Take Action with Fractions

Fractions can be a hard subject for many students. It's a hard concept to understand after learning whole numbers, but there are MANY manipulative's and game's that could help students understand the concept! Check out all of these manipulative's on fractions on this website! There are many games out there too for the students. It is easy to research and find games for the kids to either play during class time or to take home! Fractions are something kids shouldn't be afraid of and they are simple if you teach them correctly!

The basic formula that show a fraction is numerators, which are on the top, and denominators, which are on the bottom of the fraction. A very simple way to demonstrate fractions and the make up of them is through showing them a song! I found this on and I think it is fantastic! It shows little tricks to remember which number should go on the bottom and it shows how fractions are set up! I think this song is great and fun way to show the students and have them learn from fractions!

One way that students really relate to fractions is relating them to real life examples, such as food or money. Food is very relateable. It lets the children realize how fractions work. Just like the photo to the side, you can see how food can be cut up to show fractions. Another way you could demonstrate fractions would be to use the students as an example, you could group them in fours or more and have them split up to show the classroom how it could be a fraction.

Students will catch on quickly to fractions if there is an adequate amount of time spent on learning them. It is crucial for teachers to take their time and make sure every student has the hang of them by showing them fun and easy ways to learn fractions!

Working Together

 [Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different ability levels, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible, not only for learning what is taught, but also for helping his or her teammates learn—thus creating an atmosphere of achievement.] Read more on TeacherVision 
 on the topic of cooperative learning! I believe working together in pairs or groups as students is very beneficial to their learning. Group work helps the student learn more about themselves and about others. They learn to work together, collaborate ideas, better their communication skills, and much more!

I am a firm believer in cooperative learning and believe it is essential for students to experience. I think that to be a successful teacher you must try to get your students to experience as much human interaction as possible. Our world would not exist without human interaction and it is important for students to see that and problem solve within their groups or pairs.

While doing some research on cooperative learning I ran across this segment, [In order to create an environment in which cooperative learning can take place, three things are necessary. First, students need to feel safe, but also challenged. Second, groups need to be small enough that everyone can contribute. Third, the task students work together on must be clearly defined.] Read more at Cooperative Learning Workshop   This is great information for making sure the enviroment for cooperative learning is in perfect condition! This is a great example of some cooperative learning happening within a classroom!

Place Value

Well, today I decided to blog about the topic of PLACE VALUE. As adults and readers, you might think place value is an easy concept to grasp. But, just as learning to read and write, children must learn place value as well! There are many different ways to go about teaching students place value. You could use manipulatives, worksheets, fun videos or games, and things along those lines! To start off, here is a place value chart that you might use while teaching children place value with manipulatives.

Using manipulatives is a VERY easy way to tech children. You could use things such as base-ten blocks. If you don't know what those are, here's the link! Although base ten blocks are mainly used for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, I think it is good to introduce them to students at a very young age so they get familiar with them as they learn throughout the years!

Another way to teach students about place value is worksheets! This is the classic and somewhat boring way to learn but it is also very effective! To throw some fun things in there you could show fun videos or let students play some games based on place value for them to learn while they think they are watching TV or playing a game! Check out some videos and games here! Place Value Song , Place Value Squirrels, Football Place Value , Place Value Racing .

Overall, teaching place value is relatively easy because of all the tools you can work with! You could use manipulatives, worksheets, and videos or games to assist you in your specific teaching method!

Thinking out of the bLOCKS

Do you remember having to work on WORD problems in 3rd and 4th grade? I do and I remember it being miserable! I remember having to get paired up with another student and having to come up with a solution and presenting it in front of the class! To say the least it was terrifying, and what if I was to be matched with a lazy partner that made me do all the work?!? Ugh, yuck! But do I have news for you, teachers, to help students get over their fear of word problems..

During one of the weeks of my online Math Class for elementary teachers, one of our assignments was to play this game called, Thinking Blocks. It is for to assist students learning of multiplication and division word problems. It is very easy to use and the website lays it out for the student wonderfully! I found out that it was a GREAT tool that I will be using someday to get the fear of word problems out of their heads! Here you try it out!

Interactive Thinking Blocks

I think it is very important for students to read and understand word problems because they will always be in your life and you will always be having to deal with them! Some other solutions may be out there to also assist teachers on making word problems less frightening to students but this link is a great one! I did some research and here are a few more tools for helping students learn the process of finding a solution to a word problem. 

Read these! --> The Teacher Garden, Homeschool Math , ABC Teach

Watch this! -->

Methods of Multiplication for the Mind

I remember learning multiplication in 3rd and 4th grade and having to do those dreaded time tables! Then, after time tables. we had to move on to two digit number multiplication! I remember only learning one way to do multiplication tables and that was the old fashioned long way of multiplying. Like you just saw in the video, this is the method I believe most of us learned, but I'm going to talk about other ways to multiply double digit numbers!

Here is a problem solved in the standard way:

Now there are many ways to solve this and not use the standard method! 

First there is a method called the Lattice Method of Multiplication. After learning more about this method, I realized that this is a very easy method to catch on to and teach! Learn how to do it in this short video! The Lattice Method I wish that I would have been exposed to this method as an elementary student! I believe that this method is simple and easy to understand! It is also a method you could use to help you check your answers and make sure they are correct!

Another method I believe is pretty cool, but a little more complicated to me, is the Russian Peasant Method of Multiplication. This method I believe takes more work than it should. If you don't know what I am talking about here is a short video example -> Russian Method. I think this method takes more thinking than need and I also believe it is more time consuming!

Overall, there are more methods for multiplying, but here are a few you might not have known about! Teaching and learning multiple ways to do a single math problem is important because you might not know what works best for you!

Standards, oh joy!

Today, it feels like there is so much pressure on students and school teachers to prepare their students for the basic test standards and benchmarks they should pass. As you can see, Minnesota Educational Standards has lists of where the benchmarks and standards are for each grade in each subject. Future and current teachers are expected to teach their students enough for them to reach these marks! That is a lot of pressure for one teacher that has to teach 20+ students enough for them to retain the information and for them to test up to the standards!

Here is a video talking about the common core standards:

 

I feel like there are a lot of different opinions about how testing and standards play a role into how children are actually learning! I was able to be a volunteer helper in a kindergarten class for a couple weeks this past month. This happened to be around the time when they were preparing for the Minnesota State tests at each level. I was able to go with the kindergarteners to the computer lab and observe them taking the math test! Do you want to know what blew me away the most?! Basically EVERY SINGLE CHILD was able to do the problem presented on the screen every time, but the problem was that they could not TYPE IT IN! I felt helpless when the students were raising their hands and saying I don’t know how to do this yet I knew that they actually knew the answer. I felt like it was more a test of their computer skills then their actual math skills.

Standards, in my opinion are very essential to keep students up to date and competitive with other students around the world. I like the fact that students are tested on content that they will need to know for the future and the testing will actually help their retention as well. I do not like that fact that there is so much pressure on these standardized tests that a lot of the time, teachers forget to teach other subjects and life lessons. In my opinion, subjects such as art, physical education, music, and such are just as important for a child as is math and reading.