Math…it’s a Workout

Math…it’s a Workout

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“Your workout has to be fun. You’re not going to stick with it if it isn’t fun.” I hear this every time I’m in the middle of a difficult workout. And every time I hear it I want to ‘bop’ the lady on the DVD who is guiding me through the “fun”.

It’s not always easy, but I try to get in a workout several times a week. Unlike the opinion of Ms. DVD, however, working out is not always a lot of fun. There’s usually some pain involved. Those lunges hurt.

So the other day when she repeated herself for the umpteenth time, I started to think about why I continue to pop in that DVD and torture myself for 40 minutes. After all, she said it was supposed to be fun and I wasn’t feeling the fun. I just wanted the workout to be over so I could get that sense of accomplishment that comes with knowing you’ve done something good for yourself.

And there it was. My motivator. That sense of accomplishment. And I was willing to endure some pretty tough exercises in order to get it.

But there was another motivator, too. Results. If I didn’t get any results from my pain, well then it wouldn’t be worth doing.

It’s the same in the math classroom. Some math problems are not fun. And some math problems are not easy. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not important to do. The key is to help students make connections between the problems they’re working on and the reasons for doing them. We need to show them the benefits.

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Power Packs: Building Number Sense in Grades 4/5

Power Packs: Building Number Sense in Grades 4/5

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I’m excited to share with you that our Building Number Sense in Grades 4-5 Power Pack is now available. All of our Power Packs are filled with games that teach parents strategies and tools to help their children build strong math skills.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there have been a lot of changes in mathematics curriculum and pedagogy in recent years and a lot of parents don’t feel as prepared as they’d like to be when it comes to helping their child in math. The power of these Power Packs comes in the integration of strategies and tools that parents use as they play the games with their children. While playing the games, not only are parents learning about the new standards, they’re also gaining strategies they can use to help their child in math.

The strategies and tools in our 4/5 Power Pack are:

  • Partial Products Multiplication
  • Partial Quotients Division
  • Distributive Property for single- and multi-digit multiplication
  • Front End Estimation
  • Fraction Bars
  • Multiplying Fractions on a Number Line
  • Rounding
  • Order of Operations
  • Standard Algorithms for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division
  • Multiplication Strategies for Multiples of 10

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The Power of the Estimation Jar

The Power of the Estimation Jar

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We often think of math as the exact-answer subject. But the kind of math that we do most often during the day doesn’t require an exact answer. We use this particular math skill when we need to figure out how much time we need to get ready in the morning. Or whether we have enough gas in the car to get to work. Or whether $50 is enough to cover the items in our shopping cart.

The math skill we use the most is, of course, estimation. And estimating accurately requires a high level of math. That’s because it’s abstract which means we need to tap into our number sense and reasoning skills.

One way to provide our students with opportunities to work on their estimation skills is during computation practice. Instead of diving right in to figure out 15 x 12, have students come up with an estimate…about what the answer will be. In fact, periodically I ask students NOT to determine the exact answer and, instead, have them turn in their work with only their estimates recorded. This is hard for them to do in the beginning because they are so used to working out arithmetic problems, but they soon learn the value in thinking about the problem first.

A fun way to get students to work on their estimating skills is through the estimation jar. I’ve included two of my estimation videos below. The first video describes using the estimation jar in the classroom as a way to develop, not only estimation skills, but place value and number sense, as well.

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Power Packs: Developing Number Sense in Grades 2/3

Power Packs: Developing Number Sense in Grades 2/3

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We’re now ready to launch our Power Pack: Building Number Sense in Grades 2-3. Like our K-1 Pack, it comes filled with fun games that reinforce what students are learning in the classroom..

These Power Packs can be used during your Family Math Night event, as take-home math packs in the classroom, and as classroom math centers.

And here’s another interesting way to use them. I was chatting with a principal at one of my recent Family Math Night events where we were using the games. She loved the Packs so much that she is planning on giving them to her teachers to share during parent conferences. That way, if a child needs to practice a specific skill, the teacher can guide the parent to the appropriate game in the pack and send it home so parent and child can practice together. I thought the idea was brilliant so I’m sharing it with you.

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Power Packs: Developing Number Sense

Power Packs: Developing Number Sense

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I’m excited to share with you the newest member of our Family Math Night product line:  Power Packs: Building Numbers Sense in grades K-1, 2-3, and 4-5.  These Power Packs are filled with games that teach parents strategies and tools to help their children build strong math skills.  They can be used during your Family Math Night event, as take-home math packs in the classroom, and as classroom math centers. Why Power Packs?  There have been a lot of changes in mathematics curriculum…

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