Reflecting on the experience is one of two activities necessary to improve our mathematical thinking (Siemon et al., 2021). In Teaching Mathematics: Foundations to Middle Years, we read that "reflecting may involve writing about where we got stuck, what we did to become unstuck, conjectures we tried, patterns we found, and strategies we used" (Siemon, … Continue reading Prompts for Maths Reflections
Maths
Rectetris: an area and perimeter game
I whipped up this game earlier this year to give my students the opportunity to practice calculating area and perimeter of rectangles. I wanted a game that included a genuine use for finding out both area and perimeter and could't find anything. The main skills I aimed to have students build through this game were: … Continue reading Rectetris: an area and perimeter game
Teaching Measurement using Google Maps
Just a simple activity using a tech tools to enhance student understandings. This week I have been working on area and perimeter with my 4/5s. This has included a lot of estimation. It became clear early on that students were unsure how to estimate common units for measuring length (i.e. mm, cm, m km). To … Continue reading Teaching Measurement using Google Maps
Storytelling to Teach Subtraction
I always advocate for storytelling in maths as a way to engage students and apply some context to the skills being learnt. Last time I posted about this a lot of people were interested as the concept was new to them, so I'm sharing another lesson I did. The What and Why: The skill being … Continue reading Storytelling to Teach Subtraction
Pirate Treasure and Paper Bags: Storytelling in Maths
In my first year of teaching I was sent to a maths PD with Michael Ymer and he stressed that much of maths can be taught through storytelling. I think (but I'm stretching back a bit) that his main reasons for this were 1) It's super engaging for students, 2) It allows for lots of incidental learning. … Continue reading Pirate Treasure and Paper Bags: Storytelling in Maths