I know it’s not quite spring yet but I’m a little anxious for it to start. It seems like it’s been a long winter. So, to encourage spring to get a move-on, I did a little spring cleaning. And that’s when I re-discovered my drawer full of rubber stamps and colorful stamp pads. These stamps and stamp pads were a staple in my third, fourth, and fifth grade classroom. And when I ran centers in K-2, I used them there,…
Mathematics is often described as the science of pattern. Through looking for, reasoning about, and describing numeric and geometric patterns, students come to realize that mathematics reflects order and predictability. This is a significant discovery because students who understand the power of patterns in math are more confident in their ability to do math. So when the Common Core State Standards first came out and I didn’t see a whole lot about pattern and patterning activities in the early years,…
I was cleaning up the Estimation Table at my last Family Math Night event when I noticed a slip of paper next to the Hershey’s jar. Taking a closer look at it, I realized I was looking at the thinking behind someone’s guess as to the number of Hersheys in the jar. This piece of paper is priceless to me as an educator. It allows me to clearly understand the steps this child took to arrive at his/her answer – an answer…
Back in the early 2000s, my husband and I joined forces, he as a software engineer and me as a teacher, to design a kids savings and money management software program. We called it KidsSave. In that program we included a fun way to teach kids basic money skills. It was such a powerful tool that we decided to include it for free on our kids and money website. One of my favorite features of the KidsSave Money Counter is…
The Common Core State Standards in Mathematics is really emphasizing number lines in student work with numbers. So I thought I’d include one on a What Do You Notice? Poster at last night’s Family Math Night event. But in order to reflect both the primary and intermediate grades, not only did I include the counting numbers, but I marked the fourths, as well. Some students noticed the color pattern I used – even numbers are blue and odd are red….