Sneak in Some Math During Birthday Treat Time!

Scenario: It is Monday in your classroom and a productive one at that. You are gung-ho about your lesson plans- hopeful that you will get through everything this week, for once. No assemblies, no field trips, no interruptions to your flow. Suddenly there is a parent standing in the doorway with a large tray of cupcakes. You do not know how they made it past the office and, of course, all of the students are in an uproar. Chocolate or vanilla? When, when, when! Your lesson comes to an abrupt halt as you thank the parent and bring the cupcakes into your room, setting them on the counter. Now, every other kid has to sharpen their pencil. You might as well stop everything and immediately do the birthday because no one's mind is on characterization anyway.

Multiply this loss of instruction time (20 minutes- 25 if you have the kids wash their hands) by 30 kids and you could potentially lose 10 hours of instruction time in a school year, passing out napkins, eating cupcakes and singing the birthday song.

If you are like me, this is unsettling. Every minute of every day I aimed to squeeze in curriculum. For reward times we played math games. During Valentine's Day parties we played Scrabble Junior. Lining up for specials we spelled words or cited multiples. I was challenged to find a way to turn birthday treat time into something educational- hence, the birthday estimation jar!

First, get students fired up about the activity by presenting it to the whole class as a healthy option to a sugar treat. (Bonus: my district adopted a 'wellness policy' that frowned upon classroom treats that were not healthy.) Read through the flyer together, show the students the guessing jar (plastic) and the birthday gift bag that they take everything home in to bring back the next day. Give students some ideas for some real challenge estimation questions and your high kids will go to town. Example: How many groups of ten do you think are in here? Then, work to get the first student with a birthday to do the activity (many more kids will follow after seeing it once). Or even do it yourself as an example in the first weeks of school.

The birthday student gets to lead the activity. He/she shows the jar of prizes and reads the question. Students can answer on scrap paper (no names needed) and put the responses in a basket or envelope. I suggest doing this when doing lunch count or morning work. Your birthday student needs time to sort the data for the graph. Depending on grade level, the teacher can draw a quick graph on chart paper so the birthday child can graph the results at some point in the day. Then when time allows the birthday child can explain the graph to the class, and give the correct answer to the question. Depending on time and the teacher's comfort level, deep thinking questions can follow such as, "Why do you think so many kids estimated that there were over 50 items in the jar?" Or, "We figured that if the items were 2 cents each and there were 30 in the jar, it would cost 60 cents for everything. How could we quickly find the amount if the items were 4 cents each?" Last, an excellent extension question is, "Notice the side of the graph is numbered by fives? Why do you think I did that?" Talking about scale (the numbers chosen for the y-axis) does not happen often enough!

To make this activity quicker, pre-draw a simple graph on chart paper and have students estimate on small sticky-notes. They can stick their estimation right on the graph as they complete it, with just a bit of supervision from you that they don't put their notes in the wrong column. This saves collecting responses and sorting them.

This birthday estimation jar can be as simple and quick as you like or as deep and extending as time allows. It absolutely beats a worksheet on estimation and/or graphing. It is an authentic, engaging experience in estimation. And for some reason, graphing seems to be somewhat of a weakness in my building. I don't feel students have enough experience with creating graphs and really thinking about what the parts are.

This was a lengthy post. Thank you if you made it this far! I look forward to your questions and comments and would love to be of more help to you if you need me! Happy birthday!

Correcting Illegible Numeral Formation from the Get-go!

When I was a fifth grade teacher, and even fourth, it would always amaze me at the beginning of the year when a student would turn in a math paper with penmanship that could not be deciphered! Many kids wrote ones that looked like sevens as they made a fancy serif on their ones. Fours versus nines- their writing was so sloppy- how could I tell? This always made me wonder how they got so far along in the grades without correcting this issue. As an upper elementary teacher I felt it was my responsibility to nip this in the bud before middle school where their math teacher would have upwards of 120 papers to look over.

Now, try to find practice pages that were specific to the problem and not full of practice that students didn't need. Thus, I created my own practice pages that targeted the numerals in question. You can take a peek at my practice pages here in my TpT store.

This student has challenges with zeros versus sixes

The way I assessed and assigned practice was by first giving a timed test for any operation- usually addition in September. I did not let students know I was assessing their penmanship as well as their facts. You don't want students being extra careful, just their everyday writing. If your district does not require timed tests, you can assess numeral formation through any math paper you have.

I would make a copy of the paper for any students who needed to improve their numeral formation. Hopefully only about 3 to 5 kids out of your whole class are writing this way. The copy was dated and kept in a folder or binder and used to show growth.

I highlighted any numbers on my copy I could not read (the original was scored only for the math and handed back) and I held an individual conference with each student over their issue. Nothing lengthy- less than 4 minutes. As we talked, I let them know I was not going to bother them with practicing the numbers they wrote well, but every time I had an issue with telling the difference between their ones and sevens, for example, I would attach a practice sheet for just those numbers and they had to complete it as well as fix the numbers on the paper in question, and turn both in.
This practice is something that can be done for morning work, while the class is transitioning, cleaning up (excuse just this small group), or even homework. If you share with parents that you care about their student not carrying this issue all through school, usually they are on board. If the home is unsupportive, find a few minutes and have the student(s) complete the work in school but I never punish with this work by holding a student from something they love like recess.

We kept all practice (dated) in their folder as well and compared their work over time. I would have the student decide if they were improving during our periodic conferences. Once the problem was straightened out, we celebrated (a sticker, high-five...even a class announcement depending on the grade level) and if I never saw the problem again, hip, hip, hooray! Believe it or not, students love this individual attention and knowing that you care about them, individually- but the younger this can be taken care of, the better.

My pages include two areas where students can self-assess their writing. The target on each page can also be used by the teacher if students do not self-assess fairly. (We all have those students that think everything they do is perfect every time!)

So, if you try to fix up some messy writing, good luck and let me know how it goes!

Welcome to my Blog

Hello! Welcome to the journey of my third year as a math interventionist (after eight years in the regular classroom). This year I have dedicated myself to sharing my struggles and achievements with others in hopes of helping more students than just my own, and more teachers that are not fortunate enough to have a math interventionist. I am very excited for this endeavor which also includes upping my poor technology skills and propelling myself into the age of mass media. It's time!