Counting Around the Circle

A new warm-up routine that I am using with my math group comes from a book I read over the summer, Number Sense Routines by Jessica Shumway. The routine is “counting around the circle.” I choose a student to begin the counting and tell them how to count (by two’s, three’s, five’s, ten’s, etc.) At first we just practiced counting in different ways. Now as we get ready to begin counting, I ask them predict what number a certain student will say. Or we count around the circle once and I then ask what number we will get to when we go around a second time. It is a fun way to wake up their number sense.

Even and Odd and Crackers

Winter break is a wonderful time for I get to spend lots of time with family. One day at lunch my almost five year old granddaughter, Rachel, was staring intently at her cracker. Then she announced that it had an odd number of holes. "There are seven holes, and seven's an odd number." How do you know, she was asked. Well she had partnered up the holes and there was one left over. She said her teacher had taught her that. So hooray for Rachel's teacher who knew preschoolers are ready to learn about numbers and hooray for Rachel for taking the odd/even lesson and testing it out in real life. She continued her explorations of odd and even over our time together.

Visualizing Numbers

One thing math teachers learn is that it is important for children to be able to represent and visualize numbers in different ways. Last spring when I went to the conference for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, I heard a lot about visualizing numbers in a variety of sessions, including one on Singapore math and ones presented by Marilyn Burns and others from Math Solutions. (For more about my thoughts on the NCTM conference see http://skyclassjoanmath.blogspot.com/2009/04/nctm-meeting-in-washington-dc.html and http://skyclassjoanmath.blogspot.com/2009/04/marilyn-burns-and-more.html )

Lisa Rogers from Math Solutions presented a session I enjoyed on developing number sense. One model she shared for visualizing numbers is using ten-frames. It's a model that helps students regroup numbers within our base 10 number system. I have done several mini-lessons with my math group using the overhead projector to introduce them to ten-frames. I have drawn ideas from Susan Scharton's book, Teaching Number Sense- Grade 2. The children have responded with enthusiasm and have been becoming more articulate in describing how they see and manipulate numbers with ten-frames.

Marilyn Burns and More

One of the highlights of the NCTM Meeting for me was the presentation by Marilyn Burns on the topic of "Using Assessment to Guide Grades K-6 Mathematics Instruction: A Focus on Number and Operations." I have long used books by Marilyn Burns as a resource for my math teaching. She is a wonderful presenter, engaging with a warm sense of humor. Yes, she did use Powerpoint, which she noted was a recent change for her. But it was an outline which she fleshed out in her talk. She also incorporated some engaging video of the kind of assessment she was talking about. I particularly enjoyed seeing her use an assessment that I have used before, taking it from one of her books. Seeing the questions she asked, the way she encouraged the student to verbalize her thinking and reassured the student that the information would help Marlilyn be a better teacher, was quite helpful. All in all an inspriring, productive hour.

Later in the day I attended a session with a colleague of Marilyn Burns at Math Solutions, Lisa Rogers. She was addressing the development of number sense with primary students. By modelling some of the strategies she suggested and drawing in the audience with questions, she kept me alert and involved even though her session was late in the afternoon.
I also enjoyed a presentation on Singapore math, which is creating a buzz right now in this country. A lot of what was presented to us described a central focus on problem solving, the importance of helping students visualize math, and the laying of a foundation with informal experiences before introducing formal treatments. It is also a spiral curriculum that comes back around and revisits and reenforces topics. Other presentations I attended explored the development of algebraic thinking and the development of an understanding of base 10.

Rachel Counts (in more ways than one!)

I am enjoying Winter Break, a chance to catch my breath in the midst of a busy school year. We are in the Smokies with family for the holidays. This has given me lots of good time with granddaughter Rachel, who reports her age as three and three-quarters. Like her father and uncle when they were this age, she delights in patterns and numbers. We count pennies as we play dreidel. We count blocks and toys and the cookies we cut out of the sugar cookie dough. We count cards as we play Concentration (Memory), where she shows a strong visual memory. Her number sense seems to strengthen every day. We were building with her baby sister's blocks one day. We had established the previous day there were ten of the soft rubbery blocks in all. We were trying to recreate a structure we had built the day before, but could not as some were missing. She carefully counted out eight blocks. I asked her how many were missing. She thought for a moment. "Two! " she announced. Later we found one of the missing blocks and added a bear to the structure.