NLVM - Week 7

This week I explored the mastermind activity on the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. I found this activity very interesting and thought invoking. You have to figure out a pattern by first using the guess and check method and then by using the clues that are provided to you. I used this activity as a challenge for my students. While working on a measurement unit, my support teacher and I split up the class into two groups: one group who grasped the concept of measurement and one group who needed extra practice with measurement. While she took the group that needed extra help, I used this virtual manipulative with the students who did not need the extra practice. The challenge was to be the student who used the least amount of guesses/clues to solve each pattern. We did this with the two color - six color patterns. It worked well and they all were determined to win one of the challenges.

Geoboard Lesson

For a lesson using Geoboards, I decided to do a lesson on perimeter and area. This lesson requires basic knowledge of area and perimeter. The lesson would start whole class where we create several shapes using the Geoboards. These shapes are teacher prompted such as: create a shape with a perimeter of 22. Next, create groups according to the accuracy and originality of their shapes. In groups, students will create individual shapes that follow the rules on their activity sheet. Once they have created their shapes independently, each group will share their shapes and make corrections accordingly. The activity sheets will range in difficulty according to individual/group ability. As a closure activity, each group will pick one of their area problems and one of their perimeter problems to share with the class. Encourage students to find different shapes/dimension s that will produce the same perimeter or area.

Cuisenaire Rods Lesson

For a lesson using Cuisenaire Rods, I have decided to do a lesson pertaining to triangles. My lesson is adapted off of the class disk under the 5-6 grade section. The title of the lesson is Making Triangles. In this lesson, students will explore creating triangles with Cuisenaire Rods. Students will also discover that certain rods will not form triangles when grouped together. Once they have explored creating triangles, they will work on classifying all of their triangles by their sides. Students will sketch each triangle on their record sheet, label the lengths of each side, name each triangle, and record the perimeter. As a closure activity, each student will come up to the front of the class and share one of their triangles. The class will determine whether or not their classification and perimeter are correct using Communicators to show their work.

NLVM - Week 5

This week I explored the Circle 3 manipulative. This is located under the Grade 3-5 category as well as under other grades. I like this manipulative as a do now for my class. It is one of those activities that really makes you think. The goal of this manipulative is to complete a pattern of interlocking circles according to the rules and hints that you are given. The one I am referring to asks you to complete the circles so that each circle adds up to 3. Some parts of the circles already have numbers in them ( in this case they are all decimals). The circles over lap like a Venn diagram so any number that you put in one circle will effect the outcome of the surrounding circles. The solutions to this manipulative are not easily found. I like this manipulative because the process in challenging and though provoking. I is great for practicing trial and error. A small amount of strategizing and common sense will help but trial and error is really the only way for students to solve the puzzle in this manipulative.

Color Tiles Lesson Plan

For my lesson with Color Tiles, I chose to adapt a lesson on probability from the disk. The following lesson is adapted from a grade 5-6 lesson entitled What’s Your Prediction?
In this lesson, the teacher holds a bag of 10 pattern blocks of 5 Blue and 5 Red blocks. The students make predictions and as a class, we pull out one block at a time and record our results. The results are then discussed as a class. Once the concept is clear to the students, the lesson is taken one step further. In teacher designed groups, students will make predictions for situations when there is more than one color in the bag than another color. Students will discuss whether they believe the outcomes will be different and why. Then each group will test their theory by repeating the group activity within their groups and recording their outcomes.
All theories and findings will be discussed as a class. Each group will come to the front of the room and explain their findings. This lesson will serve as a segue into probability.

Virtual Manipulatives #4

This week when I went to the NLVM, I jumped around a lot. In previous weeks, I had a tendency to get fixated on a certain manipulative and work only with that manipulative. This week, I worked in grades 3-5 under the measurement and Data Analysis categories. I liked the idea of the Spinner for probability. The only problem was that I could not figure out how to record my results. After a period of trial and error, I figured it out. I thought that the students were suppose to manually record their results but realized that the computer does it for them. I think that this is a great activity for probability. I also worked with the Attribute Trains. This manipulative was interesting because my brain automatically started working overtime. The patterns here are more complex than the Color Patterns. These patterns include colors, shapes, and numbers. I was having a lot of trouble figuring out the patterns because I was thinking of all factors (color, shape, and number). Then I realized that each pattern was discovered looking at only one of those factors at a time, while the others just served as distractions. Once I realized this, the patterns were fairly easy, almost too easy. It was a little disappointing.