I have been very lazy about blogging this year – even though I promised myself I would be better. I seem to never feel that what I’m doing or the experience I’m having is really that interesting or different. Lately though, I have run across a couple of activities that I found particularly successful for my kids and that my kids seem to enjoy so I thought I’d share one more. Just to be clear – none of these are really my creation – I’m not that creative – but are “borrowed” from others. Love how the MTBoS shares!! This one is an adaptation of Cheesemonkey’s (@cheesemonkeysf) placemat activity described HERE in her blog – Cheesemonkey wonders.
What I did….
I changed the problem cards some because I wanted to include some more basic adding and subtracting ones and some division ones. I did start using the placemats in my first class but quickly realized that they really weren’t using them so I punted on that with the remaining classes. My kids are in groups of 4 so it worked perfectly to have them in their groups and just do their work on the desks (my desks are perfect white boards.) Just like Cheesemonkey, I had the kids add up their answers and check their work with me before they could move on.
Here are the problem cards and the placemat template.
How it went…
It was a great activity – the kids struggled just enough and quickly figured out that they had to help each other to find their errors. Once group decided that they would rotate their cards when they didn’t get it right the first time. Working each others problems helped them find errors. Another group made it a norm that you had to work out the whole problem on the desk so everyone could see and then they’d help find errors. The discussion was FANTASTIC! Just like a previous activity, they begged to finish it the next day and commented on how much they learned. I will definitely look for ways to use this again!
