Table Talk math

3/23/2017

Week 19: The Equalizer

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Welcome to Table Talk Math. This week, we're highlighting a game from Molly Babcock
View this email in your browser

Table Talk Newsletter #19

Molly Babcock shared a quick and easy game on Twitter the other week, so I just had to bring her on to share it with parents. Check out her blog post about The Equalizer, then dive into her description below:

Are you dreading hearing the words, “I’m bored” over break?  Here’s a fast-paced dice game you can play with your child.  The rules are flexible and the math content can be adjusted based on the age of your child. 
  • Find three different colored dice. I happened to have green, white and red.  If you don’t have colored dice, you could also number the dice or use one normal die and roll it three separate times.
  • Roll the red die.
  • Roll the white die and subtract the white die from the red die. Sometimes this produces a positive number and sometimes this produces a negative number.
  • Roll the green die.
  • If the green die is even, your score for that round (the red die minus the white die) doubles. This is wonderful if you had a positive number but it’s a huge disappointment if you had a negative number.
  • If the green die is odd, your score for that round (the red die minus the white die) clears to zero. This is wonderful if you had a negative number but it’s a huge disappointment if you had a positive number.
  • Keep a running list of the scores for each round and add them together at the end to see who wins. You can choose whether the highest score or lowest score wins.
Once you’ve played the game, I encourage you to be creative.  Work with your child to come up with a new math game involving dice, a board game, a puzzle, or any counting manipulatives you can find around the house. Together you will remove the potential boredom from break!
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me on Twitter (@TableTalkMath) or comment below. 

Thank you for taking the time to improve math fluency for children, one table talk conversation at a time. For previous newsletters, please check out www.tabletalkmath.com/previous-newsletters

Share

0 Comments

3/21/2017

Week 18: Counting Circles

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Welcome to Table Talk Math. This week, we're highlighting the work of Sadie Estrella.
View this email in your browser

Table Talk Newsletter #18


A few years ago, a good friend of mine led me to the work of Sadie Estrella. Sadie has served as a math coach and teacher in Hana, Hawaii, and has spent a lot of time talking about Counting Circles. She now works for Illustrative Mathematics as a lesson writer, bringing in her wealth of experience in the classroom and coaching role. What are Counting Circles? Sadie is here to tell us all about them!

96, 97, 98, 99, 100!  

Everyone loves to count together!! 

And the dinner table is a great place to do this.  Counting around the dinner table is similar to counting circles, a number routine I use in classrooms to build math fluency.  Counting circles is exactly what it sounds like, you count around “a circle”.  Whether your table is round or rectangular you can pick a number to start counting from and an amount to count by in order to start choral counting (counting together in unison) around the table.  Here are some ideas to start with:
  • Start at 10, count up by 5. “15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40…”
  • Start at 8, count up by 10, “18, 28, 38, 48, 58, 68…”
Stop after a few times around the table and ask if there were any patterns anyone noticed.

Feel like you are getting good at it?  Now you can try something a bit different.  Don’t count all together around the table, instead have each person say their own number as you count.  Stop after a couple rounds and ask question like these:
  • Did you notice something about the numbers you said every time? What about the numbers others said every time?
  • What number do you think you are going to say if we went one more time around?  2 more times around?
Ready for a challenge? Here are a few that should get the wheels turning:
  • Start at 26, count down by 8. “18, 10, 2, -6, -14, -22, -30...”
  • Start at 128, cutting each number in half. “128, 64, 32, 16...”
If you are worried about wrong answers, come to an agreement on how you will communicate that you don’t agree with an answer someone shares.  Here are some suggestions:
  • Can you check your answer please?
  • I disagree with your answer.
  • That is not the number I would’ve said.
The main focus here should be around counting, having fun, looking for patterns, talking math and enjoying time spent with each other around a topic that is making a comeback as the new hot topic.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us on Twitter (@TableTalkMath) or comment below. 

Thank you for taking the time to improve math fluency for children, one table talk conversation at a time. For previous newsletters, please check out www.tabletalkmath.com/previous-newsletters
Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved.
 *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|*

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

*|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*

Share

0 Comments

3/20/2017

Newsletter 17: YouCubed

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Welcome to Table Talk Math. This week, we're highlighting the work of Dr. Jo Boaler.
View this email in your browser

Table Talk Newsletter #17


This week's newsletter is intended to be a conduit between the people registered to receive and the work of Dr. Jo Boaler, a professor at Stanford University. In particular, we are hoping that you will get to know youcubed.org quite well. Dr. Boaler and her team created this site as a central hub for research-based mathematics conversations and justifications. If you are looking for documentation to back up why we shouldn't be giving timed tests, why finger counting is still a good thing, and a few other ideas, this site is for you.

On top of the research, there are articles such as:
Advice for Parents
Advice for Parents (en Español)
Various links for parents
6 Ways to Support Your Child's Mathematical Development
Teaching Ideas
Math Apps & Games
Brain Science

SO MUCH GOOD STUFF!!!
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me on Twitter (@TableTalkMath) or comment below. 

Thank you for taking the time to improve math fluency for children, one table talk conversation at a time. For previous newsletters, please check out www.tabletalkmath.com/previous-newsletters
Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved.
*|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|*

Our mailing address is:
*|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|*

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

*|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*

Share

0 Comments

3/8/2017

Newsletter 16: Shopping

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Welcome to Table Talk Math. This week, we're looking at Black Friday advertisements
View this email in your browser

Table Talk Newsletter #16

To be honest, this is one of my favorite times of the year, even since I was a kid. For many families, especially around the United States, Thanksgiving is a time of year that jogs so many memories: the smell of turkey, the sound of laughter and time spent with family, and the rustling of the newspaper as everyone looks through the ads for the best Black Friday deals. With that in mind, this week's newsletter is a suggestion to get your child(ren) involved in the process and bring math into the conversation as well.

For example, in the image above, how much could I save on the scooter by purchasing it on Black Friday? 

Below are a few different ways to manipulate the numbers so that different types of chatter comes up when flipping through the pages. 
What is the sale price of the guitar?
What was the list price of the nerf gun?
What would be a good sale price for this product?
What would a fair list price for this product?
How much markup would you have to have on this product to make a profit?
What is the demand for this product on the open market?

Clearly, there are quite a few different questions that can arise from shading out various elements of the prices on advertising. Tell your child that you also have a 15% coupon and it can be used on your entire purchase, a single item, or only on non-electronic items. Playing around with this idea gives way to a variety of responses for a variety of age ranges.

For a list of advertisements around the major companies, head over to this site. 
***by the way, it's nice to have this if you're setting up a game plan!***
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us on Twitter (@TableTalkMath) or reply to this email. It is my sincere hope that you have the best of times at Thanksgiving this year, no matter who you are with or what you are doing. 

Thank you for taking the time to improve math fluency for children, one table talk conversation at a time. For previous newsletters, please check out www.tabletalkmath.com/previous-newsletters

All images were originally taken from walmart.com 
Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved.
*|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|*

Our mailing address is:
*|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|*

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

*|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*

Share

0 Comments
Details

    Author

    John Stevens is working to give parents ideas on how to have mathematics-based discussion at home. 

    Archives

    May 2018
    October 2017
    July 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly