What's The Problem?

We all want answers. 
All the time. 
We seek answers from different sources throughout the day-our parents, friends, colleagues, books, magazines, songs-the list goes on and on. 
And we demand answers from each other. 
        "What do you want for dinner?"
                       "Why isn't your room clean?"
                                   "Did someone walk the dog?"

Getting an answer (or giving an answer) is something we are taught to do from infancy.
So it is no surprise that when it comes to school, especially mathematics, we are all about the finding the answers. 

But when we focus solely on the solution we often miss out on how we arrived at there. And it is in the journey that we can find meaning, make sense of concepts, and the uncover the beauty of mathematics (or science, or poetry, or music, etc.) and be excited about learning.

It is so important to feel the joy in learning. 
So I am providing the answers. 
And I am letting our Peck Place students and staff determine the question
               or QUESTIONS...

We Have the Answers

Week 1 - The solution is 14.

Student and staff contributions to "The Solution is 14"

And the ideas continue to flow.

The board is full by the day's end.

This generated such enthusiasm that I decided to change the solution once a week. 

                   Last week: "The solution is 2 dozen." 

                                                      Our current board: "The solution is 5 x 4."

Stop by Peck Place School and take a break from providing answers. 

We'll give you the solution, you give us the problem!

What's My Value? Part III - Get Stumped By Students

We continue to enjoy creating and solving these "place value" puzzles. 

And I continue to be impressed by the number of students who willingly and excitedly donate their lunch and recess time to help create these. I can barely keep up with these puzzlers!

And now, our Pace Value Puzzles 

FEATURING:

Alivia Appleby, Grade 3


apple    sandwich    carrot

Jacob Ebert, Grade 3


  4           7              2
lion     eagle     octopus












John McNabola, Grade 5


    2             4              3  
truck       car       tricycle

Bethany Qian, Grade 6

    5               3               7 
ocean    waterfall     river

Michael Cortes, Grade 3


    4             2             1   
shirts     shorts   socks

Matthew McLeod, Grade 3

      4                    1                   5  
Seattle             Space        Seattle
Sounders        Needle      Seahawks

Cameron DelVecchio, Grade 3

        1                   3                      4
Argentina      Yankees       Islanders

Mikey Kwolek, Grade 3

    3                     4                        9
Harry           Percy            Diary of a
Potter           Jackson      Whimpy Kid

What's My Value? Part II

As promised, the answers to our "What's My Value?" Puzzles.

 
    

                          

4 + 1 + 0 = 5        

 0 + 5 + 2 = 7 
My personal favorite. I enjoy seeing the look on their faces when they realize paper is worth five.

2 + 1 + 8 = 11






We have new student generated puzzles on the way! Be on the lookout!

Math Trickery

They're cute.
They're catchy. 
They provoke a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs" from a once catatonic group of students. 
But they are also misguided, fleeting, and often cultivate misconceptions and gaps in learning. 

The Beloved Dreaded Math Trick. 
That is my nemesis. 

A "math trick" is only beneficial if it is rooted in actual mathematics. But all too often our math tricks are just cleverly disguised fibs. 
We tell our young students that in subtraction "we always  start with the bigger number."
Our intermediate students are told that "multiplication always makes things bigger."
And, we encourage the use of acronyms that work in limited situations (PEMDAS and FOIL).

Now, I don't place any blame here. It's what we were all told in our elementary math years. But I struggled to unlearn these mantras (because that is what they become to an 8 year old) in order to continue my mathematical learning. 

Every year I am ready to do battle with my nemesis. And this year, I happened upon some allies (thanks to the August issue of Teaching Children Mathematics).

I hope you will take the time to read this article. If I can "unlearn" these tricks, so can you! 
And then hopefully our students won't have to fight this battle.

http://www.nctm.org/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=42962

Math Office Hours

Office Hours are becoming popular!
Open to all, students are invited to sign-up to spend part of lunch/recess in our Peck Place 
Math Quarters (Room 202) 

in order to refine their concepts and skills, play math games, practice math facts, write math jokes, or create math puzzles.  

We have enjoyed a lovely mix of ages and it is exciting to watch all of the students explore mathematical ideas together. 

We look forward to sharing our first round of student created puzzles next week.

What's My Value?

We love Greg Tang! 
From his books to his website (www.gregtangmath.com) to Kakooma and beyond. 
Mr. Tang is simply one of our favorite resources. 

I had the privilege of attending Greg Tang's Math Plus Conference in July. It was hands-down the best educational conference I have ever attended. During that conference, Greg emphasized the importance of truly understanding place value. To illustrate his point, he challenged us to solve a number of "What's My Value" problems and encouraged us to use these with our students. 

We created a "What's My Value" bulletin board in our hallway. 

The highlight of  each day is observing students interacting with each other as they solve these problems. 

Here is how it works:

If the the first place is 1 (quarter note is 1 beat), the second place is 4 (whole note is 4 beats) and the third place is 2 ( half note is 2 beats), what is the total value? 

Here are some samples from our interactive bulletin board.  
See if you can find the value and defend your answer. 

 1st and 2nd grade 

3rd and 4th grade 

5th and 6th grade

Need an answer, check back in a few days OR ask your child. 

Have fun!