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Hi lovely educators,
I have to introduce you to Rebecca Krupp. If you are an avid reader of the book, Edumagic she was highlighted in the chapter of getting out of your regularly scheduled programming with her genius corps program. Becki is currently student teaching in 3rd grade. She shares some Halloween themed ideas for math. All are easy to use ideas. Enjoy!
It’s fall in 3rd grade! In math, my students have working on a number of fall- and Halloween-themed activities. Two weeks ago, when I started my student teaching placement, my cooperating teacher was finishing a project in math that she called “Frankenlines”. They had been working on using number lines to solve multiplication problems, and the Frankenlines helped make it a little bit more fun! The students had a blast creating and decorating, and they are helping make our walls ready for Halloween. I really love how creative the students can be with this project, and the pun in the name!
The 3rd graders were so excited to share their creations with me and explain how I could use number lines like they did.
Last week, we started working on arrays. My students discovered quickly that an array is also a great tool for solving multiplication problems! At the end of the week, we made Monster Arrays, with lots of googly eyes. Each student was assigned a multiplication equation, and they had to build an array that represented that problem using the googly eyes. After their array was created, they turned the page into a monster! Once their monster was created, they wrote down their multiplicatin sentence, and we hung them all up in the hall under our Frankenlines.
And this week, we are starting a new strategy. We are going on a hunt for patterns in numbers that will help us solve problems and check our work. Developing number sense and exploring the patterns in numbers will help my students be able to check their work and think about whether their answers are reasonable. As a closing activity for a lesson on the patterns in 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s, they will work on a modified paint-by-numbers activity, looking for patterns in the numbers to help determine which color to use! When they have colored all the right boxes, a picture will be revealed.
Rebecca is a preservice teacher studying elementary and special education at Grove City College. Her favorite color is brown, and she loves the mountains. She is the founder of @thegeniuscorps, a program for middle school students that partners local colleges and universities with middle schools to provide high quality, accessible science experiences that help students realize and develop their potential.
Now what? Comment about how you make math engaging for students in your class.
Remember friends, you have the EduMagic in YOU!