Choosing Work Places

It is so exciting to see students learning and playing so many new workplaces. They are really enjoying them, and getting so much hands on practice with challenging skills!

There has been a lot of talk among teams about students choosing their own work place. Bridges suggests letting students choose and using a workplace folder to track where they have been. This can be challenging for a few reasons, including: having another folder to manage, students keep track of where they have been so it could be hard for the teacher to quickly see if they are continuously choosing the same work place, and they would need to be reprinted and updated for each unit. 

KACD's 2nd grade teachers came up with a great system that will hopefully spur more ideas!

Students check the box when they choose which work place to visit. The workplace icons are attached at the top using velcr so it is easy to switch them when work places change. The teachers have already printed all the work place for the year and cut, laminated, and attached velcro so they will be really easy to change in and out. The chart is laminated, so when you change a workplace you erase all the x's so students know they have not yet visited that workplace. 

If assigning work places, you could also use a similar chart and just write days of the week in the boxes. So many possibilities!

If you come up with a great system, please snap a picture and share!

Number Racks!

Today was an exciting day in 1st grade because not only did students get introduced to the number rack, but they also got to make their own! 2nd grade also got to do this earlier in the week.

Students were so interested in the number rack and could not wait to show their combinations on the large teacher model. It is incredible how much the number rack helps students how numbers can be broken down in many ways.

Tip: Don't worry about your students getting the number rack that they made each time you work with them in class. They are just a class tool that everyone contributed to building, so it doesn't matter if they are using their own or not! Many teachers chose to not even have student's write their names on them - this will really help with efficiently distributing them for lessons (especially since they are frequently used for quick warm ups!)

You have a large display Number Rack that came in your kit, but the Math Learning Center also has an app you can download. 

Here is a great video about how to use Number Racks with students. 

Finally, here is a link to more great activities you can try!

1st Grade Popsicles

All week 1st graders have been doing different activities through the context of Popsicles. The goal of this very first module is to expose students to different mathematical concepts, allow the teacher to informally assess what background information students are coming in with, and practice many different routines and procedures they will use throughout the year. The primary math in this unit is counting by 2's and working with students to develop more fluency with skip counting.

It is completely fine that students need more practice counting, using white boards, and reading graphs. The beauty of Bridges is that everything will spiral back in later units. Here are some awesome popsicle charts, graphs, and student problem solving work.

Preparing to Teach Lessons

This week, teachers have been doing the most amazing job of internalizing and preparing to teach Bridges lessons. It has been so incredible to watch everyone take their own spin and let their teacher personality shine through. A common trend in this feeling (and showing) of preparedness is well annotated lesson plans that you can review right before you teach and even glance at during the lesson.

Here is an example from a 1st grade teacher at KALE, Mr. H and a 1st grade teacher at KACD, Ms. A.

Great preparation work!!

CGI Charts

Is it Day 2 and there are already so many amazing things happening during CGI. Students are showing so much tenacity with their approach to problem solving - even if that means drawing and counting lots of circles!

During the discourse, the teacher records student strategies on chart paper so students can reference the strategies shared when they do other problems of the same type. It is very intentional that the chart is not created on a smart board or white board. We want students to be able to see the strategies and use them.

Most of our teachers have at least 2 classes per day and the organization of this can feel pretty overwhelming. Mr. F at KALE came up with an amazing display to keep his charts organized for students. He has room for a weeks worth of charts from both of his classes and clips to easily put the most current problem on the top of the stack. Thanks for sharing your great system!

1st Day of School!

Today was such an exciting day! It was so great to have classrooms full of kids again. There are so many great things to share from today. Last year, we got Mathlete shirts for our teachers who helped with Curriculum selection. It seems the idea of being a Math team has caught on :)

Example 1 from KALE:

Example 2 from KACE:

4th Grade Teacher: "What is someone called who does Math?"

Kippster: "A Mathlete?"

Happy Monday!