Friday, December 21, 2012

"21 Answers"

Rollo (not his real name) leaped from his chair, thrust his arms in the air and yelled, “I'VE GOT IT !” Shhhh,” I laughed, “You'll get us all in trouble.”
 
I was working with a half dozen able math students at a table in the back of a regular classroom, while the regular teacher worked with another group and one of the special ed teachers worked with a third.
 
One of the less emotional students was actually smiling at himself for seeing a relationship among numbers, and jet another was actually shaking with anticipation as she got closer to a really complex answer. Oh..... yes..... we were playing a game.
 
More about the value of games in teaching number sense and new math skills later. For now, it is enough to know that in order to come up with “21 Answers” students created and experimented with over 150 expressions and number sentences. That's a lot of math!
 
You can access a FREE DOWNLOAD of the game along with instructions and differentiation strategies here:


After your students use and learn from it, a quick shout here and/or on my Teachers Pay Teachers page would be appreciated.
 
In the mean time, as a quick overview, “21 Answers” challenges students to use three single digit numbers and all the math they have ever learned to create “21 Answers” from 0 – 20.

Never mind that this is just good higher level thinking, common core math standards are included for those pesky principals who demand them with your lesson plans.
Differentiated Instruction ideas are included for students from emerging math students in first grade through gifted 5th & 6th graders.
This challenge activity is a great tool for:
Teaching specific math skills.
Math Centers
*** The day your principal wants to observe you presenting a Challenging differentiated math lesson to a mixed ability classroom.
Teach – Model – Then sit back and watch students have fun learning and sharing what they know with each other.

See my stuff at:

Pinterest and TeachersPayTeachers

Be Well And Teach (Nah! -- Be Well & Help Students Learn)

Mark

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Thanks, Mark