Explorations and investigations help your students to take ownership of their own learning and are a great way to get students excited about math! They encourage critical and creative thinking skills. They build a sense of math community, and make us all better mathematicians.
If we get started with predetermined explorations, and our students become comfortable with the format, they may begin to come up with their own explorations that you can embed into your instruction!
I have posted about a number of explorations either that I have done with students or have seen others do. However, I wanted to remind you of some good places that you can go to find an exploration that works for you and your students!
WIM: The weeks of inspirational math from Youcubed are all set up and ready to go for you. I have blogged about them before, and I can't say enough about how they not only encourage a growth mindset, but also that they are a lot of fun!
Math Solutions: This location is full of exploration options for you. Many have a great connection to literature.
Math for Love: The free lessons on this site typically involve investigations.
100 Numbers to get students talking: This task has step by step directions and examples of how to use it to build your students' group work abilities this year.
Finally, I have blogged about some different explorations that you could try in your room. You might find one that will be a great review or introduction for your students this year. To find the blog posts, look over at the right side of my blog at the labels. Click on the explorations label, and it will show you all of my posts about explorations.
If you have other great explorations to share, please post in the comments below.
What a great way to start your year of math learning! Beginning with some explorations will give you plenty of time to get to know your students, build your classroom culture, and develop your routines. Let me know if I can help in any way!
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