Story Problems!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Story Problems!

Hello Science Friends,

I am so excited to be able to participate in Mrs. Stanford's Magical Product Swap. I am swapping products with Joy of Kindergarten! I am a follower of her fun blog and I am sure you will be too! I was really interested in her Math Story Problem Pack because I know every good Scientist has to also be a Mathematician. No matter which way you look at it, the two go hand in hand. And I really felt like this was an area that I could spruce up on for the coming year. That being said, this is what I got to preview...

I just knew this would be a good pick for me. Currently I am setting up my Math and Science Notebooks. I use separate notebooks for both because one would not be enough. I have played around with Math Journals or Notebooks and have had several different forms. I have always wanted something that I could incorporate into my Math Notebooks to add to what we already do and these are a perfect fit for me. I like that I now have a file that I can go to when needed and print what I need. And from my experience I know I will end up printing these and making books for my children to work on independently later in the year. And I know they will ask for them!

I know you might be thinking... story problems in the beginning of the year? The answer is yes! I am going to use these and work on them with my class in the beginning of the year. I am going to incorporate it into our calendar time. Usually we get so good at our calendar routine that we end up with a little extra time and these will be perfect. I am going to glue mine in my Modeled Notebook (see post below) and we will solve them together and talk about solutions. We can talk about different ways to represent the data. We can talk about problem solving strategies. And we are going to tie this right back around to...Science. Any good Scientist has to be a problem solver! It is a natural connection. What I love is that we will be problem solving throughout the year. We can learn to join and separate and build some number sense!