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Math Mania for Grade 3, Semester 1

This is a standard grade 3 math course that uses manipulatives and problem-solving activities to promote mathematical proficiency.
Cindy McAllister
Average rating:
4.8
Number of reviews:
(792)
Class

What's included

32 live meetings
29 hrs 20 mins in-class hours

Class Experience

The course has two components: the knowledge and skills component focuses on computation and basic problem solving and is done individually, and the live meetings that center around the "Big Ideas" set forth in the "Mindset Mathematics" series for grade 3 by Jo Boaler, Jen Munson, and Cathy Williams. During the live meetings we will be following the sequence visualize, play, and investigate. During the visualize portion of the lesson, we create models and pictures that represent the ideas we are learning. Recent research in neuroscience has shown that two of the five brain pathways used in learning mathematics are visual pathways. We want to be able to create a mental picture when solving math problems. The use of drawings and physical math manipulatives helps us do this. There is even research that shows that counting on our fingers increases math achievement! It's our very first visual model. This visual component also allows for some creative thinking and combining math and art. These activities are some of the kid's favorites. In the second part, the "play" time, students work with an important idea in a free space where they can enjoy the freedom of mathematical play. The play activities are designed to downplay competition and build cooperation and understanding as a group. During the final activity, the "investigate" portion, questions are posed that students can explore and take to very high levels. If students are not struggling a little bit, then they are not learning. We need to make things challenging enough so that the students think it is hard, but not so hard as to seem out of reach. In addition to the Big Ideas each week, students will work on math skills through the ixl.com website. A membership for your child is included in the price of the course.
Students will have time at the beginning of each live class to ask questions about that week's assignments on ixl and get clarification for any difficulties they are having. 

Here is a breakdown of the Big Ideas for each week:

Week One: Building Group Work Norms. Students discuss how to work in groups and learn how to reason, convince, and how to be a skeptic. We will be doing a paper folding task in order to practice these 3 skills.

Week Two: Solving Problems with Data. During the Visualize activity students are invited to wonder about the lengths of different animal tongues. Students are asked to read a bar graph and interpret the information presented. Later on, students receive data tables and must create something to represent the data. The Play activity is a game called "Inspector Graph-it." Students find mistakes in graphs, then create their own mischievous graphs to try and trick their classmates. In the "Investigate" activity students look at a real question about the most common car color in their area. Students must come up with a plan to collect data and share it with their classmates, and combine each student's individual results together to reach a conclusion about most popular car colors.

Week Three: Thinking Around Shapes. This is a lesson about perimeter and linear measurement. Students estimate the "distance around" objects in their environment, then display them in order to visualize the size of different objects. Students use grid paper to imagine walking around different shapes all with the same perimeter. They discuss the patterns they found and try to relate those patterns to other areas of mathematics that they are familiar with.

Week Four: Thinking in Equal Groups. A Visualize, Play, Investigate sequence connected to multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals.

Weeks Five and Six: Tiling to Understand Area. Making connections between multiplication and area. Students study squares that "grow" and record their areas and perimeters in order to find patterns. By the end of this exploration, students will have derived the formula for finding area and perimeter of squares and rectangles.

Week Seven: Seeing Multiplication as Area. In this lesson we think about change. How does area change when perimeter is changed? This lesson uses Cuisenaire rods, one of my favorite math toys!

Weeks Eight and Nine: Understanding, one-half, one-third, and one-sixth. Students love the culminating activity called "Picture Pie." 

Weeks Ten and Eleven: Seeing Fractions -- The Parts and the Wholes. Students use pattern blocks and Cuisenaire rods to represent various fractions that can be decomposed into unit fractions. (For example, two-thirds can be decomposed into one-third plus one-third.)

Weeks Twelve through Fifteen: Being Flexible with Numbers. This is a series of lessons that involve finding multiple representations for numbers and problems and allows students  to become comfortable with numbers. Many math programs focus on "math fluency" and think that fluency has to do with speed. But fluency with numbers really has nothing to do with speed. It has to do with understanding that "one-half" means different things in different situations: half of a cookie is not the same as half of a pizza, or halfway to grandma's house. It means an understanding  that there are many ways to represent a single number. This flexibility development is SO important when students start to tackle more complicated problems. 

The ixl portion of the class is flexible. Each week we will be focusing on a different set of skills. You can go to www.ixl.com to see the list of skills for 3rd grade. There are too many to list here!

Learning Goals

Students will master grade 3 math concepts while using open-ended activities, games, and puzzles. This is a hands-on class that uses manipulatives and other visual models to understand numbers, shapes, and patterns.
learning goal

Other Details

Parental Guidance
Students should have a good understanding of place value up through the thousands place. They should have basic addition and subtraction skills, and be ready to learn multiplication and division.
Supply List
Students will need to have the following math manipulatives: pattern blocks, Cuisenaire rods, fraction circles, tangrams, pentominoes, and colored tiles. All of these are available online for a reasonable price. You do not need a classroom set, just an individual set is fine. All printed materials will be provided by me, but will need to be printed at home.
External Resources
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
Sources
I will be using the book Mindset Mathematics Grade 3 for this course. Parents may wish to purchase their own copy in order to keep up with the ideas and activities presented in the live lessons.
Joined February, 2019
4.8
792reviews
Profile
Teacher expertise and credentials
I have been an educator for over 30 years. My graduate education was in cognition and instruction, and I am an expert in learning, memory, and the instructional practices that lead to solid learning. I keep up with the research related to mathematical learning as much as possible, and I truly believe the future of education lies in the field of neuroscience. Besides, math toys are fun!! I still play around with them myself when I'm trying to help older students with more advanced topics such as quadratic equations or trigonometric identities. 

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Live Group Class
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$360

for 32 classes

2x per week, 16 weeks
55 min
Completed by 4 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 7-8
3-10 learners per class

This class is no longer offered
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