Friday, October 21, 2011

Spider Names


Ms. Collier's and Ms. Rachko's classes created Name-Collection spiders for Halloween.   These fourth grade students extended the Everyday Math name-collection box routine to writing 8 different names for each number, one for each spider leg.  


This activity builds on students' ability to recognize and create different names for the same number.  NCTM originally proposed the open-ended activity:


Students are encouraged to write questions drawn from all areas of mathematics for which the answer is 24.  Here's an example of a student's response:



This activity is easily used as a transition activity.  Students complete the activity as the teacher checks homework or distributes materials.  Make it a once a week activity, copy the best responses onto chart paper and post it in the classroom for student reference.

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