CUBES, Mathematicians, & Place Value, Oh My!

     On the first day of math class, we began by making our promise about how we would behave and treat each other. You can read about that in the previous post. Then we read The Boy Who Loved Math and talked about mathematicians. Then as a whole class, we created a tree map about mathematicians. I see two classes for math, so I wrote their answers on stickies with different color marker and stacked overlapping responses on top of each other. As we were discussing and creating our tree map, the students were guided to the fact that we are all mathematicians. Then students came up with a real life example of when they use their mathematician skills to share in their table groups.

     Then I introduced my students to the CUBES problem solving strategy. I modeled using it for them. Then as a class we worked through three review problems together. I gave each student a little card with the strategy steps on it, so they'll remember what steps to go through as they work homework. We made this anchor chart to leave up in our room as well. 

     We began working with place value of whole numbers through the 999,999,999. We also began working on comparing and ordering whole numbers as well. We created this anchor chart for our classroom. The anchor chart matched the notes the students were filling in. 

     Whew! I know that looks like a lot and it is. My 4th mathematics students only see me on Tuesdays and Thursdays for two hours each day. We take advantage of every second we have together.