This is the sixth year of this after school series that focuses on the big mathematical ideas encountered by teachers working with students in grades 3-5. This year this group met three times during term three.
Our first session was on January 17. Each teacher received the professional resource Number Sense Routines by Jessica Shumway.
The focus of our first session was on multiplicative thinking and computational fluency.
We began by working on a math problem together, from the book, and considered the different ways our students might engage with the mathematics.
And then looked at visual routines from the book that support multiplicative thinking through spatial structuring.
We also considered games that provide purposeful practice for developing computational fluency and reasoning around multiplication, such as the array-based game, How Close to 100? from Mindset Mathematics.
Our second session was on February 7 and after sharing the visual routines that we tried with our students, we discussed the big ideas around decimal numbers.
Our focus from the book was using number routines such as Today’s Number as well as Number Talks with fractions and decimal numbers. We also connected using visual supports such as 10×10 grids in games to practice decimal computation and develop understanding of decimal numbers in both fractional and place value-based ways.
Some games and a recording sheet for thinking about decimal numbers from the session can be downloaded here:
Our third session was held on March 7 during which we focused on the big idea of area, connecting this concept to both multiplication and the visual routines we had learned earlier in the series (arrays, spatial structuring, decomposing into parts).
We also focused on the instructional routine of notice and wonder and how it can be used to have students make sense of a mathematical situation or problem as well as create an opportunity for students to ask questions that can lead into mathematical investigations.
Annie Fetter of the Math Forum has made many math teachers aware of Notice and Wonder over the years and an overview document is available:
For this session, a new SD38 math instructional routine poster was created and it is available in both English and French:
These posters are also all available on this blog, under the poster tab at the top!
Thank you to Grauer Elementary for the use of The Nest to host this series!
~Janice