Math Center Post

Hello and Happy Valentine's Day!!!
I thought I'd share a little update and leave you with a math idea that my students really enjoyed!
We are continuing with Genius Hour - it is hard to fit it in!!! Kudos to all the teachers who do!! I AM IMPRESSED!!!! Last week we had conferences, so no school on our Genius Hour day.  This week was 100th day and Valentine's Day celebrations.  Next week is assessments, but we are going to fit it in anyway!  I took my kiddos to the library and we checked out books related to our topics.  I found that trying to just look things up on the internet was just not enough.  For one, we are not a 1-1 device classroom, and patience waiting for an iPad or Chromebook at the age of 6 and 7 is not happening challenging :).  Secondly, having books in their hands to refer back to is much easier for this age.  As an adult, I still love the smell of a new book, the weight of it in my hands, and the pleasure it gives me seeing how many pages I've read, and the dread of how quickly the story is coming to an end.  You don't get any of those with a tablet or laptop, though the purpose of research is a bit different than reading for pleasure.  I would rather my students use post-it tabs in the books for now. :)  So a learning curve for me: Take them to the library sooner, before they start making a shopping list of items they think they need donated from stores.  Some children may find they've changed their minds on topics once they see there aren't enough books about a certain topic (although I DID get a book on WELDING for CHILDREN from the local library - yay!!!).  We will make sloppy copies of the items we need donated next week, then send them off, making arrangements for volunteers to come in to help us and guide us, and then start creating! I'll be posting some videos on Periscope if you follow us.  My Periscope account is @MrsHeikes.

Ok. On to math!  We have been working on Fact Families, and my student teacher had an observation coming up with her university supervisor, so I took what I normally do and we expanded it a bit further.  Here's what we did:

We had 5 centers: Lego fact families, dice fact families, domino fact families, fact triangle bracelets, and Chromebooks with the game http://roomrecess.com/pages/BlockBuster.html .  I had some problems with the game stopping with firewall issues (on my  end) so I switched to Math Balloons on my iPads, which is a strong favorite of mine because of its individualizing abilities. https://www.google.com/url?
The dice I used for the game - one was a numeral die 1-6, the other a 12-sided numeral die.  Each player had dice.  I use old paint cups with the covers for shakers, so the dice stay on the table and are quieter.  The kiddos lift the lid to see the numbers on the dice and add.  Using the standard die and a dodecahedron allowed my high-flyers to add to 18 (I have 23 students, my teaching partner has 17.  We split the class with the highs and lows, keeping the lows with a lower class size and paraprofessional support.  I have my student teacher, but normally it would be just me).
Here's the link to the entire set of worksheets we used.  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Math-Fact-Family-Center-Work-2388301
We would have used iPads to document our work, but I don't have a 1-1 classroom, so I had to go with paper for now.  My goal is paperless in the future!! :)  We could have taken picures on Seesaw and written the fact families for each of the dice, dominoes and legos.  I'd have been SOOO happy!!! :) But hopefully next year. Sigh.
Well, time to get off the computer.  It's my birthday tomorrow. :) I'd better get my school stuff done so I can actually relax and do something for myself, huh? Ha!  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!
Have a great week!!!!