Visualize Math On Your IWB With Thinking Blocks

I recently attended a mini workshop on implementing the Common Core in Math. A large portion of the strategies that I learned used manipulatives as modeling and learning tools. This reminded me of a post I read a few months ago on Teachers Love SMART Boards.  In the post, Jim outlines a neat math resource called Thinking Blocks.

Thinking Blocks is a site that offers you virtual manipulatives that you can project, and interact with on your Interactive White Board.  There are specific sections for Addition, Subtraction, Fractions, and Ratios.  Each section allows you to choose examples of varying difficulty as well as watch a video to go along with each example.

Once you are ready to begin solving your own, the program walks you through the steps of the equation, prompting you to place the thinking blocks where they go.  Students can track their progress as well.

If you would like to make your own word problems to solve, there is also a modeling tool section where you are free to type in your own problem and make your own thinking blocks to go with it!

Have fun modeling!

Happy Pi Day!

Hello all! Math geeks, rejoice, it is Pi Day.  Want to know more about this day based upon 3.14?  Check out piday.org to learn all about that famous, mysterious, infinite number that we all love so dearly.

PS. This post was posted at exactly 1:59 pm, according to my computer ;)

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527248912279381830119491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798609437027705392171762931767523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091736371787214684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235420199561121290219608640344181598136297747713099605187072113499999983729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881710100031378387528865875332083814206171776691473035982534904287554687311595628638823537875937519577818577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989380952572010654858632788659361533818279682303019520353018529689957736225994138912497217752834791315155748572424541506959508295331168617278558890750983817546374649393...

My Fake Wall - A compromise?

Today's site is My Fake Wall.  I'm really excited about this site because I think it will get your students excited.  Basically, My Fake Wall is a site that imitates a Facebook wall.  There are no ties to Facebook and the "social interaction" like that of a real Facebook wall is removed.

The site can be used to create personalized Facebook walls for literary characters, historical figures, or even elements, scientists, inventors, mathematicians, and more!  Just use your imagination!  Believe me, this is more work than it sounds like.  Students who are tasked with creating a Fake Wall have to find pictures, think of the appropriate friends to add, find pictures for the friends, and then make comments and posts that would be relevant to the person and their friends.  I truly believe that this would be a worthwhile project....and one that the students would enjoy!

I spent a little time creating the beginning of a wall for one of my favorite characters: here.  Also, here are some other examples: Hermes, Ben Franklin, Cinderella.  Check it out and leave any comments telling me about any ideas you are having for how to use this with your students!

**NOTE** - This site may be blocked in your district.  If so, I would like to inform you that it was designed to be an educational site only.  There is no inappropriate content on the site.  I think that this is a great way to meet the students halfway and it would be an excellent tool to get them to analyze the important information surrounding a real or fictitious person.  To unblock the site, simply write an email to your principal, and explain that the site is educational.  They should then be able to speak to a tech and unblock the site.

NCES Kids' Zone - Awesome Graphing Tool

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has a section of their site called Kids' Zone.  It drew my attention the other day when I was shown (by a wonderful teacher) the graphing tool from the site, called Create a Graph.  I was blown away with how easy to use the tool is as well as what great graphs you are able to print from it. 

Create a Graph allows you to create bar graphs, line graphs (both of which can be turned into multiple bar or line graphs), area graphs, pie graphs, and xy coordinate graphs.  It is a simple process of working through simple tabs to set up the design, enter the data, and preview your graph.  Once it has been created, you can print it, download it as a picture file, or email it to yourself so you are able to edit it in the future.

The tool would be a great way to integrate graphing into your lessons; an important piece for students to gain an understanding of data.  Try collecting data from your own classroom and plot out the results!  How do the heights of boys vs. girls compare?  What have the temperatures been for the past week?  How many students in the class prefer pepperoni pizza over cheese?  Try it out as a class or have your students make their own!

Get those brains warmed up, it's time to go to Archimedes' Lab!

It's time to shake ourselves out of this mid-winter slump!  Maybe it's just me, but I've been starving for some good brain exercises lately and I've found just the site to help me out.  Archimedes' Lab has an amazing collection of math puzzles and mental activities that can get steam coming out of your students' ears.  Look at the puzzle of the month or the online magic card trick (can you figure out how they do it??) in the Puzzles and Tests Section.  Check out reality-bending illusions in the Illusions and Paradoxes tab....

Which way is the man facing?

Try your reaction time with the infamous Stroop Test.  Solve the Droodle of the month... what's a Droodle, you ask?  Here's an example...

What are these?

 1. A shark returning from Disney World.  hehe

2. A koala climbing the other side of a tree. See him?

There is so much to explore!  Check it out and get your students thinking in different ways!

Thinkfinity Has THOUSANDS of FREE Resources!

Thinkfinity is a site hosted by Verizon that is a portal for teachers to find free interactive resources and lesson plans.  It is easy to get overwhelmed by Thinkfinity and all that it has to offer, but just use the search tool to find lessons and interactives based on any one of; grade level, standards, resource type, subject, or site sponsor/partner.

Some examples of interactives I have found include poetry writing, the history of blues music, fractions illustrated, practicing area of different shapes, and many many more.  The site also has a highlights feature on the home page that focuses on certain topics each month.

I strongly encourage you to explore Thinkfinity to see what resources you can use in your classroom!

Get Your 4th, 5th, and 6th Graders Into Engineering!

Today's post is a really cool science interactive site that I found out about through the blog SMART Board Goodies by Amber Coggin.  (Thank you, Amber, for all your wonderful posts!)

Engineering Interact is a website for 9-11 year olds that has several playable scenarios for students to learn about the different aspects of engineering.  Each concept comes with a different story for the student to play through.  Students play as investigators hired to work through the clues of various mysteries, ranging from underwater drama to outer space foul play!

Just a note....the site was designed and is hosted in the UK, so some terms may be changed to an unfamiliar name, such as "flashlight" = "torch".  But, this may end up being an interesting "teachable moment" for your class!

Free Rice...Trivia Fighting Starvation

Here is a site that is doubly beneficial.  Free Rice is a site that allows students to practice questions from many areas such as English vocabulary, pre-algebra, multiplication tables, art history, chemistry symbols, geography, and foreign language.  Users are presented with one question at a time, and for each correct answer, 10 grains of rice are promised to be delivered to hungry people around the world.  How could you go wrong?  Your students get to practice their skills in the provided areas all while helping to make a charitable donation!  Get donating today!

Trig Spinner

Hello!  Sorry for my lack of posts last week.  It was a crazy five days!  I'm going to try to be better this week.

Today I am posting a game that was emailed to me called Trig Spinner.  It's a fun flash game developed by Greg Lieberman an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California.  He is a computer science student, but apparently, he also likes math!

Trig Spinner is a fun way to practice finding the sine, cosine, and tangent of angles on the xy plane.  You can play it online, or download the flash file to your computer.  Check out Trig Spinner.

ABCya! (A-B-C, Yay!!)

My good friend introduced me to the site for today, and I have to say that it is, by far, one of my favorites.  ABCya! is a site that contains TONS of fun games that are truly educational.  You can choose your grade level (K-5) and then let your students choose from lots of fun activities; everything from grammar, to math, science, and technology.

The site is designed primarily for younger students, but I did find one game that could be used at the 6-12 levels.  Animation for Kids is basically an introduction to Flash animation.  Students using this game learn about the basics of using frames to create their very own animations.  The best part is that you can even save these animations to your computer (no signing into the site necessary) and play them back using Windows Media Player!  The possibilities for just this one activity are endless!  Students could create an animation to act out a scene from a book they read, or an important event in history, or the steps to do a math problem, OR what happened in an experiment in lab!!  Sorry, got a little excited there.  But just think about what they could do.  This is also great practice for learning to use Adobe Flash.

Alright, I've rambled on enough....go check out ABCya!

Multiplying the fun in multiplication facts

Happy Monday everyone!

But don't worry, I've got something to help spice up the math lesson for today!  Multipilcation.com has a fantastic collection of  fun flash games to reinforce multiplication skills.  Your students will love it!

The Magic Gopher

Ok, bear with me today.  This site may look all fun and games at first, but it could be a great math exercise.  Students practicing addition and subtraction skills could have a great time with this game, and students practicing higher math skills such as algebra can try to figure out how it works.  Not to mention the fact that the game is really fun!  Try it!

The Magic Gopher

Vitual Math Manipulatives

Hey Math Teachers! No matter if you're teaching kindergarten or seniors, check out this site where you have access to literally hundreds of different virtual manipulatives, in all areas of math.

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

To use the site, find your grade level are in the top row, then find your content area in the left column, and click the box where they intersect.

There is no need to download the full version...you already have everything at your fingertips for free!

Leave a comment to let me know what you think!