Digging Into Next Year: Math



I am really excited to be joining up with Laura Graham from "Where The Magic Happens" for an awesome series of reflection on our past year AND looking forward to next year. 

The way I do math with my sweet kids! 

 

My post will be a little different than the regular classroom teacher.  I am currently taking a teaching "sabbatical" to stay home with my kids.  Math, in my world, takes place in tutoring sessions and with my own kids.  I tutor children with learning difficulties, some with special needs.

In my life before staying home with my kids, I was a special education teacher.  I worked in various settings for 7 years.  What immediately drew me to special education was the absolute need to really understand the individual child and their learning needs.  I love designing activities that really meet the needs of each child. 

Almost everything that we begin with is hands-on and very concrete.  Students are able to interact kinesthethically with every concept.  This seems to be very effective with the children that I teach.  Not only is it fun and keeps their attention, but it helps them to really begin to grasp the concepts and build number sense.

Addition and subtraction with a number line.  Students actually built the number line.  Click here to see it in action.

Finding even and numbers, by punching through the napkins on the cup.  Just an added piece of interest to keep kids engaged.  Click here to see it in action.

Using egg cartons for interactive ten frames!  This has been very successful with children who need to really interact with the numbers and manipulatives.  Click here to see the ten frames in action and to get a freebie.



One of my favorites is the "Addition Machine".  Such a great visual and hands-on way to demonstrate addition.  See it in action here.

 This is another way to use egg cartons.  One of my students is working on repeated addition and multiplication.  Using drawings was not concrete enough, so he actually put the goldfish into the egg cartons in rows.  This helped to reinforce that these were sets that he was adding.  I ate A LOT of eggs to do this activity.  We bought in bulk at BJ's for the super huge egg cartons!!

 

My tutoring takes place in my house, so I need to be ultra organized to make the most of my very limited space!  This leads me to...

Changes- Right away I have a biggie.  I need a new system to organize my materials that can help me quickly and efficiently access my materials.  I use a lot of hands-on manipulatives and "things" to teach math.  We are always on the move from activity to activity. 

 

My living space is also my tutoring space, so I need to come up with some creative ways to streamline my storage.  My project for this summer is to search pinterest and blogs for some storage ideas that will work in my home and for the kids that I tutor!

 I will continue to put a large focus on hands-on activities that help students build a strong number sense.  I love watching the light bulb go off in kids, when they grasp that the activity they completed is the same as the problem on their worksheet.  This is my absolute favorite part of teaching. 

 

Here are a few of my hands-on math products that I use on a regular basis!

First, a freebie!  See it in action here.

 



Roping Numbers: Missing Addends

Delicious Donuts: Active Learning Addition

 

Snowball Addition

 

Monster Munch

Pumpkin Interactive Play Dough Mats

Devouring Donuts: Active Learning Subtraction

Be sure to hop back over to "Where The Magic Happens" to see a ton of great ideas on how to organize your math workshop.  I hope that you found some math ideas here!


 

Linked up with Manic Monday over at Classroom Freebies!