Thinking Maps

Thinking Maps: do you use them? Have you been trained in them? I love them because they were designed with brain research in mind. I was trained as a trainer (that sounds funny) but got away from them for a while in favor of the more traditional graphic organizers. What I do now is show my students the "old" way and then the Thinking Maps way that involves the same process skill. For example, we use the tree map now to organize our paragraphs for writing but we still also use story maps and webs, etc. Any time you do sorting and classifying, a tree map is a great way to show that! Some examples: types of triangles, typles of lines (can you tell we are doing a geometry unit?) We still do Venn Diagrams but we now also do double bubble for compare/contrast. Friday we did a double bubble map comparing two different 3-dimensional solids. The students have become very good at using these maps. A circle map is a great way to introduce a new story or a new skill or unit to find out what the students' background knowledge is. The Brace Map shows whole to part relationships. Have you ever considered using that for expanded notation in math? The whole number 235, for example, can be broken into parts: 200+30+5.

I am going to start taking photographs of what my students do with Thinking Maps and post them here and on Pinterest. I would love to see what your students are doing with Thinking Maps!

Daily Problem Solving Practice

What does your school or class do for problem solving? We are currently doing daily practice using a program called Target the Question by Lone Star Learning, which uses one set of information, story, etc. and has a different question to work out each day of the week using that story. You can see it here: http://www.lonestarlearning.com/prod_desc.php?product=2 There is a demonstration video on that page. I love it, and so do my kids!

We are also using the TEKSas Target Practice, which you can see here: http://www.lonestarlearning.com/prod_desc.php?product=1
My students always get very high standardized test scores in spite of entering my class sometimes very behind in math. They make huge gains in their skills and concept understanding. Each link has a demonstration video. If you are in Texas, do you use this program (either one, and they are both by Lone Star Learning). Unfortunately, this product (the target practice) is not available outside of Texas, but I am betting each state has its own version. So...I am curious, are their any certain programs out there that you use and recommend?

Classroom Freebies: Fraction Strips!

I found this little gem at Classroom Freebies. Have you been to Classroom Freebies? If not, then you are missing out! Charity Preston founded this network of educational blogs where teachers from all over contribute free resources to help teachers from K-12 and homeschool parents.

The fraction strips were made by Nyla of Nyla's Crafty Teaching blog. Head over to her site for directions and the file download. Click on the link above or click on the first photo to get there. I look forward to making these soon since we have a fractions unit coming up. I just love teaching fractions! One thing students have trouble with is comparing the sizes of different fractions and finding equivalencies. These strips are the perfect tool to use for this purpose.