Striving for Creativity in the Common Core

I love foldables.  There.  I said it.  Last year my students called me The Foldable Queen and even referred to me as Your Majesty. I sure do miss that group of kids!  I had math down pat with foldables, ISNs, etc.  This year, we have a new program for math.  I'm excited about it because it addresses the new CCSS, but it doesn't leave much time for foldables or other engaging activities. My foldables aren't a daily thing anymore, but more as a way to kick off a chapter and/or to wrap up a chapter. We do refer back to them frequently and I allow students to use them during quizzes or tests. It's a great way to ensure they take good notes! The pictures are from the notes we took at the beginning of the chapter.  The foldable is part of a math pack I got from Jennifer Runde that has been a God-send!!

     

Sometimes one can get a class that can't work in groups if their lives depended on it.  This year I have such a group.One of the standards/practices that "they" want kids to do now is to work collaboratively. The only way I can do this with this group of kids is to have them on a very short time limit when I place them in pairs or triads. Today we were multiplying with money. They were asked to identify what they had to solve, then the information they needed to get that solution.  Then they had to set up the problem using a diagram. We did one together and I had them do one in a triad.  I gave them 7 minutes.

It was rather successful.  Today.  I miss doing a foldable or graphic every day in math.  The new math program, Go Math by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, has everything all laid out and is on two double-sided pages for each lesson.  But I miss drawing and coloring and cutting and gluing in math.  I'm working on getting back to that comfortable place.  During the first year of an adoption, it's hard to know when to stay and when to stray.