First Week of Math - Exploring Tools

Over the first 5 days of school, we introduce, explore, and divvy up a set of math tools that the students will use during problem solving workshop for the whole year.  It starts on the first day of school. I start number talks on the second day of school, and it's always a "dot talk". This means that I need them to play with dots to exhaustion on the first day of school so I can protect my sanity when they need to use the dots on day two.

The first step is to lay down some ground rules. I'm not going to lie...this is a loud, sometimes crazy and explosive process.  My philosophy here has always been, "It's exciting to get an idea and test it!" As far as the students are concerned, they are pioneers!  Nobody has EVER thought to make a train of cubes that goes around the ENTIRE carpet before (everybody has thought of this haha but they don't know it) and thinking of this then doing this can be very exciting...which requires some hopping...and shouting.  I do try to minimize this, but I also ignore a lot of it during this free exploration period.

Before we start, we brainstorm what it "looks like" and what it "sounds like" when we are being responsible with the math tools. (They don't go in our mouths, up our noses, no throwing, we share, we ask if you are done with those before we grab them, etc.)  After we finish, we reconvene on the carpet and go over how we did....did it "look and sound" like the important and serious work that it is?  Here is where I will remind them that we should be using "level 2" voices, which is a normal voice, but not an outdoor voice.

Finally, before we walk through this, may I suggest a "shout out" call to attention?  Bells, chimes, sing songs....I do it all, as one must if you are serious about having their attention when it matters, but I have to admit, nothing beats a call and response shouting when the noise level creeps up.  For the last five or six years I've been (literally) yelling "yo yo yo!" and they (literally) yell back "yo what's up!" then everybody freezes and we have a window of opportunity to make an announcement, call for civility, and/or transition out of exploration.

We follow the same process every day. Set out a tray of one type of tool for each table group. Go! I walk around saying "yes" as often as possible. "Teacher, can I make the world's longest train?" Yes you may. "Teacher, can we work on the carpet?" Yes you may. "Teacher, can we have more red ones?" Yes you may. "Teacher, can I make a tower?" Yes you may. "Teacher, it got too tall, can I stand on a chair?" Yes you may. (Let me just stand here next to you though, how about that?) I also carry a clip board with this little checklist of observable behaviors, made by my dear friend and teacher extraordinaire Kristy. It helps me focus on the math that is happening amid the chaos, and it also lends an air of officiousness that is sorely lacking without it.

At the end of each work session, as a new tool is cleaned up and put to bed, each student gets their math bag (students are assigned a number that goes with their name - "a" kids start with number one and end with "z" kids at *cough* 32 when I'm lucky) from the hook and counts out a number of the tool to add to their bag.

(The tool bags started as gallon ziplocks, but I eventually repurposed a few cheap sheets and maxed out my sewing skills by make three straight lines for the seaming and one hem for the drawstring. The dimensions are still roughly those of a ziplock gallon storage bag, though taller....13" tall by 11" wide, give or take, finished dimensions.) (ETA:  Each bag has a number written on it in fabric paint, which matches the numbers assigned to the students, which matches a number on the wall behind the bag, not yet affixed in this picture.)

 At the end of this period, each student puts 25 red/yellow counters in their bag.

 At the end of this session, they add 40 unifix cubes to each bag.

 

 At the end of this session, they add 40 ten sticks (not 4, worth 40, but 40 actual sticks) and 25 units.

 At the end of this session each child adds 60 flat square tiles to their bag.

Other things that will no doubt likely end up in their bags include an expo marker, a die, and some hundreds flats.  In the picture below, you can see that MORE of each of these tools is available in this open storage. As we begin to solve problems using our tools, we may find ourselves in need of more of one thing or another, and we can always come here and get them. That basket of hundreds flats is always available too, but doesn't usually gain popularity for some time.

  On the fifth day, we don't introduce a new tool, but we practice taking our bags out, using the trays (seen above stacked up on the side) and practicing using our tools in whatever way we choose, but focusing on keeping OUR tools on OUR tray. After cleaning up and putting everything away, we also introduce the "I Found This!" bucket, seen on top of the stack of trays below. When we find ANY math pieces, at ANY time, on the floor, kicked under furniture, inside our pencil boxes, any old where at all.....we put it in the "I Found This!" bucket (named thusly by the number of students who walk up to me and say "Teacher I found this").  Make sure you are clear....no puzzle pieces, crayons, broken pencils, hair (!) goes into this bucket. Only math pieces! At the end of each week, it's somebody's job to sort everything back into those open buckets.

I used to spend time, every summer, counting out the tools for each child. Sometimes, I even had them in little plastic snack bags INSIDE the math tool bags. But then, to be honest, I was wayyyyy too invested. I needed to just divest from the entire process. When I tell them to count out 40 or 60 of something, in all likelihood, some number of kids will miscount. Don't care. Some number of kids will eventually find that their bags are empty and/or a certain tool is totally not accounted for. Don't care. That's what the open storage is for, go get some more of whatever you need.  But as you can see, by the end of the year clean up photo below, somehow it all ends up back with me. It's a zero-sum game from my perspective....they go out, they all end up back. What happens in between, I had to tap out. I have enough crazy to manage without adding "what's in your tool bag" to the list.

I'm including this as your end of the year clean up tip, even though I'm assuming you are MUCH smarter than I am. This system works...Each table group gets a small bucket for each tool type. They sort their own bags into those buckets. Those buckets get dumped into the five (10?) gallon paint buckets we use for chairs at our reading table and writing centers. Kids who get done early can start making ten trains out of the cubes, since they store better that way.  Every couple of years we take buckets of tools out to the playground and add a bit of dish soap and water. When they ask why we are cleaning the tools, I tell them it's because they like shiny things. They agree, and we carry on. Love second grade :)

Here are the kids the first year I taught second grade, when we dumped ALL our bags on the carpet at the end of the year and tried to sort them into the buckets from there. It took four days, and they had lost interest long before any serious headway had been made.

 And here's me, on day two of four.  Just saying.