Taking Math Outside!

The snow is gone, the sun is finally shining ... so we're taking math OUTSIDE!!!  I have a lot of kinesthetic learners in my classroom this year, and A LOT of boys who prefer hands-on activities (17 boys out of a class of 22 students).  Whenever possible I try to get them moving ... unfortunately, this class is also one that requires a lot of structure ... and sometimes the two just don't mix well.  But, we've had two fabulous math classes this week with a kinesthetic twist ... and no behaviour problems.  If they can keep this up, we just may be able to continue with the fun.

For both classes we started inside with a lesson and a foldable (I can't wait to share these with you on Sunday), then took it outside.

On Monday we were learning about Order of Operations - we use the acronym BEDMAS to remember the steps.  Two years ago I started doing BEDMAS hopscotch (I saw the idea on youtube and ran with it).  I did a blog post about this last year - you can read it here.  The students worked in small groups to create a BEDMAS hopscotch board using sidewalk chalk.  (Some of the letters are upside down on this board because half the group was working from one side, and the other half was working from the other side).

Having the students DO order of operations hopscotch really helps them remember the steps, but I also really like how the division and multiplication are together, as well as the addition and subtraction.  Hopefully this helps them remember that the steps for these two are equal (they get performed in order from left to right).

All the pictures in this post are from this week, but the video below is from my class two years ago.

After we finished, we took our sidewalk chalk to the basketball court and began to solve order of operations problems.  I said a problem aloud, and the kids set to solve it.  Two packs of chalk later, they had a pretty good handle on the concept ... and some awfully chalky (is that a word??) hands.  :)

The students had their final unit test on Tuesday, so today we started a new Geometry unit - angles and polygons.  Again, we started our learning in class with a new entry in our math journals (oh my goodness - this was a good one - gotta check in on Sunday).  Near the very end of class we took our learning outside and "built" angles and polygons.  SO MUCH FUN!

Here are some of my students building an acute angle.











... and an obtuse angle.












These fancy little feet arranged in an octagon belong to four of my former students (in grade 8 now).  They saw us making angles and shapes (the grade 7/8 class was outside for gym) and came over to get in our fun!!!



Happy Wednesday (we're half way there!)

Rachel Lynette, from Minds in Bloom, is having a link-up to "Get Those Kids Moving".  Check out other great ideas to get your kids moving by clicking on the button to the left.