Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Field Day

I have so much to post, but there never seems to be any time! Today was field day and needless to say, I'm exhausted! Luckily for us, it was overcast the whole day and stayed very cool. There's nothing worse than a scorching hot field day and overheated kids. Yuck!

Right now I'm working on a manipulative math center to teach >, < and =. We're going to be trying it out next week and I'll let you know how it works. For me, this has always been one of the hardest topics to teach. Either they get it, or they don't and for the ones who don't it is so hard to help them! I can get them to the place where they answer correctly but I'm never sure that they understand the concept. I was playing around with different ways to teach it when it occurred to me that Popsicle sticks would be perfect! I showed the students that >, < and = are really just two lines that we move to show which side is bigger.

Wow! What a difference! After just a few tries with it I saw some real understanding from a group of kids who were lost before. I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier! I'll definitely take some pictures next week and write a longer post about it. Right now, I'm going to bed!!!