In the Real World

THIS is how I feel right about now:

I am sick...or allergic to life...not really sure which.  But that's life.  And that's what working with First graders will get you.

In class today we got to play with math tiles...which yes...I did play :

I'm weird with patterns...I kind of like to play around with stuff and make things out of other materials...hence why I absolutely love the idea of manipulatives.

Today we put them flat and used them to make a mental math game.

So if I way the blue square is 15 I have to figure out what the yellow square is.  If I pretend the tiles are set up on a 100s chart then my answer by elimination would be 57.  A fun and easy activity with manipulatives to play with your kids!

I grew up in an extremely artistic family and so I have learned to look at the world with a different point of view.  I'm the kid who took pictures of things in nature or in the city because the pattern looked pretty or I thought the colors turned out kind of cool.

In nature, math is EVERYWHERE.  There are patterns anywhere and everywhere you look.  It's actually pretty cool.  Don't ask me why, but I really find the work that spiders do in their webs amazing.  Look:

Like seriously how cool is that!  The pattern is so simple but it is crazy effective for what the spider needs to survive!  I love love love it!

Oh!  And the stars!  God has given us such a wonderful Creation to be a part of.  Look at this picture from outer space:

Not only is it beautiful, but the patterns that the stars make are indescribable!  Patterns and shapes and math are constantly around us---only if we stop to take the time and look around us will you be able to appreciate the world for a new found appreciation of mathematics.

FINALLY October!

FLASHBACK!!!!!

We were given a blank puzzle to create a math related fun puzzle. So....drum roll.......:

TADAAAAAA!

I'm creative. Haha.  I actually had a lot of fun making my spiders come to life on my puzzle.  October is my favorite month---my favorite color is orange...that is a complete and utter understatement...I'm kind of obsessed.  And since I like Spiderman and the creepy crawly weird interesting things, spiders and spiderwebs are extremely intriguing to me and thus I like to draw them.   

Onto math for today....

Using shapes as manipulatives can help any age student learn and grasp concepts of geometry.  It allows the students to play with the shapes, but also realize how many different things in everyday life are based upon the shapes that math teaches them.  

Students not only will be able to play, but it promotes creativity within the classroom and encourages them to have a positive attitude towards math:

As you can see, Peter enjoyed playing with the shape manipulatives and gained the nickname "Prism Peter." 

Also keep in mind that manipulatives don't always have to be an extravagant, over the top, toy that the students aren't used to.  While talking about prisms we were able to take regular sheets of paper to create a bigger size of a prism as a hands on activity.

I can't stress enough the point to allow your students an allotted amount of time to play with their manipulatives---because let's be honest, even as college students, we can't be trusted not to play with the manipulatives if they are given to us (as you can see above ;) ).

Shapes are awesome.  Shapes are fun.  Shapes are everywhere. 

Circle.

Oval.

Rectangle.

Square.

Triangle.

How many shapes can you find?????

Math is everywhere!  When your kids say they will never use it in real life, just show them the shapes!

Until next time.... ;)