Math Philosophy and Terms to Know
The Montessori math materials are perhaps some of the most inviting and beautiful works in the Montessori classroom. Visitors to any Montessori classroom, young and old alike, gravitate to the math shelves, wanting touch and learn how to use the materials. “What’s this?. How dos this teach me division?” they ask. Adults usually sigh and wistfully say, “I wish I had learned math this way”.
The inquisitiveness of the upper elementary Montessori student is astonishing. They dive into the study of fractions and decimals, eager to move beyond to more complex mathematics, geometry, and algebra. While the concrete materials are still in place, the need for repetition is gone. “Show me. Then, show me more” is the litany of the upper elementary Montessori math students. Upper elementary students move quickly from the concrete experience to abstract thought. They are eager to test their knowledge with pencil and paper and need, at times, a gentle reminder to return to the materials as a way of building neurological pathways.
We use a variety of Montessori materials, mixed in with the occasional tradition material to have our students excel in math. We use the Montessori materials made by Mr. Albanesi which are Albanesi cards. The students take an assessment and are then placed into certain levels in the classroom. They have the task of pulling a card from their level and performing the tasks on the card, with the appropriate Montessori materials. As they progress through the levels, they are assessed again and placed in new levels.
Another Montessori math material we use is also out of Texas, like Mr. Albanesi. It’s called Conceptual Learning Materials. They are known as math skyscrapers in our classroom. Once a student has been given a specific lesson, these skyscrapers are assigned as an extension to the lesson. They student has to manipulate the cards and put the correct sequence of cards together. They come with a control of error (for all the parents out there, that is what we used to call an “answer key”) so that the kids can check their work before writing it down in their composition notebooks.
Problem solving is a huge component to math and especially the new Common Core standards. We use a 3-, 4-, and sometimes 5-prong approach to covering problem solving in our classroom. We use the following items:
-
Evan Moor Daily Word Problems: This is one of the few things that we do by grade level. The kids are given a word problem a day to solve. Their problems will involve a lot of color this year as we are teaching them how to break down a word problem to find the key information needed.Logic and Critical Thinking: Occasionally we will throw in a Logic problem and/or a Sudoku puzzle to make their brains think about things in a different way. It’s tough for the kids at first, but as they year progresses, we usually have kids begging for more logic and Sudoku puzzles to be on the work plan or available for them when they finish their work. It’s things like this that prepare our students to be the innovators that think outside the box in outside world!ath Journal Sticker: The Common Core mathematical problem solving criteria expects kids to be able to solve a word problem, show, explain and justify how they were able to get their answer. Kids have learned vary quickly in our class, which different students can get the same answer on a problem but come about the answer in completely different ways. We highly encourage them to share their success with others and explain (as if they were a teacher) how they got their answer. These Math Journal stickers are a way to visually represent this process with pictures, patterns, and paragraphs.nteractive Math Journals. This is something new that I have been researching over the summer that I plan to implement this school year. Montessori is very hands on and the lessons involve the students manipulating and doing things. Over the years I have noticed that some kids are great at visually remembering the steps they just performed and can do it on their next assignment or months later on their own. There are other students that need a refresher occasionally, or almost daily. To help al student out, we will be keeping a math journal with the notes we take from our lessons, with charts, graphs, and other things to help us remember how to do a math concept. It will be a great resource that the students can pull out and use through the year and in years to co
We also use the digital curriculum of Mathscore. It’s an online math program that we use as a school. We set up assessments and they test kids based on the Common Core standards. We get he results immediately and it gives us target areas for the kids to work on. We can also set up customized courses for the kids to do. We will be requiring a certain number of minutes to be completed each week. This is something they can do at school and also at home. You can visit our Digital Curriculum page for the website and login information.
HELP! My child is bringing home their math and I have no clue how to help them!
Your child should not be bringing home Albanesi cards or skyscrapers as those are in class materials that need Montessori materials to complete the assignment. The types of things you might see coming home are word problems, logic and math journals.
There are a variety of website you and your child can visit to get some math help if necessary:
http://www.coolmath4parents.com/how-to-help-with-math-homework.html
http://www.nctm.org/resources/content.aspx?id=2147483782
http://www.nctm.org/mathedtoday/