My Personal Learning Path

For my final post, I wanted to continue studying possible games for the classroom and I found one that could be an incredibly fun and active way to teach subtraction. It’s called Whack-a-Ball and is  modeled  after the Whack-a-Mole arcade game (where the player tries to hit as many “moles” popping out of their holes as possible). This game actually begins with some arts and crafts work. The base for the game can be created by taking a shoebox and cutting out 10 circles from the top (as if it were a 10 frame). If the students are given a problem of 8–3, they would start by placing 8 balls on their circles and then “whack” down 3 of them. They would count how many are left and write or speak the answer. Here is a picture of the setup:   I think this game is great for kindergarten and 1 st  graders and can probably be modified to meet the needs of 2 nd  graders as well.  To raise this to a high-level math activity I would ask the students to verbally explain h...

In response to last week’s presentations on concept games and this week’s reading on technology in the classroom, I’ve been inspired to dive further into two different computer games and investigate their usefulness. I recognize I devalue computer games a bit based on my preconceptions of what “real math” is. That definitely comes from what was available when I learned math (and how it was taught). This week I am trying to break out of that and reorganize my thinking.   Game: Alien Addition (Math Playground) This game mirrors space invaders. The student is defending against an alien invasion and must shoot a laser at the spaceship that is labelled with the addition problem that adds up to the number given on the bottom of the screen. This game would help a tremendous amount with fluency.  Content Standard: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.OA.B.2 Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies. 2   By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers. Math...

Today I decided to work on second grade geometry. This is something that I recognize needing to refresh myself on so here we go! I watched a Khan Academy video  and completed an Education.com worksheet that you will see below.  Standard: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.G.A.1 Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces. 1   Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes. Here is the worksheet:   Reflection: I think it is nice that I’m beginning to realize what I DON’T like about activities/worksheets. I realized this worksheet was low-level and somewhat unclear at times. Specifically, the cube shape up there I was confused myself about when I saw it. What I would do for my students is label which shapes are 2D or 3D OR have actual blocks of the shapes that they could hold and inspect. I would also ask for an explanation as to why it would be that shape (which characteristics). That po...