We created pyramids and prisms using marshmallows as vertices and toothpicks and stirrers as edges.  This is a great hands-on activity to discover the parts of geometric solids. We also discovered that shapes constructed of squares and rectangles are much weaker than those made from triangles (a little physics lesson).

Looking for a fun indoor activity? Give your child a bag of marshmallows and a box of toothpicks and watch their creativity!

Go to this site to play a shape game. Click here.

Student leadership is an important part of the Math Expressions classroom. In this photo, the student leader is leading the quick practice routines that start each math class.

Here you see the student leader modeling her approach to solving this problem.

An explanation of Math Talk from Math Expressions:

A significant part of the collaborative classroom culture is the frequent exchange of mathematical ideas and problem-solving strategies, or Math Talk. The benefits of Math Talk include:

• Describing one’s methods to another person can clarify one’s own thinking as well as clarify the matter for others.
• Another person’s approach can supply a new perspective.
• In the collaborative Math Talk classroom, students can and ask for and receive help, and errors can be identified, discussed, and corrected.
• Math Talk permits teachers to assess students’ understanding on an ongoing basis.
• Math talk enables students to become active helpers and questioners, that creates student to student talk that stimulates engagement and community.

Rana has 34 stickers.  Only 10 stickers fit on a page in her scrapbook.  How many pages can she fill with stickers?  How many stickers will be left over?

David has 42 beads.  He wants to make some necklaces that use 10 beads each.  How many necklaces can he make?  How many beads will be left over?

I love to teach the children games to reinforce the math concepts we are learning. We are working on missing addends, so we learned the game Salute. Three children play together. Two children pick up cards and place them on their foreheads without looking at the number they picked. They may look at the card on the other person’s head. The third player tells the two the total (sum) of both cards. The object is to determine the number of the card on your head.

Nothing excites me more than watching my students collaborate and problem solve!

We completed our study of area by finding the area of our names.

We’ve been reviewing some of the math concepts we learned earlier this year.
This was a fun way to practice writing ordered pairs.

We also reviewed geometric shape movements from our geometry unit.

We have been studying area and perimeter in math. The perimeter is the distance around a shape. The area is the amount of space inside a figure and is written in square units. If you purchase sod, tile, fabric, carpet, or paint, you need to know how to compute area.

Adam Ant

We used Cheez-Its to compute the area of rectangles. Each Cheez-It is an inch square. We briefly discussed that length times width equals area. Afterward, we ate our math lesson!

How many squares cover each rectangle?  We noticed how the squares look like the arrays we constructed in the multiplication unit.

We used a grid to demonstrate arrays. The equation 2×6 means two rows of six. We will connect this concept to area and perimeter later this week.

Then we used the multiplication table to find products. This site would be an excellent way to practice multiplication facts this spring and through the summer.

Interactive multiplication table

We used pictures to practice fraction concepts.