In the post about Number Strings, I referred to a student’s “personal whiteboard”. I use whiteboards throughout the day as a way of informally assessing students.
Instead of a store bought whiteboard, I prefer to provide students with a customized version.
- Start with a glossy page protector, a box of which which can be purchased inexpensively on eBay or at Sam’s Club or Costco.
- Insert a brightly colored sheet of card stock. Card stock makes the whiteboard a little sturdier and by using color on one side, I can instantly tell when the entire group of students is ready.
- Add appropriate pages. In the first grade, I might have a pre-made number bond page ready to go. When I’m teaching a lesson on adding or subtracting, I’ll insert a place value chart.
By keeping a classroom set of these on the shelf with the student textbooks, they would last an entire school year. Here are some printables to get you started:
- Number Bond
- Ones/Tens Place Value Chart
- Ones/Tens/Hundres Place Value Chart
- Isometric dot paper
- 1 or 4 Quadrant Graph Paper
You can find information on Alexandria Jones’ Pharaoh’s Treasure in the picture at Let’s Play Math.
These are also great for games and learning centers…
Sudoku, Kenken, Contig or
Or any of the international logic games on the handouts page of this site.
About Cassy Turner
Greetings,
I couldn’t find an email to send this to, but my question was about the singapore math standards vs. us editions. I’ve been using singapore math with my dd who’s finishing up earlybird 2b (kinder). We are about to move on to grade 1 math. do you have a recommendation of us vs. standards approach. We are not located in California (where “standardized”).
Thanks and love the blog,
Aly.
Great question and one that’s being debated a lot. As a homeschooling parent, you can probably fit more concepts into your school year. I haven’t seen the Home Instructors Guides, but I find the Standards edition Teacher Guides to be much more user-friendly. The Standards edition currently goes through 5th grade, although there are plans to continue it through 8th.
The U.S. edition is essentially the same as the materials that propelled Singapore to the top of the TIMSS and it’s hard to argue with that success.