Kristy's Questions to Enhance Comprehension!

Some of you reading this already know the wonderful, inimitable, Miss Kristy. She is starting a TeachersPayTeachers store, and although she's just beginning to update, I highly recommend that you follow her  and do anything she says. I know I do, and I've never regretted it!

I'm super critical about curriculum. Not in a negative, naggy way, but in the traditional sense. I am very cautious about things that claim to be "Common Core Aligned" or that haven't been tested out with actual students. 

So when I say that Kristy is the real deal, I can't be anymore heartfelt. It's not just because she's been Teacher of the Year for her (VERY large) district (oh, yeah, she's awesome like THAT), it's also that she's thoughtful and thorough and practical and kind and inspiring. I learn something from her every. single. time. we are together for more than 20 seconds.

I just bought her Questions to Enhance Comprehension (for a dollar! what the!) to use with my parent conferences the week after Thanksgiving. I'm also translating it into Spanish because, hi, I need it. I'll send it back to her so she can add it to the download, so you'll get that too! I also got the Math About Me to add to their math journals....SO FUN! I got some other stuff too, but check it out yourself.

If you get a chance to look at their I Have/Who Has telling time cards, you'll see what I mean about being critical. So many times, you just see regular old clock faces and times, both in very standard form. It's nothing new or special. Notice that she includes a variety of language options on her cards....not just "who has 9:30" but "who has half past 9?" Those are the details that keep the cognitive demand (rigor) high and provide for rich discussions with even the littlest learners. {LOVE}

Cheap Ikea Trays

I have had these Lakeshore plastic crafting trays in my room for the past 4 years, and they are going strong. They are $15.00 for 4 of them, which makes them prohibitive, in my opinion. At the time, I had gotten a wee bit of money for my classroom, and had purchased 2 sets on a hog-wild-whim. The remaining six sets (for $90 plus tax) were out of pocket for me. I loved them that much.

 Here they are in my math space, stacked up there on the left hand side. We use them very nearly daily, and we love them. Just you can see them in action here, and also, just about anywhere I talk about doing math with kids.

 

Whenever I'm sharing with teachers about doing math with little kids, these trays come up. They are so appealing! I used to use felt mats I cut from a roll of felt that was gifted to me. Those were free, and I used them for two years. (I cut them up and made them into whiteboard erasers since I retired them from being math mats, so I am very grateful for that gift!) The mats were good, because it defines your space. Nobody was allowed to touch your pieces once they were on your mat, so it created a nice culture in the classroom and kept others from "tidying up" your opus. It also helped with the management of 33 Littles, as they were able to move to any spot in the classroom (on the carpet, other work tables, a corner of floor) and they felt like (and acted like) they were at their own desks because of those mats. Here they are in action, with the plastic zip lock gallon bags that were our original "Math Bags".

 Then I got the trays and I saw that, really, there were some serious advantages... Case in point, this is J, and she wanted to show me this great idea she had. So she trotted it over to where I was, which she could not have done on the flimsy felt.

 Because teachers are so clever and resourceful, I've heard of lots of great ideas for having the "tray experience" without the outrageous price tag. The dollar store sells cookie sheets, for example, which I thought was super smart. There is only reason I was STILL glad to have my fancy trays after hearing that awesome idea, in fact, and that was because my trays are extra deep compared to the relatively flat lip of a baking sheet. That's not a deal breaker (especially for the cost savings) but there are many times when we have to set our math aside for the day, and the extra deep sides of the Lakeshore trays means that we can leave our math tools set up and still be able to stack them without worrying that they would tip over or not stay flat. Super helpful!

 But just this weekend I was at Ikea and found these Smula Trays. They are a frosted plastic, nice and deep, and almost exactly the same size as my trays. They are a nice hard plastic and I love them. And, they only cost $1.99 each! What a bargain for what I think is a very perfect math tray!

Using, Storing, and Managing Math Manipulatives

 I am passionate about teaching math, most especially with Littles. I myself love math. A seven year old is a very imprecise tool with which to do math, and can be particularly baffling, for a lover of math. But the thing is, is that the most profound mathematics are introduced and mastered with 5, 6, 7, and 8 year old kids. The number system, relative magnitude, every operation, geometry, relationship and comparisons,  problem solving and logic...it's the same math that underpins algebra, trig, and calculus...it's the same math that underpins engineering, architecture, and balancing your checkbook. It's deep, important, and complex.

Students have access to these tools at any time. They can come here and get a "scoop" of counters or a stick of unifix cubes, anything they think will be helpful...even when I don't believe it will. True story, I bite my tongue a lot.

The new Common Core Standards are, necessarily, imperfect. But if they do nothing else, they elevate the DOING of math to the importance typically reserved in elementary schools for the LEARNING of math. Math so often happens to kids. They are expected to learn math by watching teachers do math. They are often taught discrete rules and procedures in order to get them through arithmetic, without ever developing their sense of being mathematical. When I was a math coach/specialist for my district, it never ceased to amaze me how little cognitive lifting kids were being asked to do in math class. Teachers, pressured to the point of breaking by NCLB (No Child Left Behind, or as we call it, No Teacher Left Standing) requirements, often shied away from problem solving and cleared a path through story problems wide enough to march their whole class across without ever giving kids room and space to struggle and grow mathematically.

I ask myself: would I try to teach reading by never giving a kid a book to read? To me it is the same thing. I can't fathom trying to teach math without giving kids a problem to solve.
 

I moved into a classroom with very little storage this summer, and I invested in these white buckets ($7 with lids at Home Depot) to provide additional math tool storage and seating at our writing center (shown) and reading table.

The eight Standards for Math Practices all start with the words mathematically proficient students to describe how students (people) behave when doing math. The fifth Math Practice is about choosing tools. It's not just about breaking out the base ten blocks to show kids how to make exchanges for the regrouping procedure in subtraction. In fact, research has shown that when teachers decide which tool to use, and how to use it, the students experience the tool as one more set of rules they have to memorize...instead of contributing to the true goal of conceptual understanding.

Making sure my students have access to a variety of tools, as well as promoting a culture of understanding where students are asked (no, required) to pick their own tools and make sense of those tools in a variety of contexts...this is no small undertaking. The pictures above show how I store the math tools.

In the beginning of the year, we spend time introducing the tools. Partly to make sense of them, and partly to outline expectations. We do a "what does it look like and sound like when we are using our math tools" anchor chart.

During the first five days, I put out a tray of different manipulatives each day on each table group. Go to town! We focus on behaviors and procedures for sharing and putting away the tools.

Finally, when they have "met" the tools, the are each assigned a "math bag". Over the years that I have been doing this, it has evolved from a gallon ziplock back stuffed into an already crammed desk to this arrangement, which I'm calling AWESOME. I used a sheet to make 32 drawstring bags. Nothing fancy. Cut rectangles out of the sheets, folded over the top to make a casing for the drawstring ribbon, then folded over the rectangle in half and sewed along the bottom and open side (don't close the top, you have to feed through the ribbon). PRO TIP: once you've run the ribbon through the casing, bring both ends together and tie them into a single knot. You are welcome! ;) These were considerably smaller in past years, I just this summer redid them. Improvements: they are bigger than the last ones, by twice.

 Also improved: I used little 3M tape mounted wall hooks to create a storage area under the whiteboard. It was fun when the bags spilled out of their desks and pieces flew across the floor two to six times a day but, alas, all good things must end. Each bag space is labeled with a student number (1 to 32, I number my students from the time they walk in the door. With a 35% mobility rate, we remain in alphabetical order usually no later than October. By then there's been movement, but when you come in, you just get the last person who moved's number. It means Montse Rivera is going to end up being number 2, ahead of Luis Chavez, but pay that no mind. Number order please!)

 The labels on the bag space now match the numbers I put on each bag. I used puffy fabric paint that comes in a tube and I freehanded the numbers. Because I'm a gangster like that. haha

Students use these bags during the math time. If they need more or different tools than what are in the bags, they can get it from the bins or buckets. Like Crystal here, who was counting out 60 pencils for her story problem...by counting each 10-stick as one pencil...at the beginning of third grade. Ayyyyy....my aching head.

 When Crystal told me she needed more ten sticks, what I thought was, "No you don't. You need 6 of them." What I said was, "Sure, they are over there." And then I made a mental note that half my class was just like her, and I had some place value work to do. Ahem.

In my second grade class, each math bag has: 40 ten sticks, 25 unit cubes, 25 red and yellow counters, 40 unifix cubes, 40 square tiles, and a die (for centers and games). I'm pretty sure it's exactly the same thing they had in third grade last year...maybe they had 60 square tiles.

Also available in the bins and buckets: more of all those, plus hundreds flats, thousands cubes, cuisenaire rods, fraction pieces (strips and circles), atrribute blocks, centimeter and inch cubes, plastic coins, and pattern blocks.

Available at all times in baskets around the room: rulers, measuring tapes, protractors, ten frames, and balance scales.

It's a process. We go back to review/reteach how to store and take care of our manipulatives regularly. But of all the things I've done in the last years as a teacher to open up the world of mathematics to my students, this is up at the top. So worth the aggravations and inconveniences!

Reading Pointers

My ultra-cheap whisper phones left me with enough money to make some cute "pointers" for reading the room/word wall work.

The painted wooden pieces were around $0.29 each at a craft store. While at the craft store, I picked up two 5 packs of wooden dowels for $1 a bag. So for $5 and in less than 20 minutes, I made all 10 of these fab pointers.

I struggled with how to cover the plain wooden dowels. Well, haha, "struggled", let's not be dramatic. But I did puzzle over it for a day or two. I was busy so I kept passing this little pile on the sewing table and wondering....do I modge-podge tissue paper onto the sticks? Cut and modge-podge scrap book paper (which is not a hobby of mine, and would require a second craft store run)? Eventually common sense (and an aversion to glue mess) prevailed and I wrapped each stick in colorful duct tape I already had on hand. Then I hot glued the pre-painted wooden shapes to the tips (I stopped the duct tape an inch or two from the top of each stick).

Boom! I also made three extra long ones in exactly the same way. The extra long dowels were $1 each, so for $4 I made three extra long reading pointers too. The extra long ones will work for pointing to the word wall (it's tall, baby) and the number line above the white board and the alphabet at the top of the back wall, too.

Go to town, kiddos!

Going For It

I've decided to do the Daily Five method and CAFE menu. I had bought the books last summer but didn't get around to reading them. I read them both this summer (largely because the word "vacation" confuses me) and you know...I am suddenly all in. It seems like there are pieces of various things I've been using (reading workshop, guided reading, etc.) but I'm moving down to second grade next year (from third) and having the full power of their road map under me feels like the right thing to do. Hold my hand?

In preparing for "read to self" I made a class set (for me, that's 32...ahem) of whisper reading phones. These were a breeze to make and exceptionally cheap too.

It looks like the ones you can purchase (don't click that unless you have $5 per phone) are more like 3/4" around for the tube. I used pvc plumbing pipe (a 10 ft length I purchased at a home improvement center for around $1.75) in 1/2" size. It comes in 3/4" size, but the thing is, is that I had a bag of 25 of the elbow joints in 1/2" size ($5 for a bag of 25) and that was reason enough for me. I mocked one up and I had my In House Quality Control Department (my own second grade son) test it out for me. It looked and felt fine for him, so there we go!

I might be the only teacher on the planet who epic fails every time I try to play the "Um...pretty please I am a teacher, can I get this cut/have a small discount/ask if there are any discards" card. So when I asked, "Hi, I'm a teacher and I need this 10 ft pole cut into 3.5" pieces for a class project...is there any way to do that with an electronic saw?" ...I wasn't that surprised that I got a teenager with dreadlocks shrugging his shoulder and saying, "Nah, cuz that doesn't go through the saw." Fine. I'll saw it with a hack saw on the miter bench in the molding aisle. Thankfully my long-suffering husband had come with me and we took turns sawing and nursing our aching shoulders. All in all, for 15 minutes of sawing, it turned out fine.

So, cut the 10 ft. pvc piping into 3.5" lengths. Buy two pvc elbow joints in matching width (for me 1/2" elbows) for each phone. Put an elbow on each end of the pipe and muscle it down as far as it will go. I added a round of colorful duct tape for no other reasons than a) I had some and b) it covered the printing some of the pipe pieces were sporting.

Total cost for 35 phones (gotta make some extras, you know how it is): $1.75 for pipe, $10 for 50 elbows, plus one bag of elbows and duct tape I already had on hand. Don't forget $0.59 for the bag of frozen peas I used to soothe my saw-injured shoulder. That makes 35 phones for 12 bucks.

If you have a lot less kids than me (mazel tov!), there is also an option of buying the elbows at around $0.29 each. So if you need to make like, 27 phones, you could buy two bags and 4 extra elbows so that you don't have a bunch of extra elbows.

Right now I'm deciding between numbering these for my Littles versus having some wipes to just give them a run down when you want to use one. I don't really have the OMG GERMS! bone but...I could use advice if you're feeling that way inclined. Seems to me if they are numbered and privately held, they should just go in their book boxes so they aren't all piled up in one big germ-fest. If you've had any experience with this type of thing, I would love to hear about it, thanks!