Need something extra for Unit 7?

Looking for some resources to make your EM4 Unit 7 come alive for all of your students?  Here are some resources I found!  Remember, if you are looking for resources for a particular standard, check out the tab above labeled Resources to support CCSS.

1st Grade:
Geometric Subitizing Cards
Humpty Dumpty:  An addition and subtraction 3 Act task by Graham Fletcher embedded in Notebook.  Everything you need in one place!
Which One Doesn't Belong--Shapes:  These puzzles have students thinking and talking about shapes and their attributes
Secret Number:  A fun, easy game for partners to build their understanding of fact families
Mathematics Match Game:  Another game to help build understanding of fact families
Numbers Many Ways:  A lesson/exploration for students to explore number families
Geoboards:  This lesson helps students look at and build vocabulary around shapes and their attributes
Same/Different: A great visual exploration about what is the same and different about different shapes
How Many Under the Shell?  This online game helps students to visually solve basic addition/subtraction problems
Sum Links:  Great thinking needed as these basic addition problems become more and more difficult

2nd Grade:
Toll Bridge Puzzle:  This puzzle from Illustrative Mathematics has students solve the problem using multiple addends
Would you Rather:  This prove it problem mixes a review of money as well as adding multiple addends
High Jump Competition:  This task asks students to use a high jumpers data to answer questions
Same/Different:  This visual has students look at ways to bridge ten
3 Act Task--The Race: This task explores adding multiple distances
Would you rather:  Students justify their decision about measurement with math
4 Dominoes:  This visual puzzle has students add multiple numbers to find equality

3rd Grade:
Find 1:  Illustrative Mathematics task involving number lines
Would you rather:  Students justify their decision about fractional brownies with math
Rectangle Tangle:  Can your students determine the fractional value of each piece of the rectangle?
Representing Fractions on a number line:  This task asks students to show what they know about placing numbers on a number line
Fraction Game:  Game involving fractions on a number line
Half-Fraction Snake:  This puzzle only uses the fraction 1/2, but it will really get students thinking!
Fractions less than a half:  How many fractions can your students make using the benchmark of 1/2?
Comparing fractions on a number line:  Challenging problem from Open Middle!
Same or different:  Looking at a bar model of fractions--Can your students determine what is the same and different?
Dig it!:  This Calculation Nation game is great numberline practice.  Account needed, but free, and worth the time!  Games can be played on the SMARTBoard!

4th Grade:
Visual patterns:  This site is full of visual models.  Can your students figure out what would come in the 43rd step of the pattern?
Fraction Fascination:  This nrich puzzle challenges your students to find fractions of the whole
Decomposing Tenths and Hundredths:  Students must figure out the way to break apart 1 and 1/10 given the parameters listed
Multiplying Mixed Numbers by Whole Numbers:  This puzzle from Open Middle will get students thinking!
Game Winner: This 3 Act Task has students multiply a fraction by a whole number
Sugar in 6 Cans of Soda:  An Illustrative Mathematics task
Fraction Four:  An online game, similar to Connect Four, where students can practice many different aspects of fractions

5th Grade:
Visual patterns:  This site is full of visual models.  Can your students figure out what would come in the 43rd step of the pattern?
Multiplying Mixed Numbers by Whole Numbers:  This puzzle from Open Middle will get students thinking!
Which Quadrilateral has the greater area?:  This problem from open middle mixes students' understanding of shapes' attributes with computation
Super Bowl Cheesy Pretzel Poppers:  Students use their knowledge of fractions to change the quantity of a recipe
Father's Day Breakfast Surprise:  Another recipe adjustment problem
How Much Dew? A 3 Act task involving multiplication of fractions
Chavone's Bathroom Tiles: Illustrative Mathematics Task for 5.NF.4
Fraction Four:  An online game, similar to Connect Four, where students can practice many different aspects of fractions

EQUALITY is SO IMPORTANT

This online tool is a great option if you don't have access to a concrete tool in your classroom

Research has shown that a strong understanding of the equal sign in elementary school has a positive effect on student math success as they progress through middle and high school.  The standard sits in first grade (1.OA.7), but it is up to all grade levels to provide practice with the importance of the equal sign so that students can see the equal sign not as operational but as relational.

This is an important concept that I find myself working to build in our 1st and 2nd grade students quite often.

We typically begin by using the scale to think about missing addend problems.  The fulcrum of the scale represents the equals sign in the number problem. Because this concept is still difficult for most of them, we use cubes to look at the relationship of the two sides.  We always tell a story to go along with the problem. What do I need to add to 3 to make it be equal to 9?  I also draw it so that they see a representational model.

When we add the 6 weight, the students confirm that their answer was correct. 

After they become pretty proficient at solving the problems within 10, we stretch to equalities between different sums.

We again use cubes to help us make sense of the numbers and write number sentences to match our work.  We explore these problems always with context, and we make sure to write our number sentences with the missing addend in a variety of places. When the missing addend is in the spot directly after the equal sign is when the students tend to struggle the most. (4 + 5 = ___ + 1)

Giving students much time to explore and think about the numbers with the scale and other manipulatives is important.  It will also help them to better understand addition and the facts that go with it.

Here is an Equality dice game you can play, too.

The Math Coach's Corner has a good game for practicing equality with two-digit numbers on this post.

Illustrative Mathematics has some other good tasks that you can do with your students to help build their understanding of the equal sign.

What do you do to help your students truly understand the equal sign?

What is a Mathematician?

A great #mathconceptions chat the other night on Twitter really made me think about the intentionality that we need to use to teach our students about mathematicians.

While Einstein has an interesting biography and is known by most elementary students as an outstanding mathematician, should he be the only one we expose our students to?  What can we do to shift our students' thinking about mathematicians?  What other important mathematicians can we share with them?  How can we create opportunities for them to see themselves as mathematicians?  

Just as we work to teach our students about diverse writers and scientists, we should also strive to expose them to outstanding mathematicians of all backgrounds.  We want our students to understand that there is no limit to what they can become.

In this post--I want to share some resources that can be used in the elementary classroom  to teach our students about mathematicians and being a mathematician.

BOOKS:

ARTICLES:

Five Famous Female Mathematicians Institute of Mathematics and its Applications

Famous Mathematicians nrich.org

15 Female Mathematicians  Mental Floss

VIDEOS:

Bringing Math into the Present Day

Real Life Math

With Math I Can

WEBSITES:

With Math I Can

Biography:  Celebrating Women in Math

Famous Black Mathematicians We can't Thank Enough

Start with Counting

Counting is usually our introduction to numbers. From an early age, we heard people around us counting.  It is such an important skill, yet sometimes we look past it as too primary.

After the NCTM Regional Conference last fall, I came back with tons of ideas I wanted to put into action.  One of the biggest concepts I decided to do more of is counting.  I often work with students who struggle with basic number sense, and since that conference, we begin nearly every day with counting.  Sometimes we count by 1s, sometimes we count backwards, sometimes we count off decade....you get the picture.

I always try to use visuals/concrete objects as we are doing our counting, but sometimes my fingers won't move fast enough to keep up with the students pace.  Recently, I found this AWESOME site full of math visual videos that we can use as we count.  

Using these visuals and asking questions about what is happening is important to helping our students gain a better understanding of numbers.  This link takes you to the counting and place value videos, but Berkeley Everett has created visuals to go with many other math concepts.  Using these videos will really help us to make our math more visual!

Counting isn't just for our littles!  It is a great idea for all classrooms to begin class with counting.  Counting by multiples, fractions, whatever will strengthen your class's thinking and understanding of number!

Numberless Word Problems

In our ever-increasing efforts to get our students to UNDERSTAND a story problem and what is happening, we want to stress to them the importance of that movie playing in their heads.

Numberless word problems help to encourage just that!  These problems ask students to THINK about the problem as a reader before getting caught up in getting an answer.  

These problems can be made "on the spot" by covering or eliminating the numbers in a problem that your class is contemplating, or you can be even more intentional by building the problem through a "slow reveal" to increase their wondering and thinking about the problem.

A slow reveal might look like this:

1) TERESA IS PREPARING DINNER AND WANTS TO HAVE ENOUGH MEAT FOR ALL OF HER GUESTS.

• What math do you see in this problem?
• Do you see any math relationships?
• What are you wondering?

2) TERESA IS PREPARING DINNER AND WANTS TO HAVE 1/4 LB. OF MEAT FOR EACH OF HER GUESTS.

• How does this change what you know or what you were thinking
• What do we know now?
• What do we still need to know in order to have the full picture?

3) TERESA IS PREPARING DINNER AND WANTS TO HAVE 1/4 LB. OF MEAT FOR EACH OF HER 12 GUESTS.

• What information has been added?
• Do we need any more information?
• What question could we ask about this story?
• How could we use the information that we are given?

Numberless word problems are a good first step for us to take towards better math instruction!  Throughout the lesson, offer many opportunities for students to think/pair/share. Model good math vocabulary as you discuss the math that is presented. Encourage your students to be THINKERS!  Good luck!