"A small school with a big heart" That's how people in the community refer to our school. We proudly educate students from incredibly diverse backgrounds, often in combination classrooms. I am lucky to be teaching a combination of second and third grade, where students will enter as children ready to learn in September, but who will leaving me in June scholars ready to teach something to their parents, their friends, and themselves.
Our school community is very strong, and several times throughout the year we invite parents and families into the school to bear witness to our learning.
My Project
Next year I am taking on a new adventure of teaching a combined second and third grade class. Part of teaching a combination class involves planning for two math curricula and engaging all learners at their level. I am looking for materials to use every morning, as part of a morning math routine, that will build students' knowledge of the structure of numbers and ways they are represented in arrays, equations, with money, and eventually using multiplication and fractions.
Every morning students will put their hands on materials as we represent the number of the day.
To do this I have selected an interactive pocket chart with the calendar information, problem of the day cards, and other manipulatives to represent the number of the day. I have also chosen a magnetic easel with array magnets, place value magnets, and magnetic fraction circles.
The desired learning outcome for this project is to develop student understanding of the structure of number. To build this understanding, students will represent numbers using the place value blocks I have selected, by writing equations showing different ways to get to the given number, creating the number as a value of money using the coin pieces, assembling arrays that show the given number, and writing word problems that have a solution that equals the given number. Students will rotate through the jobs of demonstrating the number of the day, using different materials. We will go over the student work during morning meeting every day and accompany the hand's on work with number talks. This will help my students gain deeper understanding of second and third grade math concepts.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Berggrun and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
