As the province moved to remote learning from home due the COVID-19 pandemic, the Quilchena teachers and I met via Zoom to plan numeracy experiences for the students that were connected to our current context. I joined in on the class’ Zoom meetings for Math Chats where we did routines like number talks and WODBs and also built content knowledge to support projects and numeracy tasks.
during a Zoom Math Chat
Two the at-home numeracy tasks the students engaged in this spring were Acts of Kindness and Garden Design projects.
In response to the pandemic and in-school instruction being suspended, we thought about ways for the students to connect to each other and the community. They were asked to participation Acts of Kindness. Some students painted rocks to leave around the neighbourhood while others created signs to put in the front windows of their homes. We also asked the students reach out to their classmates through phone calls. We asked the students to consider the “ripple effect” of their acts and to create a visual model to show the impact. The following are some of the students’ visuals which some also connected to ways to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Another numeracy task the students did was a plan and design task, creating garden beds, boxes or containers. During our math chats, we learned about different kinds of polygons, how to calculate area and perimeter and then volume. Students were also asked to research and budget for how much soil they would need.
The following is the final task criteria:
And some examples of student submissions:
I am looking forward to continuing this numeracy project with this class next year. With thanks to teachers Jen Yager, Sam Davis and Christine Gerencser.
~Janice