The Superness of Pinterest

I am just quickly posting this while my class are busy creating graphs and charts for statistics. Two ideas I have used from Pinterest that work really well...
1) Bazinga - a game I found that another teacher created, it is an awesome game that can be used for any curriculum area but I am using it with my numeracy group and it is fun! I had to make it up myself, and even went as far as laminating the cards for it so that it will last. I really like it and the class love playing. It is a group game so involves everyone in the group, and I can use any questions I like. I don't watch telly so I didn't know Bazinga is taken from some telly show until someone pointed it out, but oh well!

2) Bottle of Dice - the other idea that I found on Pinterest, and love, is to put dice in a little bottle of water! I have been searching for the little bottles that I saw earlier in the year at The Warehouse. When I returned to get some they had none left, but last week one of my students said they had seen them there again. So I bought 2. It was the absolutely most revolting sugar free, zero calorie, fruit flavoured water drink ever, my husband managed to get his down, I tipped mine out, all for the sake of having a cute little bottle to put dice in. But they are adorable, and it stops the noisy, land on the floor and roll under furniture problem with enthusiastic dice rolling. Also, I can find the dice quickly, they don't get lost and put in the incorrect boxes, and I can change the amount of dice in the bottle to suit the game we are playing. The dice faces look magnified through the water too. Now I just need to get another few bottles. I wonder if the kids would drink the water?

The Solution!

I know this doesn't really seem like a super relevant thing but I feel pleased that my idea worked so I am sharing it and then moving on, and next time I shall actually talk a bit about the children and their maths! I decided to use the little whiteboards (of which I seem to have about a million floating around the room) and groups were asked to record their problem solving on the whiteboards with felt tip pens (yes, just plain old felts - whiteboard markers are expensive and they always get ruined). Groups put the question at the top of the board. They spend about 5 minutes working through the problem in silence, then share how they are going and what strategies they are using. We are using the "talk moves" in groups too. Then we get together as a class and share strategies and discuss. And then... I take photos of the whiteboards, print them out 4 to a page, cut them out and glue them into each group's scrapbook. And it works because there is room for me to comment, room for them to write ideas for next time, and I can see exactly who is doing what.
And that is how I solved the A3 paper problem!

And for those of you who wondered about the felt tip pen ... hand sanitizer takes it off beautifully, a lesson learned when grandson decorated the walls with pen. Hand sanitizer seems to work for many things - ballpoint, felt, even vivid on some surfaces :)

After Some Professional Development

It was really awesome having Dianne come in and take a maths lesson with my class. I got to see how it all works and gained lots of ideas, and answers to the questions I had in my head.
I saw interesting things happening within my groups, unexpected things like children reverting back to using repeated addition while trying to solve an equation that was obviously multiplication, and they had already done one just like it!
I liked that it really doesn't take as long as I initially thought, and it is definitely a do-able thing for each session. But I am still trying to figure out a way to keep record of their thinking and ideas for each problem. I hate the wasted paper, and using an A3 sheet for each group, and maybe 2 sheets per group per session, that's 7 groups times 2 is 14 a day and then 3 times a week is ...
OK, 14 +14 +14
or 3 x 10 + 3 x 4 hahaha, goodness knows how they would work it out, maybe 3 + 3 + 3 + 3....!
I don't want to have a big folder for each group with loads of paper, and I don't want a scrapbook either, but I think that might be the way to go. I do think that I could figure out a way to save paper while still being able to keep record of each child's thinking and when I do I will be happy!