Strengthen Your Core- One Activity at a Time

Jane Lewis &

Danielle Pierro Greenfield Middle School

School district of Greenfield

Add It UP

Directions: Create teams of four. Choose an Add It Up

problem from the binder that best matches your grade

level. Each team member can choose a problem to

complete. When all members have finished, add up all

four answers and write the sum in the center. Please let

us know you have completed the task by raising your

hand.

Add It UP

Benefits

*Create leveled problems to meet the needs of all students *Each student has a critical piece in the activity- all students have equal value as a member of the team *Individual work and team work in one activity *Students work together to critique and understand all problems *Students’ perseverance in problem solving is strengthened *The teacher is free to help students in need of support or enrichment

Add It UP

Learning Intentions

Strengthen the level of student engagement in common core aligned activities that promote student centered learning.

Learn how to apply stations, games, and tasks to build student’s procedural and conceptual understanding.

Binder Set Up

Your binder is set up into five main sections

• 1. Tasks

• 2. Stations

• 3. Games

• 4. Extra Goodies (Top three game changers, Tape diagrams & Probability)

• 5. Resources

Lost Your Marbles

Directions: Travel to each station and solve each problem with a

partner. Each partnership has one marble for each question. Put

a marble in each cup when you answer the question correctly.

Travel throughout the stations in numerical order. Answer each

problem before checking your work with the answer key. Also,

when you check your work, use the following key to self-assess.

Lost Your Marbles

Benefits :

* You instantly see how many students are on track

* Each question is a quick snapshot of student’s thinking

*Cups that are empty or have few marbles for correct

answers need more attention

*Students work at their own pace

*Students take problems home that are similar to the

learning targets so they know what they need to study

*Peers do not see who gets the questions right.

Lost Your Marbles

It’s in the Bag

Very similar to “Lost Your Marbles” except…

You see student’s work and know who is struggling and who is on target.

Students only keep the problems

that they need help on.

Two of a Kind Directions:

Find a partner and decide who will be Partner A and who will be Partner B. Both partners should only solve problem #1. Please compare answers once both partners are done.

Partners share their problem and discuss how they solved it. Students should discuss similarities between the two problems.

If partners have different answers, help each other find the error(s).

You may continue solving each problem at a time but should not continue onto the next problem without your partner.

Two of a Kind Benefits *Can be used for a partner station, game, or parent-student homework.

*Can be leveled to meet each student’s need-You can pair like ability together or different abilities together and match ability with the correct problems

*Students practice giving their peers the “think time” needed.

*Students critiques the work of others.

*Students compare differently representations and see multiple problem solving methods

My Favorite No One of the biggest changes we have added to our classroom this

year has been our work on discourse. This is one of our small

changes that has made a BIG difference.

Student Goal: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of

others. (CCSS Math Practice Standard MP3)

One idea that we used came from watching this video on “My Favorite No.”

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/class-warm-up-routine

Math Stems (Bookmark)

Thinking Like a

Mathematician

Tangram Task

Directions: You will be demonstrating your ability to

write and reason in math. If all seven tangram pieces equal one whole-you need to figure out what fractional part each piece represents. You should be

able to tell exactly what you did to solve the problem

and what you know. You should also prove that your

answer is correct. You can use diagrams, phrases,

equations, or sentences.

Top 3 Game Changers Of all of the new things we have tired or worked on over the

years, the three that have had the greatest impact on have been:

1) Math Talking Stems

2) My Favorite No

3) What Stuck With You?

If you try anything from our presentation,

we strongly recommend these three things!

More Game Ideas

Never “Bored” Game

Magnet Darts

More Game Ideas

Tic-Tac-Toe

Wheel Of Mathematics

Zip It

White Boards

The white boards we used today were purchased from ($7.50 each)

Whiteboardsusa.com

The white board featured in these photos were donated from a

grant Danielle wrote from DonorsChoose.Org

Both are great options for obtaining these large white boards

that promote community learning.

Questions

If we did not have time to answer your question,

please feel free to leave your question and email

a question card and we will respond to you

within a few days.

Please feel free to email us with any further

questions that come to you as you review

the material from today.

Resources

Thank You!!