What fraction of the square above has been shaded in?
If it is not immediately obvious, maybe you can estimate a fraction that would be too low? Too high? The image is created by simply slicing the large square with straight lines, and invites us to think about how the various sections gain their value. This image comes from the website called Fraction Talks, or www.fractiontalks.com, where many other similar images can be found with a variety of designs. The site is curated by Nat Banting, and the goal is to encourage students to interrogate, communicate, and deepen their understanding of fractions. Tips to use Fraction Talks at home
Hopefully this week's Table Talk Math has your dinner table sharing ways in which math can serve a conversation. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us on Twitter (@TableTalkMath) or comment below. Also, I would love to hear what you and the family came up with. Add a comment, tweet, or email me the family's strategies and choices; I'll post some of my favorites. Thank you for taking the time to improve math fluency for children, one table talk conversation at a time. For previous newsletters, check out the archive each week. The entirety of this week's content was produced by Nat. Reach out to him on Twitter with your ideas at @NatBanting.
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Would you rather have a 5 minute shopping spree at a department store of your choice OR a $2,000 gift card to that same store? Nickelodeon and Toys-R-Us partnered to hold an annual contest called the "Ultimate Toy Run" and it was intense. Contestants, kids whose ages range from 6 to 12 years old, would be given 5 minutes to go through the store and grab as many items as they could fit into a trolley. Intense! After watching the video above, here is your challenge:
Would you rather have a 5 minute shopping spree at a department store of your choice or a $2,000 gift card to that same store? Before getting your strategy together, here are the parameters:
Ask the dinner table; what do they say? How did you come up with your answer? What would be your strategy? Did you factor in the time between aisles? How about the sales tax? Maybe a trip to the department store is in order! Hopefully this week's Table Talk Math has your dinner table sharing ways in which math can serve a conversation. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us on Twitter (@TableTalkMath) or reply to this email. Also, I would love to hear what you and the family came up with. Tweet or email me the family's strategies and choices; I'll post some of my favorites. Thank you for taking the time to improve math fluency for children, one table talk conversation at a time. For previous newsletters, check out the archive each week. Credit goes to Erick Lee for the subject of this week's newsletter. If you find yourself asking questions like: “How long is this going to take?” “How many people are in line?” “How much is this going to cost?” Chances are good your family is ready to explore Estimation 180 Estimation 180 taps into this natural curiosity to quantify the world around us, providing both students and teachers with opportunities to build number sense one school day at a time. Andrew Stadel, the creator, describes the process:
How many sheets remain on the smaller roll of toilet paper? Need a clue? Head to Day 28 for the full roll. The video answer can be found here.
There might be days you can’t do these Estimation 180 challenges at the table because you’re on the road. Use the fast food drive-thru as yourTable Talk opportunity. If there's a long line, simply ask, “How long is this going to take?” Go around the car making estimates and then start the timer. The winner gets a free ice cream cone. *Ice cream cone not included with this newsletter. Hopefully this week's Table Talk Math has your dinner table sharing ways in which math can serve a conversation. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us on Twitter (@TableTalkMath) or reply to this email. Thank you for taking the time to improve math fluency for children, one table talk conversation at a time. For previous newsletters, check out the archive each week. What's the first question that comes to your mind?The prompt above is from Dan Meyer's website, 101qs.com and it is chocked full of conversation starters between people of all ages. From Dan himself:
"Students spend so much of their time in K-12 education being asked questions. 101questions put them in a position to ask questions. Check out the top ten list. These are the images and videos that have elicited the most questions from the most people. Ask your child what questions they have. Ask them to pick a question that math could help them answer. Ask them what information they'd need to answer it. Some of those images and videos have supplementary resources that can even help your child answer their questions. Then have your children take images and videos from their own lives that they think would provoke questions in somebody else." In the image above, there might be a strong math discussion that comes up. Then again, there might not be. Digging through the site, there are many different types of prompts, even some in video format. So that you don't lost your favorite, make sure to bookmark the link for easy reference. No matter the age level, these simple images elicit powerful responses. Take the image below as an example. What is the first question that comes to you? Here are some tips on using 101qs at home:
Hopefully this week's Table Talk Math has your dinner table sharing ways in which math can serve a conversation. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us on Twitter (@TableTalkMath) or reply to this email. Thank you for taking the time to improve math fluency for children, one table talk conversation at a time. Can you help me, please?
When our kids are little, we can play some basic games with them. Having a toddler put blocks in order, counting how many spoons are in the drawer, and figuring out the remaining number of plates should go at the table for a big dinner are easy ways to spark a conversation about mathematics. However, as our kids get older, the challenge becomes finding a task that is engaging for them and attainable for the parent. In the image above, I needed to take the spade bits out of their holster to hang it on the wall. As I started to put them back in, it became evident that I was the wrong person to take on this task. Bringing my two kids (6 and 4) over to the workbench, we sorted the bits using spatial reasoning and some number sense with fractions. Don't let the age of my kids fool you; this is a good prompt for middle school children as well! Maybe you don't have spade bits, but you might have measuring cups, measuring spoons, or picture frames. Whatever it may be, there is a conversation to be had. For our high school children, it might mean including a wild alternative.
Here are some tips on using Visual Prompts at home:
I wonder how... Can you help me put ___ in order? What if we took it a step further? Hopefully this week's Table Talk Math has your dinner table sharing ways in which math can serve a conversation. If you need a visual for the tau measuring spoon, see the post below that might be more suitable for a more challenging puzzle. Not sure what tau is? Take a peek. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us on Twitter (@TableTalkMath) or reply to this email. Thank you for taking the time to improve math fluency for children, one table talk conversation at a time. How many blocks in the 4th pattern? The 5th? How about the 13th?This prompt comes from a website called Visual Patterns, orvisualpatterns.org, a website that builds curiosity through patterns of similar objects. Created by Fawn Nguyen, the goal of each Visual Pattern prompt is to get the participant thinking about a pattern, or algorithm, that could be used to predict a future step. Fawn has two detailed blog posts about how she uses Visual Patterns in her class, so check them out (Post 1 and Post 2).
Here are some tips on using Visual Patterns at home:
How did we get from step __ to step __ ? Tell me a little more about... What about going one more step? What happens then? Potential vocabulary: Justify, steps, iteration, multiple, algorithm What we want to avoid with a Visual Pattern is forcing the participant to structure their thinking in a specific way. Let the creativity take over and, if it isn't working, talk about how some minor changes might help guide the process. Hopefully this week's Table Talk Math did that for you and your dinner table! If not, see the post below that might be more suitable for a more challenging puzzle. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us on Twitter (@TableTalkMath) or reply to this email. Thank you for taking the time to improve math fluency for children, one table talk conversation at a time. Table Talk Newsletter #2
Would You Rather have the bag on the left and share it with 1 friend OR the bag on the right and share it with 7 friends?This prompt comes from a website called Would You Rather Math, orwouldyourathermath.com, a website that puts two or three scenarios against each other and asks students to choose one, then justify the choice. Created by John Stevens, the goal of each WYRmath prompt is to get a solid conversation going that would be better justified if there was some math involved. While it isn't necessary to use math as a means of defending your choice, it sure does help with over the other side of the argument. Here are some tips on using Would You Rather Math at home:
Some potential sentence starters for using WYRmath at your dinner table: Can you explain what you mean by...? Tell me a little more about... How might you explain this to your friend? Potential vocabulary: Justify, defend, rate, unit rate, conversion What we want to avoid with a WYRmath task is making a child feel like they've been duped or conned into having a conversation about math; let it happen naturally and, as you engage in more of these, the discussion will naturally flow. Hopefully this week's Table Talk Math did that for you and your dinner table! If not, see the post below that might be more suitable for older children. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us on Twitter (@TableTalkMath) or reply to this email. Thank you for taking the time to improve math fluency for children, one table talk conversation at a time. Check out this week's newsletter in Spanish, as translated by Ed Campos, Jr.
Taking a look at the four images above, which one of them does not belong in the group? This is a great conversation starter for people of all ages because it encourages us to think about what makes each image unique and how it might have different properties than the others.This prompt comes from a website called Which One Doesn't Belong, or www.wodb.ca, and it is loaded with a variety of free images just like this one. Created by Mary Bourassa and Christopher Danielson, the goal of each WODB is to spark a conversation and to get students engaged in the properties of each image. Here are some tips on using Which One Doesn't Belong at home:
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. |
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AuthorJohn Stevens is working to give parents ideas on how to have mathematics-based discussion at home. Archives
May 2018
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