Product Swap and Giveaway!

One of the best things about going to Vegas was getting to meet some of my blogging/TpT friends in real life!  We often collaborate and email each other and along the way become great friends.  One of the people that I got to meet this year in Vegas was Nichole who blogs at The Craft of Teaching.  You can find her store, The Craft of Teaching on TpT here.



While we were in Vegas we talked about a few of our products, and we decided to do a swap.  I tried out her Questions to Encourage Mathematical Thinking Posters, and she tried out my Math Journals for 5th grade.

For this swap, I am blogging about her product, she is blogging about mine, AND you have the opportunity to win them both along with a $10 TpT card! 

Do you ever find yourself struggling to ask students just the right math questions to get them thinking WITHOUT giving them the answer or telling them how to solve it?  Nichole has solved that problem with her questions to encourage mathematical thinking product.

I absolutely love that she has included both the posters for the wall and the small task card size ones!

I have the posters hanging on the wall that I can point to while teaching lessons, and I keep a set with me as I conference with students and work in small groups.  I have also given them to my students to help them coach each other. 

After using them for a few weeks, I have been amazed at how my students have started automatically using these questions not only with each other, but also in their written and verbal responses.  They are now saying things like "I know my answer makes sense because.." or "I solved this problem a different way by ..."

 

If you would like to try out this product for yourself, you can find it here, or enter to win using the Rafflecoptor below.  We are selecting two winners! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ways To Show Multiplication Lesson

I had planned this amazing lesson based on this Pinterest Idea  I had seen awhile ago. Instead of marshmallows, I planned on using Fruit Loops.


Well... my third graders had completely different ideas and hijaked my lesson.  And while their ideas were not as "pretty" as the Pinterest pin - they really involved mathematical thinking on their parts.

Counting his fruit loops in his array. (Love the use of our laundry basket a.k.a. lunch basket for a work surface!)

Hard at work - they decided to draw Jenga multiplication tiles to pick out their math facts.

Close to what I had in mind -multiple ways of showing his thinking!

I love how these kiddos decided to use the Fruit Loops to make the sixes!

I love their word problem!  63 goats!  Future textbook writers for sure!  (Love the improvisation when they ran out of fruit loops.)

And one of my favorites - explaining his thinking in his Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book (this kid carries it EVERWHERE!).

Do your students ever "hijack" your lesson?

How do you get your kiddos to engage in mathematical thinking?