Math Journal Sundays - Patterns and a Candy Corn Freebie

Are you ready for a new week of math journal ideas?  It's a cold and wet Sunday here, so I'm happy to be home and blogging with a nice hot coffee by my side.  

Last week I shared my end of the unit Summary of Learning for our Number Sense unit.  If you missed it, you can see it HERE.  When I started this year, it was my intention to be able to confer with students and their journals during our "Number of the Day / Calendar Math" skill drill during our first 20 minutes of math class.  After setting this part of our day up, I had hoped that the students would soon be able to lead themselves through this part.  Unfortunately, as of yet, this is not the case.  My class this year has A LOT of needs (7 of my 23 students are on IEPs, 3 are on modified programs, and the majority of my students still have a lot to learn about working cooperatively).  I have no doubt we'll get there, but we're not there yet.  So ... at the moment, I've decided to collect all the journals to assess over the weekend, and I'll keep leading  our "Number of the Day" until the students prove they are ready to take it over.

Anyhow, as our end of the unit Summary of Learning only used one side of the page, it left a blank page for our Assessment Checklists.  I've gone through and assessed the notebooks (it will be a summative mark for the unit) and when I give them back to the students tomorrow, they will have to reflect on my feedback and bring the journals home for their parents to sign.  You will notice that there isn't a final mark on the checklist for the students - I have recorded a mark in my own records, but our board is currently moving towards the belief that students benefit more and are motivated more from the descriptive feedback we give, rather than the marks.  What are your beliefs on this?

We moved on to our Patterning unit this week.  I wanted to break out the Candy Corn folding pattern because I am totally in love with Fall and already getting into the Halloween mood.  Last year I used a similar idea for number forms (standard, expanded, and written form), but this year I'm in a different unit (I switched the order of my Number Sense and Pattern units).  So, I had each student fold the paper in half and cut out three pieces of candy corn).  Each candy corn had a different pattern and different options for the other flaps.  If you scroll down to the bottom of this post, I've included a little TREAT for you so you can give this one a try.

All my students work independently on their left-side of the page thinking now.  I do have a few students I need to check up on, and perhaps give a few suggestions for proof or a reflection, or remind them to show understanding of the concept in their reflection, but most are coming along quite nicely.  Having the students share their reflections is a HUGE part of this success.

I wanted to share a little TREAT with you (no tricks involved).  My students have loved the candy corn template the past two years, and I think yours will, too.  Just have them fold the paper in half before they cut out the candy corn (and remind them to not cut on the fold line).  This little folded template has so many uses - not just in math.  I saw a cute idea on Pinterest that used something like this for summarizing books - the front of the flaps had beginning, middle, and end, and the inside of the flaps had a sentence related to each section.  You can also use these for vocabulary - words on the outside flaps and definitions on the inside flaps.  So many uses - what will you use it for?  I've uploaded this to google docs / google drive ... whatever it is.  Just click HERE or on the picture to get the link.  I've included both a color page as well as a page with just the black and white outline.

For more math journal ideas, you can check out my Interactive Math Journal Resource over at TeachersPayTeachers.  Just click on the picture to head on over.

Happy Sunday!!!  I've been working on a new set of comprehension fans (this one is for different genres: personal memoirs, fictional narratives, nonfiction, persuasive writing, and poetry) - hoping to get it finished later tonight.

Jen