Mix and Math

Brittany Hege

You’re invited to a FREE live workshop… Make Fractions Stick: Learn how to build students' understanding of fractions in 3rd-5th grade by making fractions visible! Join me and thousands of other teachers who want to increase student engagement and deepen their understanding of fractions by making fraction concepts highly visual and hands-on. In this workshop, you'll learn:  ➕The #1 reason why fractions aren't sticking and what you can do about it  ➕How to make fractions visible in a way that integrates with your math curriculum  ➕The tools and strategies that best support ALL students' learning needs Click the link below to learn more and save your spot! 👇 https://lnkd.in/eCX7Z9Av

You’re invited to a FREE live workshop… Make Fractions Stick: Learn how to build students' understanding of fractions in 3rd-5th grade by making fractions visible! Join me and thousands of other teachers who want to increase student engagement and deepen their understanding of fractions by making fraction concepts highly visual and hands-on. In this workshop, you'll learn:  ➕The #1 reason why fractions aren't sticking and what you can do about it  ➕How to make fractions visible in a way that integrates with your math curriculum  ➕The tools and strategies that best support ALL students' learning needs Click the link below to learn more and save your spot! 👇 https://lnkd.in/eCX7Z9Av

They’re ready! 🎉 Our Fluency Strategy pages are FINALLY here and I am so excited to get them in your hands! We’ve spent the last few months creating a resource to help you build students’ fluency, beyond just memorizing facts. And we’re giving this resource to you for free! 💛 In these pages you’ll get… ✨ Fluency strategies for all four operations ✨ How the strategies for basic facts apply to multi-digit whole numbers, fractions, and decimals ✨ Visual models so you can help your students see the math and truly understand these strategies To help bridge the gap between home and school, we made a family-friendly version for you to share with your students’ caregivers too 😊 ➡️ Here is the link to get these Fluency Strategy pages for free! www.mixandmath.com/fluency We really hope you love these as much as we do! If you have math friends who could use these too, would you help us get these into more teachers’ hands by sharing this post with others? 🫶

Do they not understand the concepts of area and perimeter? OR are they mixing up the vocabulary and struggling to match the correct word with the right concept? 🤔 When a student finds the area of a rectangle when the problem asked them to find the perimeter, we often jump to the conclusion that a student doesn’t understand area and perimeter. But if a simple reminder that what they showed was area and the problem asked for perimeter gets them on the right track (and they can show and explain how they found the perimeter)… then it really is just a vocabulary issue! Students can truly understand concepts AND get problems incorrect simply because the vocabulary trips them up. We see this with factors and multiples too… You ask a student to tell you factors and they list off multiples. That’s a vocab issue! It’s a good reminder to 1) place more emphasis on encouraging the use of correct vocabulary during math discussions and 2) always get curious about *why* a student landed on an incorrect response… It may not be because of the reason we initially think! On a side note, I think correct and incorrect responses in math are placed on this binary of either students “get it” or they don’t. There are so many students who get a wrong answer but have a great depth of understanding and students who get a right answer but have a relatively shallow level of understanding… But that’s a post for another day 🙈 I’d love to know how you build students’ math vocabulary in the classroom! Share your ideas in the comments 👇

When we explicitly teach students strategies, provide manipulatives or visuals so that they actually understand and internalize the strategy, then give them practice using the strategy… That is how real fluency is built! 👏 Today, we worked on the strategy of adding on a group or taking away a group from a “friendly fact.” We practiced our 6s using what we know about 5s. But this strategy doesn’t just work for our 6 facts. It works for our 3s, 6s, 9s, 11s, 12s, and more! When students know their foundational facts (0s, 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s), they can use those to get to their other facts efficiently BUT ONLY IF they have the few key strategies (like the one we worked on in this video) in their toolbox to use. ‼️And the only way students will know those strategies is if we as educators are aware of the strategies and create learning experiences that give them meaningful practice. I talked all about the strategies and visuals we can use to build multiplication fact fluency in a video over on YouTube. 🎥 https://lnkd.in/enbPuqMX Also, we couldn’t get through even ONE MINUTE without a “six seeeeeven” reference 🤣

6 x 8 is one of those tricky facts! For students to be considered “fluent” with this fact, they not only need to be able to get the correct answer efficiently, but they also need to have a strategy to get that fact. There are so many different ways we can think of 6 x 8 (which means 6 groups of 8)… The following strategies break apart the number of groups of 8 into easier facts: 1️⃣ 5 groups of 8 and 1 more group of 8 is 40 + 8 = 48 2️⃣ 3 groups of 8 and 3 more groups of 8 is 24 + 24 = 48 3️⃣ 2 groups of 8 and 2 groups of 8 and 2 more groups of 8 is 16 + 16 + 16 = 48 This next strategy breaks apart the amount in each group to make easier facts: 4️⃣ 6 groups of 4 and 6 groups of 4 is 24 + 24 = 48 And this strategy adds some to each group to make an easier fact, then takes away what was added at the end: 5️⃣ 6 groups of 10 minus 6 groups of 2 is 60 - 12 = 48 Students don’t need to learn a bunch of different strategies for every fact. Instead, they learn a few key strategies and apply them to all their multiplication facts! For example, all of the 12s facts can be thought of as 10 groups of a number plus 2 more groups of that number (which is the same strategy as 1️⃣ above!). Students will use these strategies in later years as they work with multi-digit whole numbers, fractions, and decimals, so it’s worth it to begin building these strategies now when students are working with basic facts! Which of these strategies is your go-to for 6 x 8? Mine is strategy 1️⃣, but my 8 year old prefers strategy 2️⃣.

It’s no secret that our students are growing up in the digital age. Digital clocks are becoming the norm, and you can purchase just about anything by holding your smartphone up to a keypad. No exchanging of money is necessary. All of this raises an interesting question... What happens to tools like analog clocks and dollar bills? Our standards tell us that we have to teach students about time and money, but are our methods a little outdated? 🤔 If you've ever taught students how to read an analog clock, you know it takes extra effort because students don’t bring as much real-world experience with them into the classroom as they did in the past. But clocks have historically been a helpful tool for teaching angles, fractions, and number sense. Not to mention, clocks help students truly understand the concept of time. This week on the DebateMath podcast, Brittany and Christy from Team Mix and Math tackle this exact topic, each taking a different side to the question: Should we still teach students about analog clocks? ⏰ We’d love to hear your thoughts! Should analog clocks stay on the walls as a concrete representation? Or is it time to rethink how we teach time? And while we’re at it, what do we do about dollar bills and coins? Hit reply and let us know your thoughts, or leave a comment in the chat section of the debate on YouTube! ➡️ Watch the Debate on YouTube → https://lnkd.in/eU72kQRR

With only two weeks left until Thanksgiving break, I'm guessing that many teachers could use all the done-for-you math things as you work hard to keep students engaged and learning for the rest of the month. We recently stumbled across this Four-in-a-Row number sense game that we made years ago, and I thought it would be a nice treat to send your way! Just print the game boards and bring out the dice, and you're ready to play a fun game that's a mix of Connect Four and The 24 Game. It's an easy game to prep for a math center or use to fill those odd pockets of time that inevitably show up this time of year. If you play it with your students, let us know how it goes! 🖨️Download Game here to print: https://lnkd.in/egZkZmVY

✨Click here for the Free On-Demand Workshop! https://lnkd.in/em_gFAcS