More Family Math Resources

If you are interested in more activities to involve families you might want to check out these three resources from the Lawerence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. These three books provide activities that engage children with their families using very common objects. The activities cover all mathematical strands and promote problem solving and thinking strategically. One thing I really like about these books is the ability to use the same activity across grade levels or as extensions for some students. Each activity has a picture key to indicate if it's good for early, middle and later grades.

Family Math
Family Math II
Family Math for Young Children

Family Math The Middle School Years

Talking, Drawing, Writing

Talking, Drawing, Writing by Martha Horn and Mary Ellen Giacobbe answered some very important questions for me as a teacher of writing. As I was reading Ray, Cleveland, and Glover, I kept asking myself about the writing that happens before any formation of letters. I know from teaching kindergarten and first grade for many years that drawing is children's first form of written communication. Matt Glover touches on drawing as a unit of study to convey meaning and led me to this book.

What a fabulous resource for kindergarten teachers and those interested in valuing the language of drawing further. As Horn and Giacobbe write, "drawing is not rehearsal for writing: drawing is writing." To help foster the drawing Horn and Giacobbe encourage teachers and guide them to think about storytelling.

Here are four reasons storytelling is an important component to a writing workshop.

-storytelling is a natural part of a child's life and it "honors them for who they are"

-storytelling builds community

-"telling stories acknowledges talk as having an essential place at the core of writing"

-students can learn about writing/craft with support before writing it down on paper

Students begin the year recording their stories in a Drawing and Writing book. One of the big reasons they begin with a bound book with blank drawing pages is often the students stories are recorded in one drawing. Younger students need to learn how to extend a story over time and space, which leads them to writing their own picture books later in the year. Horn and Giacobbe realized as they were working with students that they valued drawing but not in the same way as writing. They weren't ever spending time fostering and guiding the drawing. Over time, they began to do mini lessons on drawing. The purpose of the mini lessons were to help the children learn to draw respresentationally, drawings that looked real. Since their stories are real, we know illustrators match their illustrations to the text.

They share with us these four important reasons for drawing with young students. These are taken right from the book...

1. drawing is one primal way that beginning writers represent and understand meaning.

2. drawing is a way for children to be heard.

3. drawing is a medium through which children develop language.

4. drawing allows children to go deeper into their stories.

I'm really looking forward to doing mini lessons on drawing in a sketch book with the students to help foster their writing this coming year. One thing I need to acquire is multicultural drawing tools to help the representational drawing be more accurate.

This book is a resource filled with mini lessons to help guide my teaching this coming school year. It will require me to observe closely at the students needs and record my observations which their chapter on assessment gave me some forms to consider using and things to look for in student writing. Horn and Giacobbe are masters at looking student work and identifying what students know about craft and conventions. Then based on these observations they are able to decide what students need to learn and what the teacher needs to teach.

This book guides you through a school year and also discusses students writing booklets, their own picture books about mid-year. After booklets are introduced the mini lessons focus more on the craft of writing. The authors caution the reader and let us know this book is and was not written as a curriculum for teachers. The lessons are not organized in a concrete manner to follow day to day. It's organized with thought and the need for each classroom teacher to observe and recognize what individual and group needs are for their writers.

I feel this book combined with the other three books I have read has prepared me to teach emergent writers again and I can't wait to see their progression during the school.

Family Math Night Math Standards in Action

by Jennifer Taylor-Cox, Ph.D is an essential book for planning a family math night for your classroom or a school wide event! To quote Jennifer, "By participating in a Family Math Night, parents can serve as models of motivation, persistence, and competency to their children." She begins her book with organization tips, questions with answers parents may ask, and a great piece on why we should use mathematics. I have been planning Family Math Nights school wide for a few years and had never thought about color coding the direction sheets for primary, intermediate, and everyone. She then provides about a dozen activities for primary, intermediate, and everyone. The everyone section makes great sense because the activities are appropriate for all grade levels. An entire family can participate at the same time with varying ages. The activities are correlated to the five content standards including number and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis and probability. If you were to try and plan a Family Math Night for the first time either in a classroom or school wide section this would be my first choice as a resource.

I will be using this resource in my room all year for my Family Math homework component. Each week I send home an activity, usually a game format for my students to play with their family. They can actually play with anyone; a sibling, a parent, a caregiver, a relative, or a friend. I feel homework has to be relevant, meaningful, and engaging. The game is something we have done in the classroom and the children love going home as an expert for how to play. I send it home in a Family Math folder on Fridays with the expectation for it to return on Thursday. This way they have an entire week to play it multiple times and they can do it when it is best in their schedule. I think providing the weekend for working parents is helpful. I also provide a Family Comment sheet to help foster communication between home and school.

Ohio Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conf.

If you live in Ohio or near Cincinnati, Ohio you may want to consider attending this conference, Mathematics: A Bridge to Your Future. This event is sponsored by the Ohio Council of Teachers of Mathematics and is taking place on November 12-14, 2009. In an effort to GO GREEN their program book will be available on their website prior to the conference and then handed out at the conference in paper form. I attended this conference last year for the first time and loved it. There were lots of sessions for every age group and a range of topics across the strands of mathematics. Some highlights from this year's conference will include Cathy Seely, former NCTM president and consultant to school districts, a comic musical review called "Calculus, the Musical", and a Games Extravaganza session. There are many opportunities to learn from people who are passionate about mathematics and enhance your teaching and personal knowledge of mathematics.

Jeremy Tankard Website

Jeremy Tankard has a fabulous website for his readers. You can find information about his books, a biography, his blog, a wonderful page about his illustrations and more. Enjoy getting to know this fabulous illustrator and author. Make sure you read the article I found at the LA Times about him.

BOO HOO BIRD

I was so excited to pick up BOO HOO BIRD by Jeremy Tankard! I love the warm monochromatic colors he chooses to use in his illustrations and the use of black pen to outline a little for details and contrast. Jeremy Tankard writes about friendship and in this adventure Bird has an injury and needs help from his friends. What a natural response Rabbit offers, a hug. What a great response because we all know that sometimes children just need a hug to move on. Not bird though, Beaver has another fantastic option, a cookie! Well, Bird didn't like this option and I'm not sure why. Sheep isn't helpful but finds Fox's band-aide is a solution. Then his friends are sad for him and Bird has to show them he's OK. Jeremy Tankard understands children and the experiences they have.

I was surprised when B saw the front cover and her first comment was, "look at his band-aide, it's blue just like his skin. You can see it just a little bit." When I reflected about her comment I realized, that's what we do at home too. We use the skin colored band-aides, which gave her insight and a connection.

This is a sequel to Grumpy Bird written in 2007.

The Dog House!

Another book we are in love with by Jan Thomas! The Dog House! begins on the inside jacket cover and continues with the title page as the reader sees Cow, Duck, Mouse and Pig playing with a red ball. There is no text which supported the use of reading the pictures. The text and the pictures show us on the first page the ball went into Dog's house. The second set of pages shows the reader you only need to sketch what is most important to go with the story. This page just shows the characters faces from the nose up with their big worried eyes. Mouse encourages his friends to go in and try to get the ball. B and I discussed the difference between wise and smart for the pig while giggling at the word choices Mouse uses most of the time. Unfortunately, each time Mouse's friends do not return and the ending was quite a surprise to us, the first time we read it. Jan Thomas' books have been the perfect way to start our summer reading!