I share weekly with my fellow teachers that I am covering material in math I have never covered before with first graders.I tell them that I feel that I am onan adventure into the unknown with this new math series. I Daily I am amazed at how they seem to grasp the concepts taught in the lessons. Some days I run out of time to play the games. Then I take time and regroup with the class by reviewing the games and set aside a day here and there to play the games. I have sent home with every student the green basic cards with directions on how to play Old Main and Go to the Dump. At Parent/ Teacher Conferences there was much discussion including questions about the math series. I could answer most of the questions. Maybe my enthusiasm for this math is evident as every parent said that their child really liked math. We spent many days making the Cotter Tens Fractal. The Kindergartners hadn’t done this activity yet and because the other classes from second grade on up have not started this math series yet, I decided our class of nine would do this entire project alone. As the days went by, I really wondered and doubted how essential this lengthy activity was but the day we assembled the entire pyramid (that’s what my students called it) I could tell by their excitement and comments that they understood the repeating tens structure and how the smaller structure was identical to the larger structure. It is displayed in our room and we refer to it often. Today we played the More About Tens Station Game and they loved it. I am excited and yet nervous about where this math series will lead us and I just cannot look too far ahead. I try to be true to the series and prepare my students as best I can. I did take pictures at our Parent Math Night and I have pictures of our pyramid. If you feel you’d like the pictures, just let me know. Thank you
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