One of the ways we practice math concepts is by playing math games. These games help to reinforce concepts and stretch the students’ math thinking.
Whether it is subitizing (the ability to know, without counting, the number of objects in a familiar grouping)…
…or counting on from numbers…
… it’s always more fun if it is part of a game.
We’ve been having weekly Skype calls with Ms Lirenman’s class in Surry, BC to play “Guess Our Mystery Number” and to improve our sense of numeracy. We’ve been slowly building up to larger numbers. This week we used the numbers up to forty. This is what it looked like during the call as Ms Lirenman’s class tried to guess our number (you can see it taped on the calendar in the top right of the picture).
And then we tried to guess their number. You can see that we were getting very close.
The grade twos have been learning about growing patterns. We each made a pattern, but covered up part of it to see if the others in the class could figure out the missing part of our pattern.
Our patterning activity today was making bracelets out of elastics. The students were thrilled to be able to make something they loved as a class assignment.
This is what it looked like as the students got ready to make their bracelets.
And these are some of the finished products.
Lots of geometry learning has been happening in our classroom lately.
First, playing Guess My Shape with a classmate…
Then the same game with 3D shapes…
And today, we played the game with Ms Lirenman’s class via Skype.
Lots of great conversations using terms like curved, flat, edges and corners.
Having iPads to share our learning means that we can create wonderful screencasts like this. Check the student blogs on the right.
Rebecca Baranowsky, an education student at the University of Regina, has made two videos recently…just for us! The students loved them, so I am sharing them here. Thanks, Rebecca!
First, a story about Harry and Horsie…
And then a video to help us learn to count by 2’s…
We’ve been working with and practicing numbers up to one hundred. These students have been counting, making groups of ten and recording numbers (as well as working to get that just right picture of their work).
We’ve been working together in our classroom for 100 days. That calls for a celebration!
First, we thought about what we wondered about 100.
Then, we started on our list. One of our projects today was making a hat with 100 tassels. It sure takes a long time to count and attach 100 strips of paper…
We didn’t get to try all of our wonders yet, but we’ll keep working on them throughout the week!
Capacity is just one more form of measurement that we are learning. Ms Lirenman’s class in Surrey, B.C. helped us to practice estimating which container had the largest capacity. Sometimes it was hard to guess which would hold the most, but we are getting better! Check out the students’ blogs to see a video about how each of them knows which container holds more.
