Category Archives: Making Math Accessible
The Progression of Early Number and Counting
If you’re not a pre-k, kindergarten, or 1st-grade teacher, you need to find one and give them a hug after watching this video. They do the work of an army and many times their work goes unnoticed. There’s so much happening … Continue reading
I’ll Rip Your Face Off: The Art of Defacing Manipulatives
It’s our fault. We have no one to blame but ourselves. We unknowing pigeonhole student thinking with the manipulatives we use. Take fraction tiles for example. Much to my disappointment, they come with labels and it kills me. Manipulatives that … Continue reading
Where’s Poly? An Exploration in Geo-Dotting
What’s geo-dotting? I have no clue but that’s what I’m calling this lesson. We started by asking, “What do you notice?” Our favorites: Looks like Pac-man I see dots and they make a “Y” Looks like someone went crazy with … Continue reading
Posted in Geometry, Making Math Accessible, Who Knows?
13 Comments
Geometric Subitizing: A Different Kind of Number Talk
These Geometric Subitizing Cards have been in beta the past two years. I asked our buddy Joe Schwartz to take them for a test drive last spring and he reported back. Joe’s all in. How do they work? Let’s play… Last week I took them for … Continue reading
The Task Graveyard
It’s where my ideas go to die. But like the mighty phoenix, I have one idea for a task that keeps rising from the ashes. It just won’t die. If Bruce Willis was a math task, I’ve seen his face. … Continue reading
Conservation: The more things change, the more they stay the same
Every once in a while I stumble across Piaget’s 7 Conservation Tasks and then I move on. This week was different because my thoughts around conservation won’t go away. In a recent meeting with kindergarten and 1st grade teachers we discussed the importance of students being able to … Continue reading
Posted in counting, Estimation, K-2, Making Math Accessible, Strategy Development, Teacher Content, Teaching in a Context
Tagged conservation, decomposing, Piaget, unitizing
5 Comments
The Progression of Addition and Subtraction
The more I create… the more I learn. Here is the 3rd installment of this whole Making Sense Series which has truly forced me to be a better teacher. A more educated teacher. I can’t stress enough how much I’ve … Continue reading
The Progression of Division
Last month I posted The Progression of Multiplication hoping that a couple of friends and parents would find it helpful. Well, here’s my stab at the progression of division. I understand that there’s lots of ways to model division and this is only … Continue reading
The Post-it Holds the Mystery Number
There’s no denying the power of the Post-it. Many brilliant minds within the #MTBoS have harnessed its’ power to help students make sense of mathematics and this week was no different. Only this time we infused them into a Marilyn Burns must have… … Continue reading
Posted in 3-5, Algebra, Making Math Accessible, Number Sense, Strategy Development
Tagged Algebra, Marilyn Burns, patterns
16 Comments
Take it to the Bank
It’s never been a secret that Superman fears Kryptonite. But I think the same can be said for many 2nd grade teachers and the way they feel about teaching money. There’s no way around it…teaching money to students is hard. With … Continue reading
