Happy Wednesday to you all! :)I've been busy working on my brand new math pack! :) Woo! :) Last year was my first year back in first grade after teaching third for five years. Coming back to the wee ones got me thinking about the contiuum of learning that needs to occur from first moving up. I firmly believe that first grade is the most important and most challenging grade to teach of all of the elementary grades. When the foundation is properly built, there is no limit to what complex tasks students can build on in the intermediate grades. When the foundation is cracked ...remediation becomes more and more challenging as the student gets older. In my classroom, I teach a myriad of strategies for problem solving, because I want my kids to have the ability to 'make sense of problems and persevere in solving them'. (Math.Practice. MP1)
So, what I did was I went through the first grade standards really closely. I looked for language that implied that students would have to use a strategy to solve math problems. I used the strategies from four standards:1.OA.A.1; 1.OA.C.6; 1.NBT.C.4; 1.NBTC.6. I created a set of anchor charts for each one.
Last year, while I was teaching these strategies, I'd say to my students that they had 'other tools' in their tool box to approach problems. I thought...wouldn't it be fun to have a strategies tool kit! :) So, my next step was creating a tool box. I tried to keep the design simple because I want the kids to make it themselves. The more ownership they take over the process the more they will get excited about the incentive program attached. I created some 'tool box chips' that they can earn after they've shown mastery of the skills. This pack can work with anyone's math curriculum. Most of us that are now aligned to the common core don't have books that are specific to common core in every area, so, as you are working on teaching these strategies to your own learners, in the way you deem best, the end goal is still the rigor of the standard, so...this would still work as an incentive plan! Once the students have shown mastery of the strategy, then they earn a tool box chip! They can glue or tape it into their tool kit. I will have my students store their took boxes in a data binder. They could also be glued into the front of a math spiral bound notebook as well. If you're looking for some center activities that could be helpful in achieving mastery of these strategies, I've got a couple of center games that would be really great! Click on the links below the pictures to go see them on TPT!
I am running a giveaway on my Facebook Fan page for this item in my store!
Come by my facebook page any time before 10EST to sign up! :)
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| Doggone Good at Place Value 4 Common Core Aligned Math Centers for Firsties & Seconds that focus on Place Value Strategies for addition & subtraction |
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| Look Whooo's Counting 2 Common Core Aligned Centers for Word problems and counting |
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