Math Mentor Text Link Up

Yep, it's Sunday, and time for us to link up with Collaboration Cuties for their Must Read Mentor Text Linky!

Super Sandcastle Saturday (Courtney)

A few years ago I wrote a grant to our district's educational foundation, and received money to purchase math games, manipulatives, and books.  With this grant, I purchased all of the Stuart J. Murphy's MathStart books. I loved them because of how fun the stories are, how well the math topics are discussed, and that there are multiple reading levels.

One of the books is Super Sandcastle Saturday. It is a level 2 book and focuses on measurement.  The story is about 3 friends who participate in a sandcastle building contest when they are at the beach. Prizes are awarded for the tallest tower, deepest moat, and longest wall. The kids use nonstandard units to measure their sandcastles, and are surprised to find that their measurements didn't match the measurements of the judge, who used standard measurement.

This book goes great with an activity that is included in Amy Lemons' I Can Measure Unit. There is a sandcastle activity in which students estimate and measure using standard units. My students really enjoyed this lesson, and it is one that I will be using again! 

Mummy Math: An Adventure in Geometry (Sarah)

This week I have decided to share a brand new text (for me) that I just purchased and plan to use next year, Mummy Math: An Adventure in Geometry by Cindy Neuschwander.

Here is the synopsis from Amazon.com: The Zills family is summoned to Egypt to help find the hidden burial chamber of an ancient pharaoh. But when Matt and Bibi get trapped in the pharaoh’s pyramid, they stumble upon an even bigger mystery. With only each other, their dog Riley, and the geometric hieroglyphics on the walls to help them, the twins must use their math skills to locate the burial chamber—and the way out. Luckily, Matt and Bibi know their stuff when it comes to geometric solids, and so will the readers of this adventure in math!

After reading this synopsis from amazon.com, I "Looked Inside". As usual, the preview did not get to the "meat" of the text and what I wanted to see, so I headed over to GoogleBooks to see if they had a better preview.  They did! This is what made me order the book. Go to GoogleBooks to read how the kids in the story have to use their knowledge of geometric solids and their faces to help solve the mystery...

Looked like a great text to use when learning about geometric solids, so I purchased it for this coming school year!  I would love to hear if anyone else has used this text, so I thought it would be a good one to mention this week.  If you have, please comment! :0)

Link up and read about more math mentor texts at Collaboration Cuties!

First Friday Flashback & a Birthday GIVEAWAY!

This is the first time I am linking up with Teaching Maddeness for a Friday Flashback!  I just have a couple of great things to share from this week...

First, about a month ago, when I was looking through old files for something else, I came upon an oldie-but-goodie measurement activity that had been misfiled.  It was a measurement activity from AIMS Education Foundation (dated 1986) that I used AGES ago when I was student teaching.  How could I have forgotten about this one? Easy--out of site, out of mind! Anyway, I immediately said to myself, This is perfect for my second graders!  As I was looking through the activity, I noticed a note that I had made that read, "adapted for inches".  Well, where was the adaptation I did? Nowhere to be found!  SO I decided to get to work...  Halfway through my work, I thought to myself, I wonder if AIMS Education still has this activity?  SO I searched for it on the internet, and there it was! It was still designed for use with centimeters, so I continued my work.  Although, I still purchase the updated version from their website for $2 (does not include the class graph as in the original version).  Please email me if you are interested in my adapted version using inches.

The activity?

Are You a Square?

The gist: Students measure their height and arms span and compare the measurements to determine if they are a square (height=arm span), tall rectangle (height > arms span), or wide rectangle (arm span > height).  Then each student graphs his or her individual results.  Finally, a class graph is made and evaluated.

I had students work as partners.  To make it possible for students to yield more accurate measurements, I asked one student to lay on the floor while the other marked his/her height/arms span on the floor using a dry erase marker.  Then pairs worked together to measure on the flat surface.  This worked well!

Students really enjoyed this activity because they got to measure THEMSELVES and learned something about themselves.  Students were also amazed to find out that so many kids were tall rectangles.  AND the activity also meets Measurement and Data Common Core Standards for Mathematics.

Secondly, I wanted to share a fabulous find that my students got to begin using this week.  It's a word game called Word Winder. I was recently at a conference, and one of the vendors was the creator of this game, David L. Hoyt.  I immediately saw the benefit of the game for kids of all ages.  I played it with my husband, and it is great fun!

The object of the game is to make a continuous path from one side of the game board to the other, winding words along the way.  The letters of each word must touch in sequence, but can go in numerous directions.  

I introduced the game to students a week or so ago, and they got to begin playing this week. Benefiits of the game:

• automatically differentiating, as students make words within their capability--some make shorter words and others longer
• encourages strategy as students can block one another and force the other player to continue his/her path in a different direction
• one game is never exactly the same as another as the 16 game board pieces are two-sided and can be arranged in many ways
• provides an unpredictable word work activity for students
• it's FUN!

 There is also a book that is great to provide as a word work choice as well.

Last, since today is my birthday, I am posting the very first giveaway on our blog!  I did a previous post about a vocabulator/word builder that I made, and I would like to give one away!  You choose the words, I make it and ship it out to you!! It will be a star version like the one pictured in the post, and will contain multi-colored dyed rice.  It will look just like the one shown, but it will be customized for YOU!  This is my first time using Rafflecopter, so I hope this works!  Enter for your chance to win below...

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to fly on over to Teaching Maddeness to read about some fabulous Friday Flashbacks! Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Must Read Math Mentor Text & a GIVEAWAY!

Happy Sunday! Time to link up AGAIN with the Collaboration Cuties for their mentor text link up...

How Big is a Foot?  by Rolf Myller is a great text to use when...

• beginning a unit on measurement
• helping students understand the difference between non-standard and standard units of measurement
• introducing the need for standardized units of measure
• you want to give your students a good laugh related to math

The gist of the story...

The King wants to give the Queen something special for her birthday, but she has everything--everything except a bed (they had not been invented yet). The problem is that the King does not know how big a bed is.  He finally has a bed made, but it is too small. After all, one person's foot is not the same size as another's...  The kids love to see the queen jump into a bed that is too small--and you will too!

On another note--hop on over to Ideas by Jivey to participate in her 300 Follower Giveaway!  You can win oodles of great products, including $10 to spend in my Teachers Pay Teachers store...

Have a fantabulous week!