I bought this product, several years ago. And have been in
love with it ever since!!! But yes I said I had to adjust it…
We have a copy limitation at our school, and
while I love the story problems on these pages, there is NO WAY I can print
this full page, or even half page, and still have enough copies for things like
HOMEWORK!! So I cut,
paste, and move around the great story problems, to make it so there are 5 on
one page… then print these bad boys on COLORED paper. Throw
them in some magazine boxes and BAM! Math Journals are set for a month!!
<<< >>>
How I use these story problems with my Gifted High Achieving
kiddos?!?! That is my favorite part! We spend the 1st month doing
these as a whole group activity. Learning what it is Mrs. Campbell expects.
After that we do a story problem a week as a group to keep these expectations
going.
What is it I expect? Well most of my Gifted kids have the
goal, “Student will use a variety of
strategies to solve complex grade appropriate mathematical problems.” The
best way to make sure they meet this goal… is well… by making them use a VARIETY of STRATEGIES
to SOLVE MATHMATICAL
PROBLEMS.
We learn the strategies in class. We talk about examples,
and non-examples of how to each strategy. Then we put them to work. Each week
my kiddos are required to do 1 story problem independently during centers. When
I print them, I print each story problem on a different color paper so they can
easily keep track of what they have done. Even if they can solve it mentally,
they are not allowed!!! They must write the number sentence
that the story problem is asking, then the number sentence they
are actually going to solve (only if its different, example missing numbers
etc). They must show the problem solving strategy
they used, this can be a picture, a model, or another number sentence. Finally, the must explain how they solved the problem, using math vocabulary!
I love watching my firsties grow from basic answers to
really understanding the strategies and using them to solve their problems.
(obviously not ever day is a great day for these activities!)
(obviously not ever day is a great day for these activities!)
