One of My Favorite Math Games for Kinder and First: Sneak Thief

 "Let's play Sneak Thief" cried M. 

"Yes! I love that game!" replied J.

I pulled out the train blocks and we started making ten stacks of tens. 

"We are going to have 100 soon!" squeaked M.  I watched as the students started making their rows of ten blocks.  Some rows were all white, others black, and some trains were multicolored.  It didn't really matter what they looked like as long as there were ten rows of ten.

"Okay! Close your eyes," I called.  I watched as my first graders turned their backs and covered their eyes.  I pulled 3 rows of ten off the table and broke apart another two blocks from a ten and quickly hid them under the kidney table in my classroom.

"Open them! Can you figure out how many the sneak thief stole?" I asked.

Hmmm... I watched as the students counted tens, considered how many were left, counted them again.  Soon they touched the remaining eight that we in the ten that I broke apart.  M. was deep in thought and J. was touching the table and then writing a number sentence down on his white board.

"You took 32!" J. called.

"How do you know?" asked M.

"Look.  There are eight left from one train and then there are six trains left as well.  So, 100-32 = 68.  There has to be ten tens."

We played this game again and again because it helped my students visually understand what was happening in a subtraction problem where you need to break apart a ten.  Often times my littles come to me and they have memorized an algorithm but they do not understand why it works, nor do they have a way to draw or build a model to explain it.  

This game teachers the base ten number system and uses models to represent large numbers.  Students start to understand how numbers are formed in a very visual way so they can decomposed and compose numbers mentally and logically.

Sneak thief can easily be adapted to meet the needs of more accelerated learners by using larger numbers, numbers with ones in them, or adapted for striving learners by just playing with a ten.   It is great at home and also as a rotation in your math block.  

The Stock Market Game

 I am always aiming to push my students out of their comfort zone and try new things.  This is hard for everyone, but can be especially difficult for gifted students.  This year, I tried to lead by example and taught a new unit on investing.  I was nervous at first, but figured I'd give it a whirl and now I am hooked.  

It all started, when I was sitting at my desk early September when a forwarded email came across my inbox.  It was titled, "The Stock Market Game" and run by Adam Wright through Western Washington University.   A friend of mine said that she was planning on having her students participate and try it, and after a moment of pause and hesitation, I decided that I would join too. 

 The students each get a pretend portfolio in which they learn how to invest.  Students can buy and sell stocks, mutual funds, and bonds just like the real stock market.  Their investments mimic the real stock market and they watch as their investments increase and decrease over time.  Every team got $100,000 to begin with and could borrow an additional $50,000 if they chose to do so.  

Initially, my plan was to have 4 groups at Briarwood play.  I would see how it went, and then maybe the following year I would include Creekside as well.  However, as soon as my Creekside students got wind of the game going on at the other school, they wanted to play too. "Please, Ms. De Jesus," they cried.  "I have been investing at home since I was little and I know how to do this! Please!"  (Mind you, this was said by 10 year old's.)  "I've been talking to my dad about investing since I was five," chimed in another student. Thus, I allocated three teams to Briarwood and then the last team was comprised of my fifth graders at Creekside Elementary. Off we went! 

We learned about diversification in a portfolio and the difference between mutual funds, ETFs, and Index funds.  We looked at balance sheets, revenue, and cash flow in businesses and read articles in Yahoo Finance that told how the politics of the day affect companies bottom line and stock prices. We examined how compound interest worked and created graphs showing how early investment can benefit a wanna-be millionaire, and also hurt a person behind on their credit card payment.  We watched youtube videos, videos from the Stock Market Game company and read.

The kids got into it. They talked about buying Tesla in early November and purchased a lot of it.  We looked at each other's portfolios and examined what was working and what wasn't working.  Students went home and chatted with their parents about what companies would be good investments and which ones should be passed up. They came with lots of ideas and talked eagerly about money and investing. 

Every week, after check in on the mood meter, my 4th and 5th graders anxiously opened their portfolios and cheered in joy (or groaned in dismay) about what they found.  Trades were made and the kids were ambitious. 

When the game was coming to a close, my students were succeeding.  One of the Briarwood teams placed first.  There were 28 teams in Washington for elementary ages students and all four of my teams came in the top 6.  We were also 5th out of 308 teams in the state, if you look at our competition against high schoolers and middle schoolers as well.   Basically, my kids kicked butt at investing and I learned a ton in the process.

Additionally, a side affect of the Stock Market Game was my own learning about investing.  The project made me relook at my portfolio and diversify some of my holdings.  I bought some stocks at opportune times and made calculated decisions based on all I had learned. I created portfolios for my own sons.  Students were so excited about TESLA, that it made me look into it as well and buy some in real life. 

In reality, this Stock Market Game was one of the best units I have taught in a while. It got me learning again, several of my students are considering finance as a career path, and there was a real life application to the work.  It was phenomenal and I recommend it to anyone looking for new math unit that pertains to life outside the classroom.  This is the unit I wish I had in school.  

Making Math Fun

 Last year, one of my most advanced 5th graders came to me and told me he liked my class but hated math.  

"I am so sick of it!  I have to do hours and hours of practice at home.  I can't stand math!"

Yikes, I thought.  This student was only 11 years old at the time, and while he was able to complete problems that an 8th grader could solve, he wanted to avoid math like the plague. 

"Yes, I've seen that too," a colleague of mine chimed in. "There was a student in my daughters class who won all of the Math Olympiad Competitions and awards and was the highest in math. But by the time that student got to high school, they didn't want to take any advanced AP or IB classes.  They were burnt out."

In SAGE class, I try to make math fun and engaging so my students want to try to problem solve and explore numbers.  A few ways I am able to do this is through partner work, problems with multiple entry points and answers, and exploratory learning.  We play games.  We write with whiteboard markers on tables, we build answers, and we talk.    There is no quiet learning in SAGE.   

Sometimes my class is loud, and other times it is messy with math tools all over the place.  Sometimes the students do not want to collaborate, but mostly students want to learn, play, be included and do deep thinking.

The "I do, you do, we do" method doesn't work well for math problem solving.  If a teacher just showed you how to solve a problem and mandates a certain approach, the fun is sucked out.  Who wants to do a puzzle when you already know the answer??

I love coming together and looking at various approaches at the conclusion of a lesson.  I love learning with others and learning from other people.  Math is a social subject, and should be approached as such.

I want my kids to have a lifetime love of math rather than an aversion by the time they hit middle school.  Maybe it is time to stop the timed tests, workbooks, and rote memorization and replace it with math nights, socialization, problem solving, and puzzles. 

Leveled Problem Solving

 The sweet third grade class poured into my portable after lunch today. They were still excited from recess and chatting about their holidays and plans and games.  After they settled down, and each took a seat, we started our day.  

The mood meter was on the board, and I heard about trips to California, games with brothers in the snow, and how it was hard to roll out of bed this morning. I like starting class this way, as in a soft start, because I get to know my students a little better and understand what their world looks like outside of my door. 

Time was limited and the learning levels in the class varied.  Students who were one or two years below grade level sat in the same room as problem solvers who were testing well above average.  How do I meet everyone's needs, engage learners and push my students all at the same time??

Today, my solution was leveled questioning and opening up models with builds.  The questions were a little difficult- but with partners, open whiteboards, and two teachers as scaffolds, structures were in place to support the on level kiddos. 

I watched as my on level students made connections between repeated addition problems and multiplication.  Students drew labeled diagrams and discussed representing math in meaningful ways.  The room was a buzz and the students were focused. 

One student, a reluctant mathematician, asked me if he could do the work in another way.  This student likes to think in objects and build ideas rather than show them on paper.  I opened up my science cabinet and he got to work.  I watched as this student poured water into measuring cups, and accurately measured out 250mL of water and carefully poured it into 5 cups.  He then verbally calculated the total amount of water in all the cups by explaining that 2 groups of 250mL made 500mL, and therefore, there must be 1L of water plus another 250mL.  He had a smile on his face, was focused and excited and eager to share his learning.  He even labeled some of his work with whiteboard markers on the table when he was done.  He leveled up and began thinking about 3 additional water bottles and continued his math exploration for the duration of the time. 

I pulled in the level 3 thinking into the debrief.  My gifted student explained to the class how a student could use the distributive property when calculating the cost of the water and cups.  He explained that he broke up $44.50 into 44 and 0.50 and multiplied each by 8 to find the cost of the cups.  My student walked us through how that would look as I added visuals to the board.  It was essentially a math talk at the conclusion on the lesson so my student could work on verbally explaining his logic and thinking to others.

Some days in teaching you walk away thinking, "Man, that lesson didn't go as I wanted it to..." and other days you win at teaching.  Differentiation and flexible thinking gave me a check in the win category today.  Thank you building thinking classrooms.  

Problem Solving

I see many students in my room from year to year and day to day.  They are all bright in their own way.  Some students are gifted with communication and can explain ideas with depth and clarity.  Other students are gifted in athletics and are running marathons at the age of ten and competing nationally in soccer matches.  Furthermore, other students are the most caring and empathetic humans that I have ever met.  They are young but they can connect, lead by example, make friends easily and glide through social situations easily and freely.  And some students just view math and numbers differently than others.  You can call it giftedness or logic or an obsession with the order of things, but the connections are deep.

Most of my students are excellent at the "I do, we do, you do" model.  If I show a student how to approach a problem, they can copy it, solve it accurately and move on.  Their work in neat and correct usually and they tend to win competitions in math if they enter them, do well in school, are tutored on the side, and will be super successful in life.  

The tricky part is that in SAGE and PEP, we do not teach in this manner in order for students to learn to be true collaborators and problem solvers.  What does your student do when they encounter a problem they have not seen before?  Do they have the tools to solve it? Does your student ask peers for advice, draw models and pictures to understand it at a deeper level, try new ideas out, build tables, and seek solutions or do they stare at the board and problem and wait until the adult or teacher tells them what to do?

In my role, I am teaching students to be resilient and solve their problems.  In life, there is not always a person who knows how to solve the problem and students need to know the process of figuring out solutions for themselves.... both academically and socially.  I believe it is imperative for students to learn how to navigate friendship problems, sibling dilemmas, and academic needs independently, for it is in the productive struggle that they learn who they are, learn self confidence and learn to accomplish hard tasks.

I will help guide students in trying different techniques out when they do not know an answer, but I will not solve the problem for them and show them how to do it.  Sometimes this guidance looks like a growth mindset video.  Other times, it is a suggestion to go and talk to a neighbor.  Finally, it might look like a question, "What would a picture of this scenario look like?"  

Problems arise as children and we continue to face obstacles throughout our lives.  We are constantly finding new problems solving them, creating new problems, solving them, and so forth.  The cycle does not end as one solution inevitably causes a new problem.   I believe it is our duty as parents and educators to give students and children the tools to solve their own problems in order to produce and raise productive, kind, helpful members of society.  I will continue to gently nudge my kiddos towards this outlook, even when it is hard, again and again. 

The Gift I Want to Give

 If I could give one gift to my students, it would be this:

 I wish my students would become life long learners and find joy and curiosity in learning. 

 I would want them to to look at a bubble and wonder why it pops.  Examine a beetle and wonder how it flies. Find a book and get lost in the pages of Hogwarts or Narnia or the wild west.  Look at a pattern in behavior (or drawing or number sequence) and find the relationship behind the pattern and make a conjecture as to why it occurs.

I want my students to study how apps are built and how coding in a computer makes lights shoot up on the screen.  They should discover what creatures live in the depths of the ocean or write a play for all of us to watch and cry at or fall in love. 

If my students really and truly love to learn, then grades won't matter and achievement will become a result rather than a goal.  They will find the joy in the process, and grades would just be a biproduct.

 My students would get good grades and achievements, but not because they covet them or they want to please their mom/dad, but because they loved the content and love to think. 

  

Thinking about University and Anxiety

 "I need to get straight A's because I am going to go to Harvard."

"Well, I am also going to go to Harvard. My mom said it's the best school in the country."

"I'm so dumb. I made a mistake."

My elementary students filed into the room and they were already talking about college.  They were 10 years old but they were worrying about LSAT tests and grade and studying over the weekend. The truth of the matter is that to get into colleges like Harvard or Yale or Standard, my students will need more than straight A's and a very high SAT score.  Grades and test scores are not enough to get you into a top tier college in the U.S. In fact, a gifted program does not give you an advantage either. 

I worry about my student's mental health through the years.   What is going to happen if they do get a B on a test or in a class? Will they be okay?  Is Harvard worth it, if my students were depressed and exhausted children?

I have had several students who had anxiety in elementary school. I remember one in particular. She was bubbly, thoughtful, willing to share ideas, and seemed really happy to be at school, and then something changed. She hit a wall.  My student was switching from public elementary school to a private middle school in the fall.  When the acceptance letter arrived in the mail, panic set in.

My student broke down in tears when she entered the school building. She rocked back and forth and froze.  She would not set foot in her homeroom class.  She was paralyzed in fear.  The school worked with her family and a counselor and a psychologist.  She was afraid of failure, of the unknown, and terrified of a new place and new people.  It was debilitating. 

My student wouldn't come to class after she received that letter.  Week after week, month after month, she worked in the office in a small cubicle.  She ate her lunch there, refused to go to recess, and didn't want to talk to her classmates.  She didn't want to go to middle school and wasn't ready to lose the school she had known her whole life.   She said she was afraid of middle school. 

I wonder if the pressure was worth the result.  Is the top notch private school acceptance letter in your hand worth it, if you are miserable? What is the definition of a successful life? Is it money? Power? Status?  Happiness?  Purpose? Legacy?