Many of you are familiar with the beauty of Splat! and all that it can offer our students. It also has the great quality of being a routine that can be used throughout school. It is certainly a routine that students, teachers, and this math specialist love due to its visual qualities, critical thinking elements, and engaging ways!
But the master behind Splat! has many other great resources available to teachers. They are opportunities to expose our students to many concepts and to encourage some rich discourse in our classrooms. And, best of all, Steve Wyborney shares his wonderful creations with us in the form of free downloads.
These resources are good in a normal year, but this year, they are especially nice to use in a virtual learning format.
Here is a run-down of some of the things you can find from Mr. Wyborney:
Splat!: Beginning with concept of missing addends, the Splat slides move from primary concepts to fractions and algebra as the slides become more complex. Students benefit from the visual nature of the slides, and they love the game feel of it all.
Esti-Mysteries: Another popular routine with students, esti-mysteries merge the skill of estimation with critical thinking. One clue is revealed at a time so that students can narrow down their choices. In the end, they still depend upon their estimating skills for a final decision. One thing I like about this routine is that once it has been taught, I think it can be used in many ways including revealing a clue a day with the final discussion occurring at the end of the week.
Estimation Clipboard: This is one of my favorites! This routine again builds off of the concept of estimating and makes it fun for students to take the risks when making an estimate. An image is shown, students make an estimate, and then the answer is revealed. Another slide is shown with a change in the image, and the students adjust their estimate. This simple routine has hidden sophistication in that it often has hidden benchmarks for students to use to be able to make a better estimate. Many of the images are about number, but I especially recommend the slides that deal with length.
Cube Conversations: These 3D images are a great way for students to get an introduction to volume and to build their visual and grouping skills.
Tiled Area Questions: Beginning as general area problems, these develop into more complex relationships between whole and fractional numbers. Again--an opportunity to stretch our students' thinking and their abilities to justify their thinking.
His animated multiplication chart is a nice tool for students to explore patterns and be exposed to their facts.
I know that for many of you Splat! is a common routine used in your classroom, but I wanted you to be aware of some of the many other treasures that you can find on this website. If the past proves anything, I would bet we can look forward to other great ideas to be created by him in the future! Have fun exploring this awesome sight, but more importantly, have fun watching your students think, engage, and discuss mathematics in such fun ways!