Addition and Subtraction

As I was looking at things pinned at Pinterest I came across a link to some wonderful addition and subtraction strategies posters.

Since I follow this blog, I don't know how I missed this, but I had to share them with you.  They are from Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons.

Don't miss out on these as Mrs. Lemons has them saved into Google Documents so you can also have a copy.  How great is that!

Thanks Mrs. Lemons for sharing your resources.

Addition posters

Subtraction posters

It's PIGometry Baby!

I just had to share this PIGometry idea from Quench Your First blog in their study of 2D shapes.  I also pinned it on my Pinterest board. They made their pigs then wrote about them.  More details on the specifics are available at Quench Your First blog.

Catching Fish for Measurement Fun

Here is a link to a Early Math fun game for measuring fish and moving them to the correct tank based on their length.

After catching the fish, the player must "measure" the fish against the ruler and select the correct tank.

If your first or second graders need some practice with measurement, play Time to Move!

MO Teachers This One Is For You!

I was just thinking about what to share today, when I received this email. This is for Math teachers of ALL grade levels. 


Greetings from the Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Our Annual Fall Conference, December 2-3, 2011 in Columbia, MO is right around the corner.

This year, MCTM would like to offer you a 10 for 10 Special:

The first 10 school districts (or group of districts registering together), who send at least 10 full paying teachers to the Fall Conference will receive a half-day workshop from MCTM.  The facilitator will be chosen based on the topic requested by your district (or group of districts).  Together, a mutually agreed time and appropriate number of participants for the workshop will be decided between the facilitator and school district.

For more information or to register, click on the link below:

https://www.moctm.org/Registration.aspx#registration

Have more questions?  E-mail Ruth Knop, Northeast Director:  rknop@parkwayschools.net

We look forward to seeing you and your colleagues in December! 

Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Department of Mathematics MS6700

Southeast Missouri State University

Cape Girardeau, MO 63701

573-651-2164

573-986-6811 (fax)

Order of Operations

I noticed that many people are looking for Order of Operations items.

For some reason this is a hard thing for some students to grasp.  I previously posted that Aunt Sally doesn't visit my room for order of operations, the elephants do.  Here is the link to Is This a Purple Elephant?

There was also a request for a fun way to practice so I made a new Tic-Tac-Learn game that has players solving order of operation problems or come up with the expression for the shape's perimeter.

Here are links to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store

Tic-Tac-Learn Order of Operations Game

Order of Operation Story

Here are links to my Teachers Notebook Shop

Tic-Tac-Learn Order of Operations Game

Order of Operation Story

Just because I appreciate my blogging friends, the first two people to post a comment will get either the game or the story.  In your comment, you must leave your email address and tell me which one you would like to receive.  Only the first two!  (They are both read only files.  Sorry MAC users.  Have to do that to protect templates and clip art.)

Professor Pig's Magic Math

This summer I was reading one of the forums and someone provided a link to the Professor Pig's Magic Math Site.  It is designed for K-3. It is set up to teach the basic facts and there are comics.  :0)

Although the author is no longer adding new chapters to this math curriculum, there are still ideas that can be used.  There are songs, games, etc. in the downloads.

Click on the image to visit the site.

If you are the person who shared the link, please let me know and I will gladly give you credit.

New Year-Familiar Objectives

With the beginning of the new school year, place value and estimation are common objectives at the beginning of many levels of math instruction.

Here are some resources that are available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store to help show mastery of those skills:

Estimation Rounding Numbers

Place Value Tic-Tac-Toe PowerPoint Game--Whole Numbers

Division Estimation PowerPoint Activity

Estimating Fractions and Mixed Numbers Practice Sheets

HTML tables

Capacity and Customary Measure

As I shared in my  Is This A Purple Elephant post, my students struggle with remembering standard rules but they have no trouble remembering stories I tell them.  They will repeat them over and over with great enthusiasm and will often want me to tell the same story over and over as well.  ;0)

For this reason, I have turned my Capacity Kingdom story  into a PowerPoint with pictures.   When we are done with the story, they usually can all draw the mnemonic device to answer conversion questions with customary measurement.  This PowerPoint Story has illustrations to go along with the story and the students draw their mnemonic device as the story progresses.  (Since I am supposed to be teaching fourth grade this year, I thought the visual story with illustrations would be of even greater value.  I also ordered little magnets for them from Vista Print with the picture for this year!)

I often hear them sharing the stories I tell them at lunch with students in other classrooms or students who were absent, which is so funny since they usually add, "Oh, that is SOO easy if you know the story.  Let me teach you the story and how to draw it." and away they go.

By the way I am referring to sixth graders who are thrilled, which often is not an easy thing to do.  LOL

Gallon Castle - A Story of One Family in Capacity Kingdom is available at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and at my         Teachers Notebook store if anyone is interested in a copy of the story in PowerPoint.  

Connecting Games

Whenever I have students who struggle with addition I try to play the commercial game Make 7 with them.  The only problem is that everyone wants to play and I don't have that many games.


To solve the problem of not having enough games, I went and purchased some dropping disc type games.  I began purchasing the regular games and travel size at every thrift store, garage sale, and discount store on clearance that I came across.  I try to be as thrifty as I can.  :0)


Then, with a permanent marker I wrote the numbers on the disc.  This was much cheaper than buying just one more of the commercial games and I could adapt to fit my students needs.


If I found a game but the disc holder was broken, that was okay because it was cheaper.  I just added more disc to the other games I had.  With me choosing the numbers on the game and writing the numbers, it could now become make 12 or make whatever number the pieces would allow.


Since it is now within your hands of how the game is played and what the numbers are, the possibilities are endless.  Maybe one version could be make 30, but instead of adding the numbers you multiply them or you make discs with bigger addends.  Again, you choose the numbers, so you choose how it is played.  (Be sure to have enough discs so that both players can each the desired number.)


The hardest part was making up my mind on how to play and what numbers I wanted to use! 


(My students love playing this style of game.  I have some that I made in PowerPoint for them to play while working on other skills.  Some are available in my TPT store and at my new Teachers Notebook shop.)

A Customary Top Secret Measurement Tool

When you are working with customary measurement do your children choose to measure all the things in the room that you haven't previously measured? Do they argue about their measurements being accurate because they know how to read the fractions on a ruler, so you have to be wrong? Do you have to measure the same things over and over to show each child, because the ruler keeps slipping?

I am sure that I am probably the only teacher whose students struggle with measuring accurately. (LOL)

I have a secret weapon to cut down on the time necessary for remeasuring. You can get my secret weapon at your nearest Dollar Tree store. Do you know what I am talking about?

Well......It is a tape measure. The type that construction workers use. You pull out the tape, it has the end lip on it to help hold it in place. It is found in the hardware aisle.

But the tape measures at Dollar Tree are special and hard to find anywhere else. The normal tick marks are between the numbers, but they also have the fractions marked. I don't mean with just the tick marks, I mean with the actual fractions! The measurement is shown above the tick mark. Here are the measurements shown between the one inch and two inch marks.

1, 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3,4, 7/8, 2

Not only does it help with reading the ruler, it also helps them see how reduced fractions play a part in the "real" world. I had one young man a couple of years back that finally figured out how to order fractions while we were practicing measuring. Up to then it didn't make sense to him.

Two more great things about these measures are when the teacher down the hall needs to measure something they can read this measure themselves and they are only $1.00!

I love bargains!

Multiplication Can Be Fun--Part 3

I will be sharing occasionally some of the things that I adapt to solve a need of some of my students.  I have always taught where money was an issue for the school and for me, so adaptation had to be a part of my classroom.  Here is an example of one way:

I went to a Teacher Store in my area looking for something to help one of my students who as a sixth-grader still did not know her basic facts.  I mean addition and subtraction.  I found a game called Snakes.  The game consisted of stick like shapes that had snake heads on them.  I immediately thought of Pick'em Sticks.  Snakes was over ten dollars.  I left and went to Cargo Largo and bought Pick'em Sticks for fifty cents a set.  I bought 10 sets.

Since I did after school tutoring three days a week that year, I brought in Pick'em Up Sticks to use with her and my after school bunch.  Actually, I brought in all 10 sets because I had about 15-20 kids stay regularly.

When my students saw them on my desk, they immediately wanted to know what they were and what you did with them.  Pick'em Up Sticks on that day entered all three sections of my Math classes.

I was amazed that none of them knew what they were or how to play with them.   So, I played a game against one of them and away we went.

Day 1-- Everyone played one game, the winner was the one with the most sticks.

Day 2-- Everyone played one game, but the rules changed.  I gave each person a list with the number of points for each colored stick they got. Different colors different amounts. They had to find the sum.  The winner was the person who had the highest score. 

Day 3--Everyone played one game, but the rules changed again.  This time everyone started with 100 points and had to subtract the value of their sticks.  The first person to zero or the lowest score won the game.

Day 4 or 5--Everyone played one game, but the rules changed once again.  If you only picked up one stick, you added that point value.  If you picked up two sticks, you multiplied the numbers and added that to your score.  Then you kept going until your turn was up.  They were still using the values for each color.

They loved playing Pick'em sticks.  They organized their own tournaments and would come to my room with their lunch so they could play against students in my other sections of Math.  They stayed after school to play Pick'em Sticks.  They bought their own sticks and played at home with their families.

Of a morning, when released from breakfast, they would come to my room before going to their lockers to try to get their names on the list in the hall for lunch in my room.  It did mean however, I didn't have a duty-free lunch, but I can't even imagine how much basic math has been done with sets of Pick'em sticks.

At one point they drew a tournament bracket and a group of them worked through the bracket to determine a "true" winner.  To determine who moved on, you had to win two games against your opponent.

They decided each day based upon who the player were how they would play.  If people struggled, with addition or subtraction that is how they played.  If someone said I need to work on multiplication, they multiplied. 

Just a little note, every person had to keep the score for the table just to make sure they worked the Math correctly.  The students who struggled with basic facts were just as involved as those who could do the math easily.  My rules were everyone had to write down the numbers and there could be no arguing or you were put out.  If you disagreed on the scores, check the Math.  If you still disagree after reworking the math, then they could get a calculator from me and find the mistake.

There are many commercial products available that can be very powerful learning tools if they are adapted just a little bit.

Until next time...........

Tamera at TBA just posted a wonderful video about using commerical games.  Be sure to watch it!

 

Prime and Composite Numbers

After reading a post at Runde's Room about making videos for writing, I thought I would share a free site I used last year with my students in Math.  This was made at Go Animate.  This silly video helped some of my students remember the difference between the two types of numbers, even though they were saying the same thing that we had done in class.

Making more "teaching clips" is on my list of things to do.  Of course, I may be 150 before I get my list completed. lol

Maybe there should be a linky party for videos of teaching cartoons.  What do you think?

GoAnimate.com: Prime and Composite Numbers by Vintage Teacher

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Multiplication --Part 1

Let, me start by saying that I believe that everyone should know their multiplication facts by heart.

I often have sixth grade students tell me they hate Math.  After many years, I have learned that usually means I don't know my basic facts:  addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Through a series of posts I hope to share with you, some of my observations and things I do to help them all learn with short cuts, games, testing, etc.  I hope you join in by sharing your tips, etc.

Since fractions are a huge part of the sixth grade math curriculum, I know that multiplication and division have to be a big push fast.  I also know that normally there is a huge sense of everyone knows this but me, and I will never be able to learn this.

To overcome the I can't learn this, I always start with the nines.  I usually start with two different ways to do the nines "secretly".  I only share one way with a student, to keep from overwhelming them.  Which one is based upon the individual student.

The first one I show them is with their hands.  It basically goes like this.

1.  Place your hands in the air with your palms facing you.

2.  How many fingers and thumbs do you see?  10

3.  The problem we are going to solve is 4 x 9  (Write on a piece of paper 4 x 9 = )

4.  What number are we multiplying times 9?  4

5.  Count over four digits on your left hand and bend that finger down.  (This would be the ring finger.)

6.  How many fingers are before that bent finger?  3  (Write down that digit for the student to see.  Now the paper shows 4 x 9 = 3)

7.  How many total fingers are following the finger that is bent?  6 (Write down that number following the 3.  Now the paper is saying 4 x 9 = 36)

8.  Ask the student to read you what is on the paper.  4 x 9 =36

 I then always say, That's right, I thought you told me you couldn't do multiplication.  I have literally had students sit and cry because they didn't think they would ever be able to get it.  Suddenly they have become experts at their 9's and you can immediately see that confidence returning.  They always want to do a lot of problems with 9's right then to be sure they really can do the work.

With students who are trying to "hide" the use of their hands I show them this method.  The conversation usually goes as follows.

1.  We are going to work the problem 7 x 9. (Write down 7 x 9 = ) The normal reply is I don't need to know this stupid stuff.  I told you I don't know and I don't care.

2.  That is okay but we are still going to work this problem together.  Can you tell me what number we are multiplying times 9?  You must think I am stupid, to ask me that.  It is a seven.

3.  Okay, what is 7 -1 ?  Six  (Write down the six.  Now it looks like this.  7 x 9 = 6 )

4.  Six plus what equals nine?  3  (Write down the three.  7 x 9 = 63)

5.  Read me what is written down. 

After reading what is written, you can usually see their whole attitude and body language change.  They usually say, "Let me do it this time.  Give me another problem!" 

I usually use the second method with students above the sixth grade, as they often do not want to have others see them using their hands.

Next post topic:  Numbers other than 9

New Item: Telling Time with Barnyard Friends

This activity requires the player to match the time shown on an analog clock to the matching digital time.  The analog clocks are shown with farm animals and the digital time is with a barn.

Included in this activity:
1 - Cover page for folder or envelope
1 - Student direction page
24 - Game cards with a barn animal with analog clock
24 - Game cards with a barn with matching digital time to analog clocks
1 - Worksheet that shows analog clock and students write the digital time

The game cards can also be used to make a matching game.

Common core standards: 
Grade 1--Measurement and Data
     #3 - Tell and write in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks

New Product -- Hen House Sort (Odd and Even Numbers)

The Hen House Sort activity requires the player(s) to sort the numbered chickens to determine if they should go to the even hen house or the odd hen house.

Included are:
     1-Folder title page
     2-Hen houses (one labeled even and one labeled odd)
    40-Numbered chickens
     2-Worksheets

The chickens are numbered one to forty to allow this activity to be modified to best fit the needs of the players.

The Hen House Sort (Odd and Even Numbers) is available in the Vintage Teacher store at Teachers Pay Teachers.

New Item--Tic-Tac-Circles

Tic-Tac-Circles has players working with circles and circular items to determine the diameter, circumference, and the diameter.

In this version of the Tic-Tac-Learn Game Series, students must verbally announce their answer after working their chosen problem.  After announcing the answer, the player should click on the question and the answer will appear.

The addition of the tic-tac-learn game board adds the skill of logic to add a sense of "fun" to the reviewing of circles.

Tic-Tac-Circles PowerPoint Game

Counting Dominos to 12 Interactive Game

Counting Dominos to 12 Clickable Games

This clickable game requires students to count to 12 then "click" on the number that represents the number of dots shown. 

If they choose the wrong number, the "try again bus" will appear.

If they choose correctly, they will hear applause and the Learning Is Fun chalkboard will appear.

Thanks for looking at this game.  It is an original "clickable" game from Vintage Teacher.

Counting Dominos to 12 Clickable Games

Free Counting 1 to 10 PowerPoint Game as a Thank You

{Note:  Although I teach upper elementary, I had this idea for a lower elementary game. If you like it, please leave positive feedback at TPT. If you find a problem with it, please contact me and give me a chance to fix it prior to leaving negative feedback. Thanks}

This "Click It" Game is an interactive experience for students who need practicing reading numbers and counting from one to ten with a chicken theme.  Students play by "clicking" on the correct number from one to ten.

This game has sounds and if a player "clicks" on the wrong number by the hen on the nest, a big chicken coop will appear.  The player clicks on the coop and has to start over counting.  If the player successfully chooses the correct number, they will hear applause.  If the player successfully completes the task, all the chickens will  disappear into the chicken coop.

This game has been updated to include sounds and to respond to students back-clicking.   ( Back clicking - choosing numbers they have already been chosen. Don't know the correct term, but that is what I call it!)

This game is great for individual computers and/or to play as a class on the Smart Board. 

Be sure to get this FREE game as a thank you for visiting Vintage Teacher!

(MAC users please note this is a read-only file.   All worksheets are in pdf form.)

To download this, you must have a free Teachers Pay Teachers account. If you don't, click on the following link to get an account. Free Account to Teachers Pay Teachers   There are thousands of free lessons on Teachers Pay Teachers to download.

Why not sign up for a FREE sellers account when you register. Here is a link. FREE Sellers Account at Teachers Pay Teachers With a sellers account, you can buy and sell as well as download free items. There are thousands of free products available at Teachers Pay Teachers.

FREE COUNTING TO TEN GAME

Featured Item-Division Riddles

The new featured item at Vintage Teacher is Division Riddles.

Division Riddles is a read-only PowerPoint game that requires the players to think of division differently in order to solve the riddles.

This is a new clickable game from Vintage Teacher.

In order to play, students have to solve the division riddle and  "click" on the correct answer in the grid of choices. 

The twist of a tic-tac-toe game adds the additional skill of reasoning and fun to playing this game.

This game is great for use on a Smart Board for large groups divided into teams, but works just as well on an individual computer for two players.

Division Riddles PowerPoint Game

Is This A Purple Elephant?

"Is this a purple elephant?" or "I know what to do, this is a purple elephant!" are comments often spoken throughout the year in my classroom.

Visitors look at me and my students like we are alien visitors from Mars when they hear comments about purple elephants and seeing the look of excitement on my student's faces.

Mnemonic devices and stories are tools that I frequently use to help my students remember and learn new things.

As a student who struggled learning in classrooms due to distractions, I took my notes and books home and "taught" myself the skills.  Some of the things I did were to use mnemonic devices to help me remember and repeated drill out loud to help me.  It drove my family crazy, but I knew the consequences of not being on the honor roll!  Going to school and being successfully was our job, in no uncertain terms. 

 When I began teaching in an urban district, the majority of my students who were put in my class were two or more years behind.  I was instructed to teach them on "grade level".

One of the first "grade level" math topics addressed is order of operations.  I do this so as a class we can work on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  I also know that a vast majority of my students can't add, borrow to subtract, don't know their multiplication facts, and can't do division with two-digit divisors.  The first couple of years, I tried using the mnemonic phrase of "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally".  My students couldn't remember it and it was of no use.  One of the first questions I had to answer is what does please excuse my dear Aunt Sally mean?  They didn't mean in Math, they meant literally. 

One day following class I heard two of my top students talking in the hall.  The conversation was as follows:

Student 1:  Who says please excuse anybody!  And naming someone Sally wouldn't happen because it is lame!

Student 2:  Yea, I know.  I don't know anybody named Sally and why would I want someone to excuse her if I did?  What did she do?  She would have to ask them to forgive her, not me!

These girls' comments made the light come on in my head.  I went home and went on a search to try to find something that would help with order of operations that would make "the light come on" in their heads.  I searched forums and asked questions for months.  Suddenly someone shared with me the phrase they used.  I thought it might work.

I told my students we are going to review and try order of operations again.  I heard a collective sigh and a oh no!  I taught them the new phrase and we had a poster contest to illustrate it.  The rules were it had to have a descriptive picture, the phrase, and what each word stood for.  They loved it and all of a sudden they all began solving problems successfully.  When mandated testing time arrived, the supervising teacher in each of their testing rooms told me after the test the kids kept talking about the purple elephants problems and how easy they were.

Over the years I have continued using purple elephants to teach order of operations.  I now have a poster contest that they can enter.  A judge chooses the "best " poster.  The winner then reduces their poster to regular paper copy, and I make copies for all my students to put in their math notebooks in the reference section.

This past year I had a group of students who couldn't understand it, even with the help of purple elephants.  They just didn't get it.  One day at lunch, they asked me to tell them another story.  They loved stories.  They could always remember every detail, could tell the story in order after hearing it one time, and loved to hear the same story over and over.

Another light bulb moment for me!  I'll write a story dealing with purple elephants going to school!  When I finished they loved it!  They applauded and begged to hear it again.  (They even caught things like the math teacher's name,  Ms. Takes!)

When adults came in, they would ask them if they knew the purple elephant story and of course they didn't.  They would then tell me that we needed to read the story again so they would know it so they could help someone who didn't know how to work the problems.  When students came in from other rooms for time out, my students would tell me we needed to watch the story again so they could learn what to do since they were missing out on learning in their class.    

Purple elephants empowered my students by letting them discover that they were capable of learning and that I believed that they could. 

The seventh grade Math teacher came to me a couple years ago and wanted to know why the students out of my room would always say something elephants and could work order of operations problems.  They would remind each other these are purple elephant problems, smile, and work them in the correct order.  I just laughed and told him Aunt Sally went on vacation and the purple elephants came to school. 

Purple elephants not only teach my students order of operation problems, but also remind me as teacher that I have to listen carefully to my students, and the continued need to adapt to help each and every student learn as much as possible

I am sure you are wondering what the phrase is.  Before going any farther I want to tell you that I used this phrase because I knew my students would need to know how to work with exponents later in the year.  At the beginning I tell them that exponents will come later in the year, but we are going to learn where they go now so we will know.

The phrase is Purple Elephants May Destroy A School.  When they write it in their notes, I always have them underline as I did.  I do that so they will know that may destroy and a school go together and when we work on purple elephants problem it is whichever one comes first. 

Purple-Parenthesis 

Elephants-Exponents 

May Destroy-Multiplication/Division

A School-Addition/Subtraction

I did see a phrase that I thought was great if you don't need exponents.  It was Pizza Makes Daddy Act Silly.  My only thought was eventually they would need to learn exponents.

If you have any phrases that you use to help your students and you are willing to share them, please post them in the comment section below.

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read this.  Have a great day!

Until next time,

Vintage Teacher

The story I wrote to share with my students is in my Teacher Pay Teachers store.  Click on the slide above to go to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.


(Added note:  I now have a Tic-Tac-Learn game for Order of Operations available in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and at my Teachers Notebook Store.)