Browsed by
Tag: karyn hodgens

The Artistic Side of Math – Scaling

The Artistic Side of Math – Scaling

Comments 0 Comment

Ancient Africans in Egypt enlarged pictures by using nets of squares. In this fun project, students re-construct a smaller picture into a very large picture. In mathematics, we call this dilation which is a type of trasformation studied in geometry. This is an activity I do with fourth graders and above. I first begin with a picture that I know the students will have fun re-constructing. Hence…Sponge Bob. Depending on the number of students who will be working on one…

Read More Read More

Measuring our Feet – A Fun First Grade Activity

Measuring our Feet – A Fun First Grade Activity

Comments 0 Comment

Partners traced each other’s feet. Then we used Unifix cubes to determine the area. (Partial squares got a little tricky but we did a little fraction work.) Then table teams grouped their Unifix into tens and ones for some place value practice. The kids LOVED that they got to take off their shoes. (Okay, there was one who wasn’t so keen on it…and there were a lot of laces that needed to be tied before recess!)

First Graders and Tape Measures

First Graders and Tape Measures

Comments 0 Comment

Okay, that was fun! I handed my group of kindergartners and first graders tape measures (the non-metal kind) and told them they could measure whatever they wanted. What a hit! On so many levels. First, I showed them how they could measure how far they jumped. After being stuck inside all day due to rain, this was the perfect way to get them to move around a bit and still sneak in some great math. Once I showed them how…

Read More Read More

Using Individual White Boards in the Classroom

Using Individual White Boards in the Classroom

Comments 0 Comment

caption id=”attachment_1503″ align=”alignleft” width=”300″ caption=”First Graders practice writing equations”][/caption]Without a doubt, my absolute favorite teaching tool is the individual white board. Way back when the earth was still cooling and I had just started my teaching career, I laminated white poster board and cut them apart to make my own super cheap version. Today I have a little more money, so I have my own commercial set of 30. And they get used A LOT. Why do I like white…

Read More Read More

What is ‘Math’ Anyway?

What is ‘Math’ Anyway?

Comments 0 Comment

Part of figuring out how to help kids grow up comfortable with math, is to understand what math is. If you ask a group of first graders to describe math, the responses are very similar. Math is adding and taking away. Older elementary students will add multiplying and dividing. When prodded to include more, there are often long pauses followed by kids giving the same answer but in a different way. Rarely does anyone describe math as shapes or patterns…

Read More Read More