Solvemoji & Number Talks

Today we solved our first Solvemoji puzzle.

Once the children had their answers, we carried out a Number Talk.

Was excellent. The end.

Calculation Races

Earlier this week, my class and I were undertaking a Number Talk. The question we were using was '19 X 24'. I hoped many children (mixed ability Year Five) would use a mental method or jottings (partitioning, rounding & adjusting and so on). 

However, over 90% of the class used a grid method or expanded column multiplication. Nothing wrong with that, except the focus we'd been having on mental methods and not always defaulting to a written method. We listened to how children had arrived at their answers and then discussed which were the most efficient. As a class, we then solved both 19 X 28 and 19 X 35 using rounding (20 X 28) and partitioning (10 X 35 added to 9 X 35) to remind them of the available less formal / mental / jotting methods available to them.

In order to win over the remaining doubters I still had in the class, I set the children a challenge. They'd solve a question using only mental methods, while I tired to answer it as a written method on the classroom whiteboard. Although I wanted to prove the mental method was quickest, I still tried really (really, really) hard to do my method quicker than the class. However, I 'lost' all three times (19 X 56, 19 X 45 & 29 X 34). I'd only got beyond setting up the method and doing the first part of the calculation. Class. Won. Over.

Read @ThisIsLiamM's article 'Calculation Races' online at https://t.co/qUCzBQYN3T #ukedchat pic.twitter.com/1JKVwOCaZA

— UKEd Magazine (@UKEdMag) March 9, 2016

Will be doing more of it...

In the past, I've used races in maths lessons too (with calculators).

Padlet & Number Talks

Last week, I carried out a Number Talk with my class and needed some of the responses to use at an event with parents. While thinking of a way of capturing the childrens' work (photocopy whiteboards, run around with a camera etc.), an idea came to me. Children carry out their Number Talk as usual, but instead of vocalising their answers and methods, we'd upload them to a Padlet wall. 

If you've not come across Number Talks before, this may be a useful starting point. In brief, the teacher poses a question, that the children answer. Children share their answers and then, in turn, explain how they got to their answer. A range of methods are shown, misconceptions addressed and discussions held. 

Here's what I did:

- I set up a Padlet wall (http://padlet.com/Murphy/5den0yclatx);

- I posed the following question: 236 - 199;

- children calculated the answer using their chosen mental or written strategy;

- children uploaded an anonymous answer to the Padlet wall.

I then projected the responses and, in turn, we looked at each answer and the method used to arrive at that answer. The anonymous responses allowed a slightly more blunt discussion about the methods used, but naming responses would also have benefits.  

There you go, another post about maths and another that involves Padlet!