Teaching talks: Math problems: Ours

Teaching Pre K-8, Jan 1995 by Broderick, Patricia, Raymond, Allen

"The game's the thing..." and it surely is when math superstar Lola May teaches kids--and teachers--wonderful math games that make learning so very much easier. The Moving Picture Company made five great videotapes called "Games to Play with Lola May." These tapes cover special math games, some created by Lola May and her co-star, Joan Morrow, others created by classroom teachers and shared--which is what teachers do best.

The first three videos include games that help students obtain control of the basic facts like: Concentration 15, Solitaire (with sums 11, 12, 13, 14), Minute drill, High or Low, Make Zero (a solitary game). The last two tapes of the series provide games and activities that develop the skills of problem solving like Elevator, Krypto, Snap, Ninety-Nine, etc.

The nice part about these tapes--actually, there are many nice parts--is that they can be used by aides, parents and the kids themselves as well as teachers. Kids get really involved, enthusiasm runs high--and learning is the result. You can't beat that for a small investment. Each video is $29.95 plus s/h. If you buy the complete set, there's a special price of $115, and you get the teacher's guide and two decks of special cards.

Octavie van Amerangen at The Moving Picture Company will be glad to answer any questions you might have on this series, or on the other Lola May products she carries.

If you always felt you needed a passport...

to visit the land of math; if it seemed like a country of different customs where a foreign language was spoken...those days are gone forever.

Welcome to the real MathLand, the superb new program from Creative Publications. (Now, when did you ever hear anyone call a math program "superb"--especially Pat!) We checked Webster's and, indeed, "above others" and "outstanding" are synonyms we're comfortable with for this program.

To begin with, "MathLand--Journeys Through Mathematics" is a comprehensive K-6 program--with NO textbooks or workbooks. There is a Guidebook--the heart of the program--for each level. This covers a year in MathLand, week by week and day by day. The year incorporates ten units of study ranging in length from two to five weeks. Actually, it's all up to you. You're the Mayor of the Land, making it work for everyone.

Typically, a week is made up of an introductory session, three days for investigation and a day for reflection. There are assessment options as well as opportunities to practice and reinforce skills built into each unit.

The MathLand journey also has "Day Trip" weeks occuring. These weeks provide five shorter projects--one for each day of the week.

We saw this program at the NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) convention in April '94 and it was so new, all the pieces weren't there. That didn't matter a hill of beans to those teachers swarming into the booth, because they immediately sensed the freedom and security being built into this whole program.

We called Creative Publications president, Charlotte Gemmel, to get material to review and she graciously asked what we wanted. We asked for a fourth grade package, figuring it would give you all a good sense of what's happening in MathLand.

First of all, the aforementioned Guidebook and key to the program is beautifully organized in a 10" x 12" spiral book with 13 colorful tabs separating 360 manageable pages. These 13 tabs cover the ten units, plus a "Welcome to MathLand" which contains great information about the scope of the whole project, another tab covers the first week of school which involves letting the kids handle all the manipulatives (Lots!) Keep reading to find out about the truckload of manipulatives!), and a final chapter on "Reflections." This provides a week of activities to help children see just how far they've come in their thinking, to encourage them to keep up thinking activities during the school break, and to celebrate the effort of family members in their child's mathematical development. There's a nice Children's Bibliography and a Professional Bibliography included in this section.

The titles of some of the units? "Free Exploration" (the first week of school) through "All about Us" (Gathering. Communicating and Interpreting Data), "Looking for Rules" (Investigating the Dependable Nature of Patterns) through "That's Unique" (Examining Differences and Possibilities), "Numbers Between Numbers" (Developing the Idea of Equivalence with Fractional Numbers), "Representations" (Using Models to Visualize Complex Concepts), "Dinosaur Days" (Investigating Problems with Ancient Data), "Round they Go" (Investigating Events with Spinners) and we've left out some of the units, believe it or not! This is so beautifully comprehensive and it flows so nicely from one unit to the next. You'll love it.

The format of each unit provides the week at a glance, the manipulatives suggested for use, the additional parts of the program to be incorporated, and so on. There are suggestions throughout the Guidebook on what kid's work to keep for portfolios, other software that works well with the particular emphasis of the week, directions for games, and so on.