A Dragon, a Goat, and Lettuce need to cross a river: Non Curricular Math Tasks
Last year I read Building a Thinking Classroom in Mathematics by Peter Liljedahl and loved it. The book was easy to read and my copy is filled with sticky notes, highlighter, and random ideas written up the margins.
I have to confess that earlier in my career, I taught in Burnaby and I remember hearing about this math professor at SFU doing really cool things. My colleague one year had a workshop with him and was doing all of this vertical math learning to engage kids. It just seemed cool. I never was able to get to a workshop, but always wondered what it would be like.
Reading the book last year showed me what I missed out on. It was hard to implement every suggestion during a pandemic year, but I did what I could. The kids thrived and students who normally were terrified of math could suddenly use math vocabulary with ease to demonstrate deep understanding.
My grade five students didn’t just memorize the Prime Numbers, they understood what it meant to be a Prime Number and could use this knowledge to help with multiples or factoring. The understanding was deep and the excitement was contagious.
Fast Forward to This Year…
We have mathed-up a storm! We have graphed like crazy. We have counted big numbers. We have collected real data. We have found patterns and math around us. We have played games. We have connected math to science. We have been math-ing our behinds off….
And now is it time to start my number sense in earnest, so I am turning back to the ideas introduced in Building a Thinking Classroom in Mathematics…
My Non Curricular Week
This is my week of non curricular tasks…every day we are doing:
A number sense routine (Choral Counting, Esti-Mystery, or Which Doesn’t Belong?)
A Non Curricular Task
Time for Math Games (We have learned 4-5 dice math games that the kids can play)
It was exciting to see the kids thrive today during our logic puzzle. They worked with random groups at vertical whiteboards and they loved it. They drew pictures, discussed ideas, tried it with physical models…they got it!
“I love math now. It is fun! Can you film me solving the problem and put it on FreshGrade for my parents to see?”
So, what problem did I start with?
It is a slight twist on a VERY common puzzle. You can download my version HERE.
And what were the responses…HILARIOUS!
Some were creative…
This one involved taking the goat ALL of the way home…Another group decided to dig a hole and cover it with sticks so the goat couldn’t get out and eat the lettuce. I did congratulate both groups on creativity, but gave reasons why it just wouldn’t work. Grinning, both groups went back to the drawing board.
Many had amazing sketches…
So many rivers…so much back and forth…so many ideas. The kids had fun AND they solved the problem together. Many wanted a copy of the problem to take home…how could I say no?
What Comes After My Non Curricular Week?
Planning…Engagement…Joy!
I am working on outlining my number sense skills and starting to design a progression. By next week I will have my questions listed for the first few days.
With this way of teaching, you cannot plan every question ten days in advance, because you have no idea sometimes where the lesson will lead you and what your kids will need more support with.
I love it and I am excited to dive back in!