Learning Math Together

That's a lot of strips. I looks like more than 5 to me.
Can I count them to find out how many there are?

I'd like the children in my class to feel that we are learning together. I don't want to spend time asking them questions that sound like I am assessing them.

Questions like:
How many?
Show me one more?
Can you hold up 3 fingers?

The question "Can you hold up 3 fingers for me?" is one that makes me cringe. Why would a child want to do that? Would they want to do that to please the teacher (for me). It's not showing that we are learning together.

There are questions we can ask which are more collaborative.

Instead of: Can you count the apples? I prefer to ask something like: Do we have enough apples for everyone? (in a group of 5 or 6).
I think there are 5 triangles. Am I right? Let's find out.
I think you've got more than me?

Let's see if we can make the train tracks go all the way to the door. I wonder if we'll have enough track to do that?

Let's show how many different ways we can show the number 6 using our fingers.

Let's write the number 6, six times.

Let's play a game with the dice. How many rolls does it take before you get a number 6?

Sometimes I model the type of talk that I want to hear the children doing: Your shoes are the same, but a different color.

I'd like the children to feel that the classroom is a place where we all learn together, finding answers together.

Comments

Tape Man

Some of the children put blue tape over their mouth. Usually I would have said something like, "Take the tape off your mouth. It's not for putting on your mouth." Instead I thought of Tape Man (with some pride, being from New Zealand). I thought of creativity. I thought of art. So we sat together for whole group time, some with tape on their mouth. I said, "I've got something to show you." When they first say him one of them said, "It's scary." I reassured them that it's not too scary and that he's being funny. So they started to laugh. Pretty soon there was no more tape on mouths (not that I minded if there was, it's just hard to laugh). Thank you Tape Man for reminding us that creativity begins with exploration in play.

Changing Spaces

The blocks were in tubs on the shelf in the center of the room. It was time for a change, so the blocks were put onto the shelf by the OHP, providing a more enclosed space for the children to build with the blocks. One of the children spent time building a structure. After he has finished, he was able to leave it there for a while, and later in the day he was able to put the blocks back on the shelf where he had found them. Changing spaces creates new opportunities.

Whole Group Time

There is a fabulous carpet in my classroom for the children to sit on during whole group time. It's the alphabet arranged in a grid. There are enough spaces for each child to have their own letter of the alphabet to sit on. I can assign spaces, which is what I did last year. I did that until one of the children asked if she could sit on a chair, and not the carpet, during whole class time. Why not? This led the children to write labels for their chairs. After sitting on their chairs for a few weeks most of the children decided to return to sitting on the carpet again. I'd like to start this year by not assigning children seating spots on the carpet. Hopefully we can use it as a time to problem solve any disagreements about where they want to sit. If not, I'll assign spaces. At least to start with. And then I'll see what happens after that.

NZ Teacher

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