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Category: Problem-Solving

Pattern and the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics

Pattern and the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics

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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,…

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The Estimation Jar – Number Sense in Action

The Estimation Jar – Number Sense in Action

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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…

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Family Math Night What Do You Notice? Poster

Family Math Night What Do You Notice? Poster

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So for this What Do You Notice? poster, I decided to tie in rectangular arrays with prime and composite numbers.  That said, whatever math-y thing students notice is totally acceptable.  For example, one student noticed that the “buildings” had square windows.  Great.  That’s a little bit of geometry.  Another student noticed that each set of colored rectangles included the same number of squares.  Again, great, as that required some counting and comparison.  Just like the student who noticed that there are…

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Family Math Night What Do You Notice? Poster

Family Math Night What Do You Notice? Poster

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Here’s my latest What Do You Notice? poster from a recent Family Math Night event.  The nice thing about these posters is that they’re open-ended which allows for anyone to respond.  For this one, I decided to make a venn diagram.  But I didn’t draw the usual circles.  Instead I drew two hexagons.  This created the rhombus (parallelogram) in the center. The categories I used for the numbers were even numbers and multiples of 5.  That said, anything appropriate would have…

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Math Tricks

Math Tricks

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I hired my youngest son, Ryan, for the summer. When your kids get older they don’t hang out with you as much so we have to find ways to keep them around. I find money works. :-)But hiring him was really a win/win. He needed a job and I needed help. So he’s been keeping track of the hours he’s worked and every couple of weeks we square things up. Yesterday he reminded me that I owe him $100 for…

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