Pattern Block Website

Below is a preview of the website I was trying to share in class.
I feel many would enjoy using this site with your class. It is a great way
to integrate technology into the classroom. You can use on the smartboard or assign
to students individually on computers and allow them to print work upon completion.

Hope this helps!
http://www.arcytech.org/java/patterns/patterns_j.shtml

Bar Chart

I search the Virtual Manipulatives site to try to find something my students could use.

It is difficult to find appropriate games to fit their needs and skills.

I came across the bar chart. This was a nice tool to use as a group.

We discussed how everyone gets to school: bus, walk, or car.

Together we create a bar chart: (see below)

This tool is nice because as a teacher or class you can decide how many columns or rows you will need to create your chart. You give your title a name and label your columns. This a great way to introduce making graphs and collecting data.

Private Universe Project in Mathematics 1

A long term study conducted by researchers at Rutgers University followed the development of mathematical thinking in a randomly selected group of students for 12 years - from 1st grade through high school. This study showed surprising results. The videos I watched show an overview of the study and was able to witness the conditions that made their math achievement possible.

In first and second grade they were presented a problem: Stephen has a white shirt, a blue shirt and a yellow shirt. He has a pair of blue jeans and a pair of white jeans. How many different outfits can he make?

When in first grade the students solved the problem and came up with 5 different combinations. They used symbols and words to solve the problem.

A few months later the same students entered third grade. They revisited the same problem with the shirts. This time when they started counting outfits a young girl Stephanie, began drawing lines to connect the different shirts and pants. In conclusion she came up with a total of six possible combinations. Just in one year students mathematical thinking process grew. Students learned from the first time and changed strategies when given the problem a second time.

I liked watching the students solve the problems. I would try to solve the problems along with the video. It was interesting to try to see their view on problems. I liked how the reserach developers presented different problems over the years with similar concepts. Children were solving high-school math problems in elementary school. In today's society there is alot of pressure to meet state standards that does not allow for exploration. In the video students were given fun math problems; over the years they had no idea of their teacher's objectives. They were learning and having fun. The best part it was real life situations and hands on!

PATTERN BLOCK LESSON PLAN - Kindergarten

Objective: Students will recognize that shapes can be combined to make other shapes.

Materials:

• Pattern blocks: 6 green triangles, 2 red trapezoids, 2 orange squares, 2 blue parallelograms, 2 tan parallelograms, 2 yellow hexagons.
• Smartboard/computers.
• Workmats from www.pearsonsuccess.net
• Workbook pages: 50-52.

Procedure:

• Introduce with Interactive Learning Video: 7-03 Geometry: Making Shapes from Other Shapes
• Class discussion: Pose problem: Miss Smith wants to use small shapes to make this island in her pond. Hold up a trapezoid. How can she figure out how many of this shape to use? Have children share their ideas before modeling the solution.
• Group discussion: Guided practice on Smart-board
• Break up into groups 1) group with teacher smartboard 2) computers 3) individual or group work in pairs using hands on manipulatives - pattern blocks

Assessment:

• Participation
• Work-mat
• Practice pages

PEG PUZZLE

I must admit in class when given the peg puzzle I struggled trying to solve the problem

We were given a board with 8 pegs (4 pegs in purple 4 in blue). The task was to: move the pegs on the left pass the pegs on the right, you can jump over only one color; cannot move backward only forward.

After class I tried the peg puzzle on NLVM: http://http//nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_182_g_4_t_1.html?from=grade_g_4.html

I liked the way the online game was set up.

It starts off with two pegs: (shown on left)

Once I completed and won two pegs;

I was able to move to the next step which is four pegs (below)

After completing four pegs you can choose six or eight pegs. Once I have mastered playing with four and six pegs I felt confident and moved to eight pegs.

The pattern I observed was:

It does not matter which side you start with.

Move red on left into open space, jump with blue, move blue pieces forward (empty space at end of right side), make all jumps using red peg, blue can move to end (two blue pegs at end on left), move red into emty spaces, then jump using all blue pegs and puzzle completed.

As a teacher students will come up with different ways to show patterns.

Please share with me ways to describe the pattern you used to solve the puzzle.

Color Patterns - NLVM

I was eager to try the Virtual Math Manipulatives with my students. My class is labled LLD-S (learning language disabled severe). Their are 5 boys and 1 girl in the class; the majority diagnosed with Autism. They are all on a Pre-K to Kindergarten level. In October we reviewed color and shape patterns, so I decdied to try Color Patterns: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_184_g_1_t_1.html?from=topic_t_1.html

They were excited to try something new on the Smartboard.
The first pattern to appear was: Blue, Pink, Purple, Purple, Blue, Pink, Purple, Purple, Blue, Pink, Purple, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?. The goal was to complete the pattern using the colors to the right. I modeled first what to do, then called a student one by one to complete the patterns. My students really enjoyed this.
The next pattern was easier for them to complete: Blue, Red, Blue, Red, Blue, Red, Blue, Red, Blue, Red, Blue, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?. This followed an ABABAB pattern, and was easier for my students to solve.

Sometimes I found the task to be challenging for a preschooler or kindergartener to complete.
For example the next pattern (shown left) that appeared was:
Purple, Dark green, Light green, Dark green, Blue, Pink, Purple, Dark Green, Light Green, Blue, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?

This task was complicated and took alot of time, thinking and analyzing.

I like the idea of the Virtual Math Manioulatives, I feel anything with technology helps motivate our students want to learn. I wish the color patterns were organized from easy to hard starting off with patterns ABABA to ABBABBA to ABCABC instead of a random approach.