween twist on the traditional The 12 Days of Christmas song. I always like to read the story first without too many interruptions. Although, be sure to have the students see if they can find the dog on each of the pages! They love that. Then we get into the math. With my younger students, we use Unifix cubes to determine the total number of gifts on day…