Our Interactive Math Notebooks

The biggest success of my first 3 days of teaching has been our Interactive Math Notebooks.  It is honestly the only thing I got “completely finished” this summer.  I did bits and pieces of lots of projects, but this is one that I actually got complete, and it’s already paying off for my kiddos. 

Last year, our math notebooks at the end of the year were absolutely atrocious.  They were just a collection of stuff, that the kids couldn’t use to study from or review their work.  So, this year we are using interactive math notebooks, with a lot of organization.

The first thing we did was design a cover.  I have seen all of these great Math About Me covers going around Pinterest, so we created these by splitting a blank piece of paper into 8 triangles.  In each triangle, students had to write a number fact about themselves.  Then, they got a chance to decorate before we taped them to the front of their notebooks. Here is my favorite:

 Next, we began on the inside.  We glued this Math Reference Sheet that I found for free, again thanks to Pinterest, inside the cover, and then title page from my Interactive Math Notebook Start Up Kit on the right.  Here is a student example:

On the next two pages, we glued in our Table of Contents, from my Interactive Math Notebook Start Up Kit.  Each week, my students will fill in our topic focus, our Math idiom, our text book pages and our assessment type.  This will help them to be able to find their notes and information sheets quickly when it is time to review.  Since I teach 4 different grade levels for Math, I have all of this information posted on the board so that students can find and fill in the correct information for them.

           

On Friday, we did our first lesson on where people use Math.  While this is always a good conversation to have at the beginning of the year, we really did this to help the students get comfortable with the LEFT/RIGHT notes concept.  On the left, students are gluing in their information or note sheet.  We review this sheet and then do a hands on lesson on the topic.  Then, we glue in a small reflection sheet.  On the reflection sheet, there are 5 different ways that the students can reflect on whatever topic we have been learning out.  There is also a small rubric to help guide their thinking and encourage them to do their best.  For last week’s reflection, students had to create something that showed where and how they use math – a paragraph, a group of pictures, a T-chart, a table or a pie chart.  Here is one student example of last week’s lesson:

This week, our focus is on Place Value.  We glued our place value chart, with comparing numbers rules on the left.  Then, we pulled out the base 10 blocks and played with making numbers.  We also played a comparing numbers game from my Math Playing Card Mat E-Book.  Finally, we glued in our reflection on the right hand side and the students got to choose between writing a paragraph, creating a diagram, color coding a number, ordering a list of numbers and drawing base-10 block pictures.  The majority of my students chose to order a list of numbers.  Here is one student example:

 

I love how quickly my students are understanding the concept of reflecting on their learning, and the students love that they get to choose how they reflect.  Tomorrow, we will begin working on text book pages in our notebooks and then on Friday, we will begin planning our first round of Math tutorial videos by planning with our Video Planning Sheet. 

All of the sheets that I have used are available at my TPT store, either in my Math Notebook Start Up Kit or my Place Value Lesson. 

 

How do you use Interactive Math Notebooks in your classroom?

Learning from Different Alphabets

Recently, I posted about how my school is using Facebook and Pinterest as part of our professional development.  (See the whole post HERE.) I’ve decided to pass on some of the best videos and articles I come across to you each Sunday evening.  Here is this week’s professional development post:

 

When I first moved to Morocco, looking at Arabic letters was like looking at a picture or a pretty design.  I realized then, that I had never really been exposed to any alphabets outside of the modern Latin alphabet.  Now that I see how easily my children can decipher two completely different alphabet systems, I am all about exposure to different types of alphabets.  Here is a TED talk about different alphabets that have been developed in Africa – I sure wish I had seen this while I was teaching my Africa Unit last year.  However, even now, it gives great facts, and would be a cool video to share with students when we are working on handwriting and writing, to give them exposure to how important an alphabet is to communication.  It would also be a great way to talk about how language evolves and changes.

Do you think exposing your students to other alphabets could improve their thinking about their own alphabet and how they use it? 

If you’re interested in more professional development videos – follow my Professional Development Pinterest board.