We are so excited about the launch of
180 Days of Number Sense Routines!
As I write this month's post, it is only Day Two of the school year and our email is already blowing up with excitement! Last year, we field-tested several Number Sense activities and then this past summer a team of teachers helped to select and write activities to include in our NSR180 initiative for Grades 1-5. During our opening week PD session, we introduced teachers to the activities (there is a specific activity for every day of the school year!). We have already received many emails from teachers across the county who were thrilled to tell us how engaged their students were during the activity and excited about the type of reasoning that was already beginning to take hold in their classrooms. I visited several classrooms yesterday and had an opportunity to see a few classrooms in action - it was exciting to watch teachers and students working together to develop reasoning skills about numbers rather than mindlessly following a procedure to produce the solution! I talked to several teachers who were thrilled with how their first Number Sense session using the Estimation activity went with their students. Just take a look at a few of the emails we received after the first day (!) of teachers trying NSR180 with their students.
* I smiled when I noticed how many of you like to call your students "my kiddos"!
Our countywide discussion on the topic of developing our students' Number Sense is nothing new. We have been building our collective capacity to understand the importance and value of teaching Number Sense through numerous professional development sessions, school-based PLC sessions, and professional book recommendations. We have even featured several of the routines that have become a part of our NSR180 right here on MathSnack:
- October 2016 - Number Talks
- November 2017 - Number Talks Part II
- December 2017 - Using the Open Number Line to Develop Number Sense
- April 2018 - Hidden Numbers: Building Mathematical Reasoning
- June 2018 - Routines for Reasoning
- August 2018 - Which One Doesn't Belong?
Our opening days have featured the Estimation routine. Estimation is a critical skill that we use every day when we do math in the real world beyond the classroom walls. Think about it... when you go to the grocery store and see that grapes are on sale for $1.99/pound, do you say, "Hey, if I buy 3 pounds that will be $5.97 or do you just estimate that it's about 6 bucks? Yeah, me too!
On Day 4 of NSR180 (that's this Friday), we will switch to the Number Talks routine. You can learn more about conducting a Number Talk (and see video of several Number Talks in action!) simply by clicking on the links and reviewing the October 2016 and November 2017 MathSnack posts featuring the topic of Number Talks. Your Media Center also has a few copies of Sherry Parrish's book Number Talks. Remember, though, the specific Number Talk string is already planned for you in your NSR180 slides.
Estimation JUST for FUN!
What does $1 million dollars look like in stacks of 100 dollar bills?
C'mon... play along.... What do you think 1 million dollars looks like when stacked in 100 dollar bills? Use the $10,000 and the $1,000,000,000 representations shown above to help you make an estimate based on some rough calculations.
(an image of 1 million dollars is shown below - but don't scroll down, yet - play along)
One TRILLION dollars is written like this: $1,000,000,000,000
Can you use your number sense about 1 billion to determine what 1 trillion will look like?
CLICK HERE to see a video -- I wonder if it will look like what you pictured in your mind???
By the way...
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| THIS is 1 million dollars It could fit in your bookbag with no problem! ...a bit UNDERwhelming to look at, don't you agree? |
