Chapter 3: Using Math Warm-Ups in Guided Math
"Okay class, turn to page 31 and let's begin class."
"Good morning. Take out your homework and let's go over it."
Either of these sound familiar? Maybe you've your own opening line to add to the list of "The Most Boring Way to Start Math Class Ever". Perhaps these are more along the lines of what intermediate through high school students experience when they attend a math class, as I've not seen this in K-2 as often.
How do your students being their math day? Calendar? Homework review? Centers?
Consider the following:
"Participating in a variety of brief mathematical activities during the first 20-30 minutes of the day leads students to make subtle mental shifts into the world of mathematical awareness and learning." (Sammons, 2013).
Most kindergarten teachers that I know do a great job of introducing the math portion of their day to their students. They have a great numeracy routine that makes real-world connections to the classroom: calendar. Sammons discusses this math stretch routine to some extent in this chapter. Usually a teacher-led discussion about the number of days the students have been in school occurs and the kids then spend some time, after enough days have passed, bundling sticks to show groups of ten. They already working on the early concepts of our base ten system but they're also experiencing how something everyone uses, a calendar, is based on math!
Older students don't use calendar but there are many alternatives to beginning math instruction instead of a homework check. There are so many ways to better spend 15 minutes of your math block. One of my favorite warm up routines is called "Counting Around the Class". I have used it numerous times in intermediate grades for skip counting practice to help my 4th graders with their multiplication. This past week, I had the pleasure of working with two groups of 3rd graders who were being introduced to multiplication as repeated addition. They were just beginning the steps to learning the meaning of multiplication using bar/tape diagrams, arrays, repeated addition sentences and multiplication sentences. I wanted to use this routine. So we came back from lunch the second day I was with them and I asked the kids to stand in a circle. I told them the rules and we started skip counting by 2s. Most kids find this easy to do so I always start with it to teach the warm-up and when they get good at it, we move on to more difficult numbers. Each student said the number that came next and when we reached 24 (which was said by the last student), I stopped them and asked them to consider the following:
There are 12 kids in this class. How did I know how many students were in class today?
Can someone state a repeated addition sentence for what we just did? (Someone says 2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2 while I record it on the board and then I say:) Wow! That took quite a bit of time! Look at how long that is! I wonder if there is a more efficient way to write that mathematically?
And so on for about 5 minutes. We tried with different numbers (counted by 3s, 10s, 4s) and had similar conversations. Then we sat down and started discussing the meaning of multiplication. The students' were primed and ready for that conversation!
Reflection questions for this week:
Q1: Think about how you start your math class. Is there a mathematical connection?
Q2: What are some upcoming concepts your class will be learning? What are some math stretches that apply to these concepts that you can use to increase student learning?
Q3: Did you see a math stretch in chapter 3 that you would like to try? Or perhaps one you've done in the past and would like to bring back?
Read for next week: Chapter 4 'Using Guided Math with the Whole Class'. For those of you who are local, we're meeting face to face so feel free to bring some samples of math stretches that you tried this week!
Each day I start our math time with a brief calendar routine. The calendar routine I do now is much less than I have done in the past, however, given the time needed for the rest of my math, it was a necessity. We go over the date (day, month, year) and while patterns are no longer a standard in K, my calendar cards present a pattern, so we make predictions. Then I work with ten frames. I have 18 ten frames on my wall above my calendar. Every day we add a seasonal clip art image to a ten frame as we count how many days we have been in school. In the beginning of the year we just add 1 and count the total (3 buses on the ten frame). At this point I have the kids tell me the current number (of bats), predict how many there would be if I added 1 more (for todays' bat), as well as how many blank spots are left on that ten frame. We then alternate counting by tens, plus the ones of the most recent ten frame OR count each one to get the total number of days in school. After this brief calendar routine (7-9 min) we do some fluency cards.
ReplyDeleteDuring the morning I am doing a daily binder page that has both an ELA task and a math task. During this time each day we have been working on writing the number (varies, 1-5) representing that number on a ten frame and a domino. The kids have been coming up with different ways to how a given number on a domino. Then we do a "think math" problem. We have a sentence that says "the answer is 4 robots". The kids are now thinking of their own math word problems that they can create where the answer is 4 robots. (I had been doing the verbal math problem for the first few weeks, now I have turned it over to them). The kids example might sound something like this "I had 2 robots and my mom had 2 robots. That makes 4 robots" As they are saying their math problem I am using my fingers to match their thinking so all students can see the equation being built. I would say 90% of my kids can do this with minimal to no assistance. A few kids might make an error - so I out up those amounts with my fingers as well. I ask them if that makes the answer of 4 robots (while I am holding up 5 fingers) and we talk about how it doesn't match - so how can we change our problem (instead of 3 and 2, 3 and 1).
The daily skills binder that we do will change month to month. I feel as though this is my math stretch. For Nov we start with counting 2 sets of tally marks AND circling the amount of tally marks that is greater/fewer. We will also be working on measurement (draw a bigger or smaller___ than the one on the page). We will do a daily mystery number 1-10. I will give them clues and they have to guess my mystery number (number line 1-10 on the page. My number is bigger than 3. My number is smaller than 5). We will also be writing equation to match a picture as well as filling in a ten frame, then determine how many more needed to make 10.
The daily skills binder is yet another genius product from the Guiding Kinders authors, so as we go through the year, the skills presented will increase in complexity and spiral. It is new to me this year and I can already see the benefits!!
I love the ten frames idea! That is such an important foundational skill for students to grasp. Math is embedded in everything we do and ten frames with calendar is a terrific way to reinforce our base ten system. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of the daily skills binder!!! I will have to look and see if they have one for first grade!!! :)
ReplyDeleteSo my math time is in the afternoon, so although the chapter speaks about doing these things as a transition from home to school in the morning, it also can be altered to other times of the day. Our math block is first thing after lunch so in a way I still have to bring them back mentally to academic material. I am all about routine when it comes to my math block. When kids know what to expect and what will happen next it makes for less down time, less behavior problems, and things just seem to go a lot smoother. We start our math block with our fluency (which also has a routine). We do side A and side B. Then they have their data sheet in which they write the date (the shortened version- such as 11/3/15). It is during this time I tie in calendar and what those numbers really mean. Then they write the total amount correct in the box next to the date. Once they do that they make a bar graph of that days correct responses. We do this Monday-Thursday and the kids can pretty much do every step of the data sheet on their own now and look forward to "beating" their previous day's data. I had in the past jumped right into our journal as the opening part of math, but since reading this latest chapter have gotten some really great ideas that I've tried out this week. In my math area on the board, I tried adding some things like- data collection, what's next, and even through up some problems we would be working on more heavily next week (but had tie ins to what we are currently working on). I cannot speak for the kids, but I enjoy this part- seeing them use math in so many different ways and watching them make sense of it. I thought the idea of establishing a routine for the Math warm up/stretch was a fantastic idea and plan to set certain days for certain stretches. I also want to continue throwing up skills that we have already learned, skills that the kids struggled with, and skills to come. It is a great tool! I truly enjoyed reading this chapter and perhaps found it to be the most helpful so far!!
ReplyDeleteI also have math in the afternoon, and I use my calendar as a transition to math time and open discussions about math concepts. I REALLY need to take a peek in your class, your math board sounds great!
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