I displayed all the monsters in my room and the students are really excited about them!

Because this went so well I decided to write a story to go along with the multiple monsters.  It is called The Strange Shopping Habits of Multiple Monsters.  Next year I plan on using the story to introduce multiples and the monsters my students create will hold a shopping list just like the monsters in the story.  The story is available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store on a cute Power Point.

Let me start by saying that this was NOT my idea!  I give full credit to Teacher Support Force (which I found on Pinterest – YAY, Pinterest!).  It was too great of an idea not to try with my fifth graders.  They LOVED it.  Now, I don’t mean they enjoyed the lesson.  I mean they asked to take it home and finish it.  That’s right.  They ASKED for HOMEWORK!!!

I created a PowerPoint with pictures of Angry Birds (which I am not at all affiliated with…but I do really like to play their games!).  I explained to the kids that one angry bird is capable of destroying multiple pigs at once.  They agreed.  Then I showed them a scenario using images that I borrowed from Google.  I took them step-by-step through a possible scenario where one angry bird took out two different pigs (I made sure the pigs looked different) through the distributive part of the problem.  After a few of those, I showed them a problem with numbers and pointed out which numbers would be the bird and which ones would be the pigs.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a group of kids understand the Distributive Property of Multiplication so fast…EVER!  (I would’ve loved to share my PowerPoint with you, but can’t since I swiped images of Angry Birds from Google and they are copyrighted.)

My classroom is in an awkward place, right in the corner.  It’s actually a section of the library that has been divided by bookshelves.  Anyway, here is our Angry Birds display:

The students did an amazing job with their posters.  Here are a few examples:

I am so impressed with my fifth graders!  They did awesome!

Here are the distributive property posters I made.  I used a font from Kevin and Amanda.  Enjoy!

The last math workshop I attended was dismal.  Imagine being a kid in a math environment where you didn’t feel safe enough to contribute to the discussion and cringed every time the teacher pulled a name stick.  That was exactly what it was like.  Now, I must confess to having a great love of math.  I just can’t help myself.  I’ve always loved it.  But I hated that workshop!

This one was completely different.  The presenter, Chris Goad, was a retired teacher.  Enthusiasm for teaching math seemed to just ooze from her.  It was impossible not to catch her enthusiasm.  There were even teachers who headed to the nearest dollar store on the lunch break to buy supplies for manipulatives she showed us!  And no, I wasn’t one of them.  I waited until after the training was over for the day. 

I am so excited about all the new teaching techniques now bouncing around my head that I just HAD to share them with you.  The technique I’m going to share with you uses a Bead String.

Materials:

wide, flat shoe strings (approximately 12 inches per Bead String)

two different colors of pony beads (10 beads of each color)

Construction:

Tie a knot in the end of one shoe string.  Lace 10 beads of one color and 10 beads of another color onto the string.  Tie a knot in the other end of the shoe string.  Ta-Da!  That’s it, folks!

Now for the good stuff.  How it WORKS!

Once the kids know combinations of 10s, they will be able to solve addition facts through 10+10, quickly using a Bead String.  The Bead String will give them confidence and increase their number sense skills to help them make the transition to more abstract math.  Give a kid a Bead String and tell them a math problem, say 7 plus 5.  Now, you could just say 7 and 5 for those kids just beginning.  They count 7 beads, leave a space, and then count the next 5.

Then the kids make the number “friendly”.  Basically, they change it into something that is easier for their brains to work with.  They slide the rest of the numbers that match the first color to join the rest, making a ten.  From that, it is very easy for them to visually see what the answer is!

 My biggest little is in first grade, so, of course I made him one just to practice play math at home.  (I made his with glow-in-the-dark beads!)  I can’t wait to use these with my fifth grade students who are struggling with number sense.  I may only use them for about 15 minutes, but if it helps them gain number sense, it will be well worth it!!!

What is your favorite math tip or trick?

Just in time for the Olympics, here is a coordinate graphing activity for you to use in your classroom.  After students plot points, write ordered pairs, and draw line segments, a picture of an Olympic medal will appear.  Activities are in both first quadrant (positive numbers only) and also offered in all four quadrants (positive and negative numbers).

These activities are similar to those from my book, Coordinate Graphing Hidden Pictures.  To see more Olympic-themed coordinate graphing pictures, check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Have fun graphing!

There are three different pretests that I made.  The first one is a third of a page and asks the kids to write the symbol that corresponds with the statement.  The second half-page pretest asks the students to write what each symbol stands for.  The last pretest is a full page that has them match equations and inequalities with the statements that go with them.  It was eye-opening for me to see what little knowledge they had of algebra.  I hope you find these pretests on equations and inequalities as helpful as I have!