DANIELLE'S PERSONAL LEARNING PATH

To continue exploring fractions from my last post, I decided to work on multiplying fractions! Honestly, this topic was a lot simpler than I remember it being. To multiply fractions, whether the denominator is the same or different, you use the same procedure. First, you multiply across the top (multiply the numerators). Next, you multiply across the bottom (multiply the denominators). Finally, you simplify if possible! EXAMPLE: Fractions in themselves can be really daunting for students, so it's important to make sure that your students have a good grasp on fractions before moving on to multiplying. Also, make sure that your students understand that even if the denominators are the same, you still need to multiply them! Here's some fun worksheets to practice those fraction multiplication skills! This video is a little silly, but I remember seeing tons of videos with catchy songs about math concepts in elementary school and they always stuck with me. Try this v

I have been dreading tackling this topic and thought about skipping it all together, but then I realized that's the point of this project! Fractions were one of my least favorite math topics in elementary school, and even today I'm not a big fan of teaching lessons on them. So I'm dedicating this post to doing some research and finding fun, creative ways to get kids (and myself) excited about fractions! So first let's start off by simply defining what a fraction is. A fraction is a PART of a WHOLE. The numerator, or top number, is how many parts we have. The denominator, or the bottom number, is how many parts the whole is divided into. PIZZA TIMEEEEEE! So here, my NUMERATOR is the number of parts, or pieces, that I have. My DENOMINATOR is the number of parts the whole pizza is broken into. The third pizza was cut into 8 pieces, and there are 3 pieces left. So there's 3/8 of the pizza left! While pizza is a great example, obviously your students will nee

We're going to be talking about perimeter for this week's post, and let me tell ya, perimeter was one of my favorite math concepts as a kid. Math was a tougher subject for me that I often had trouble staying invested in, but my 3rd grade teacher made perimeter such a fun unit that I still remember it to this day! We'll start off by reviewing perimeter. Where I think area can be a tricky concept for some kids between the multiplication and knowing which numbers to use, perimeter is a pretty straightforward formula. All you need to do is add up the length of all the sides and voila! You've calculated the perimeter! In 3rd grade, we built a vegetable garden by the playground at my school to end our unit on perimeter. It was such a cooperative, hands-on activity that everyone was so excited about and it's one of the few lessons I can clearly remember from elementary school. We started by choosing a few vegetables to plant and then began mapping out the garden. Our

As promised in my last post (for all my loyal readers), I'm going to build off of last weeks topic and move on to......AREA! Area is a 3rd grade standard, but as you guys (maybe) saw in my last post, students get a chance to explore the basics of area in 2nd grade! In 2nd grade, they begin partitioning rectangles into same-size boxes. As I've seen in many classrooms, area is taught first by showing students that you can count the boxes inside the shape to determine how the area, AKA how many boxes there are. As students solidify their conceptual understanding of what area represents, they begin to see shapes with labeled sides. Students learn to understand that the length and width is the same on opposite sides, and practice partitioning the shapes themselves and finding the area. Finally, students are given labeled sides and learn that they can multiply in order to find the area (AREA = LENGTH x WIDTH). There are many different activities that can help students deepen their

When I first saw that geometry was a common core standard starting in 1st grade, I immediately thought of the geometry I took sophomore year of high school and panicked...not my strongest subject. Obviously, I quickly realized they meant basic shapes and was relieved- then I did some digging...there's no way they're just learning to recognize a triangle in the 2nd grade, right? Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces. Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes. Partition a rectangle into rows and columns of same-size squares and count to find the total number of them. Partition circles and rectangles into two, three, or four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, thirds, half of, a third of, etc., and describe the whole as two halves, three thirds, four fourths. Recognize that equal shares of identical wholes need not have the same shape.

One of the most frustrating parts of a teachers' day is the constant "how long until lunch?" "how long until recess?" "is it time to go home yet?" "Is it time for PE now?" My most vivid memory of pre-school is using that yellow teaching clock that's in every classroom to learn how to tell time because my teacher got tired of explaining to me how many more minutes until my mom got there (I was that kid crying all day until my mom picked me up). In a world of Apple Watches, iPhones, and smartboards, kids don't care to learn to tell time anymore. Why bother figuring out where the hands are pointing or even which hand is the minute hand if you can peek at the smartboard and see the time written out for you? While I definitely agree that in most situations you can rely on a digital clock to tell you the time, I believe being able to tell time and read an analog clock is one of the most important skills we can teach our students. It's