What are the chances of snow?

Hello everyone,

I found this week's math class to be just as exciting and engaging as the Geometry and Spatial Sense lesson. During this week's math class, we explored PROBABILITY!

This lesson is very fun for me because there's just so much you can do with the probability unit. It can range from questionnaires, playing games of chance, etc. During this week, we had two presentations on probability.

Unfortunately, I was unable to take any photographs so I will explain what each group did.

Group One:
The colleagues distributed a handful of paper clips to each group and had a contest on who could make the longest link in one minute. Once the activity was over, they collected data from the students ("How many paper clips were you able to link together?") and made a list of the data collected.

Once this was done, they asked the students to organize the numbers in order and find the mean, median, and mode. This activity was really fun because I find any competitive activity to be exciting. With the use of manipulatives, their lesson was engaging and quite enjoyable.

Group Two:
The colleagues distributed some signs at each table that stated: Impossible, likely, unlikely, etc. and asked a series of questions ("What are the chances of the sun rising tomorrow? Why?"). We were to hold up signs that we believed to be correct and justify our answers.

I find probability to be an exciting unit because there's a hundred different types of activities to integrate into the lesson. This can include the use of manipulatives, signs, or spinning wheels.

In addition to this, the teacher can integrate technology into the lesson and use online dice that will draw random numbers (SKUNK). I've also included a video on how students can learn to play SKUNK in the classroom.


I found this anchor chart on Pinterest and I think it is extremely helpful for students. It can be used in the classroom to help students identify what each probability means. It's most helpful when the probabilities relate to personal experiences.

What is measurement?

Greetings!

I found this week's lesson to be a little difficult. Why? We were immediately asked the simplest question, "What is measurement?" We were stumped.

Could you define something that is so broad? How can we put together words to define something that has never been defined to us? It is a term that students are expected to just know. It took me awhile to define what measurement is. It is the "assignment of a number of an object or event, which can be compared with other objects or events."

Throughout the duration of the math course, we have been exploring Sesame Street videos to define terms for us in student-friendly language. During this week, we looked at the following video:

Despite our age, I find Sesame Street videos to be extremely helpful. It clarifies specific terms in a language that is easy to understand and comprehend.

I think it's best way to teach measurement in the classroom is to apply it to real-life. Ways that teachers can achieve this is by measuring things that surround us in the classroom. This can be posters on the board, tools used by both the students and teacher, accessories that we wear.

It's important to use objects that are tangible because students can have a hands-on experience on what measurement is and how to measure things.

In this photo, it shows images of real-life objects that can be seen in our everyday lives (except the crocodile, of course, unless you live in Florida!).  A way to use this worksheet with tangible objects is to remove the images altogether and keep the images of the rulers. We can replace the images with words of objects that surround us, such as chalk, eraser, pencil, etc.

I believe the measurement strand is the most flexible unit a teacher can teach. There are so many different methods to teach measurement in the classroom and make it as engaging as possible.

Squares, triangles, cubes, and cones.

Hello everyone,

During this week's class, we focused on the strand, Geometry and Spatial Sense! I found this week's lesson to be really engaging and exciting.

Let's just say my colleague's presentation was quite delicious!

During their ten minute presentation, they asked us, the students, to create three-dimensional polygonal shapes using toothpicks and marshmallows. I found classroom management to be difficult for the presenters because it was hard to keep the students from eating the marshmallows.


Once this presentation was over, we moved onto a group activity that connected to games that we play outside of the classroom - Battleship! Without realizing it, we were learning about coordinates on a graph.

Our team's task was to create our own version of ships on a laminated grid with dry erase markers. We were to create lines up to 5 squares in length. I found this game to be a little challenging because the grid was so large and there were hundreds of points on the grid for a ship to be located.

I found this activity to be really fun and engaging for the class. The students were able to learn how to coordinate points on a grid and do so in a strategic way. The activity was really engaging because it allowed us to be more competitive towards our classmates. We were eager to win so we had to think of possible positions in which the other team's ships were located. I will definitely use this activity in my future placements.

Because math is a subject that is difficult for many students to truly enjoy, I think it's important for teachers to find as many possible ways to make it engaging and exciting. It's not necessary for teachers to integrate online interactive mathematical games. With a dry erase marker and laminated paper, a math lesson can become the highlight of a student's day.

Having fun with blocks

Hello readers

This week's math lesson focused on creating patterns and solving patterns. At the beginning of the class, a colleague taught us how to solve a pattern (one that is increasing) and, after solving the pattern, we were to guess the number at a certain position. For example, we were given the terms and values of numbers 1-4, and then had to guess what the value would be at term 100. She did a great job with her presentation and I found her handout to be both challenging and helpful.

After her presentation was done, the professor gave the class a few different patterns. Our job was to find the equation that solved the pattern.

The trick is to count the difference between the first value and the second value and so on. We can see that the value is increasing by four. Therefore, the rule is "output number = input number x 4."

This pattern was quite easy so solve, but eventually the patterns got more difficult. It took some time to solve these patterns and I found them to be quite challenging. For example:

Term 1: 4
Term 2: 7
Term 3: 10

We can see that there isn't an obvious pattern in these terms compared to the previous pattern. To solve this, we must figure out the difference between the values and then solve the difference between the values and the difference.

The rule to this is "output number = input number x 3 + 1."

Moving on from this, the professor instructed us to create these patterns with blocks. This is very handy and could be used in the classroom. It's most helpful for children who learn better with  visuals in front of them rather than a chart. We were given blocks and "secret rules" and had to build that. After that, our colleagues had to guess the rule.

Once this was done, the class walked around the tables to see how different everyone created patterns. I found this to be very interesting because it shows that people learn things differently.