Wow! Twitter Rocks!

October 11, 2016

We have been running our Twitter contest and I can not begin to tell you how much I have enjoyed ALL of the Tweets! Watching all the children engaged and loving math is so awesome! I am always humbled by the hard work of all of you! You make it so fun to create exciting math games and activities that push children towards mathematical excellence!

Please don’t stop! Send more and more!!!

Mathematically yours,

Kim

Gratitude and Sonic Cards

September 29, 2016

Gratitude for Teachers and Sonic Cards

Just wanted to extend my gratitude for all the wonderful folks who gave me Sonic Cards as a gift!  I live in a place without a Sonic.  Years ago I got addicted to the Diet Vanilla Coke Route 44 size while working in Texas.  Everyone has always told me that it is the ice!  I just know that I really enjoy them.  Teachers in my workshops have been so kind when they hear my “Sonic” story…….thank you so much for the Sonic Cards!  What kindness!

Another school year is on its way.  So many teachers ask me about subitizing numbers in my workshops.  Think that it is ironic the questions comes up because it is the word that is puzzling.  Subitizing numbers is a child’s ability to make a visual assessment of a picture of quantity without having to count.  Great practice of subitizing is my games of “Bump It!” from my book that have a bingo look.  In each square are pictures of objects.  Players roll the ones die from the place value dice placing a transparent chip on the picture of that quantity.  So much fun and yet such important practice.  

I also love to use pictures of quantities from my primary book, Let’s Get Started! and do “Flash Math” with the cards.  Pictures are placed on document camera and students shout out how many!  Wild times for math!

Couple more days of my Twitter contest!  Tweet out your classroom doing a “Kim Sutton” activity and you might win a very cool prize!  Update:  We decided on three winners to be announced on Monday!

Mathematically yours,

Kim

Charmed Life!

June  8, 2016

I am saying the mantra, “Patience is a virtue, a virtue is a grace.  You add them altogether and you get a happy face.”  Just trying to get home….

Trip started last week on Memorial Day.  Flew to LAX and our daughter, Halley, picked me up.  We set up for a fun workshop in Burbank with the staffs of two schools.  Shout out to Liz and Sandra and their wonderful teachers!  Great day on number sense.  Halley and I then flew to Nashville on Wednesday.  Just love Tennessee.  Two-day class in Franklin!  Those teachers rock!  We sang, we danced and we did intensive math content.  My friend Sherry was our point guard!  The workshop ran so well because of her. 

Halley and I were able Friday night to go on a fun field trip!  The author, Ann Patchett, has the most amazing bookstore ever called Parnassus!  She has made a roaring success of this venture.   (Just finished her book, Truth and Beauty!  Started her book The Magician’s Assistant.)  I have been reading on my iPad and realized during this field trip how limiting my choice of books has been.  Done with that.  One of the most amazing booksellers, River showed me all around pointing out amazing reads.  I have been limiting myself on the iPad to authors I know.  Halley and I left with our arms full and our hearts happy!  We met one of the bookstore dogs…..love it!  If you ever are in Nashville, this bookstore is a must!  I jumped into a recommended read called A Hero of France by Alan Furst!  A reader comes alive just holding these amazing books……

Halley and I then drove from Nashville to Springfield, Missouri on Saturday and then on to Wichita on Sunday.  Drove many back roads through lots of corn patches…. set up with my friends Lynette Sharlow, who hosted the workshop for District 259 and Rhonda Shook.  I have known Rhonda since my days with Project AIMS and Math Festival at Fresno Pacific College.  Love them both!

Finished an amazing two days in Wichita for the Roadmap class.  Great teachers!  Halley and I got to airport only to find delay, delay, delay.  When flight took off out of Wichita for Denver, pilot announced a door was open and we would return to Wichita.  Had to circle for hour……then delay back to Denver…..Halley and I both missed all connections.  Everyone has a story and the stories are never that interesting.  Mine isn’t either.  Needless to say, it is a day later and still trying to get home.  Guess I am not in Kansas anymore…..but there is still “no place like home!”  I need my bed……

Mathematically yours,

Kim

Rental Car Blues in Salmon, Idaho!

April 26, 2016

Ok, here is a new one!  Had a super workshop yesterday in Missoula, Montana.  We had never been here and just loved the people and the town!  We were looking forward to a great drive from Missoula to Boise.  Rental car blew up and we limped into Salmon, Idaho.  Waiting for Alamo to drive a new rental car from Missoula to us as there are no rental car places here.  Lessons in patience!

After being in several classrooms recently and watching students in grades 3-5 struggle with concepts of rounding numbers, it seems important to talk about why this occurs and what can be done!  It often feels that the rules of rounding numbers are just procedures that are taught without recognition of the prerequisite skills required that are essential in the development of number sense.

I have long suggested a simple routine of practice that can be established in the classroom with students grades 1-5 that will ease the understanding of rounding.  It all begins after students have learned the multiples of ten.  I introduce the multiples of ten by playing a game called “The Roller Coaster” game.  Chairs are moved to create 4 rows of 2 chairs.  One student is asked to sit on the roller coaster.  Students are asked, “What do you want to do on a roller coaster?”  They will gleefully respond, “Whee,” and throw their hands in the air.  The mathematical question is one person on the roller coaster, how many fingers in the air?  This introduces the idea of _____ groups of _____ = _____ .  Many of you who have been at my workshops know that this is an important visual that is a part of all the mathematical content that we teach in elementary grades.

Once students have the practice behind multiples of ten, the teacher will have each child tear a piece of adding machine tape the length of their arms from fingertip to shoulder.  They will label the left with a mark for zero.  (The academic name for zero is point of origin.)  On the right they will make a mark and label that 100.  They will bring the two marks together and crease.  They will mark that with 50.  The students will then put in the multiples of ten between 0-50 and 50-100.  Now this tool is ready to be used with my Random Number CD 0-100.  The teacher will turn on track 2.  Students will hear a number and touch about where that number falls on the number line.  Two to three minutes of practice is important.  Students can also write the number on the number line! 

Look for more helpful hints on rounding readiness soon including a new game!

Mathematically yours,

April 13, 2016

Had an opportunity to speak about math fact fluency at the NCSM Conference in Oakland held this week prior to NCTM Conference in San Francisco!  What a great conference!  It is getting to that time of year where our thoughts are centered on test scores and the limited time left in the school year.  It sure does fly.

It sure was fun creating a new class on proportional reasoning with fractions.  Packed it full of meaningful ways to supplement the “dry” chapters on fractions in the math textbooks.  One of my favorite lessons with upper grades is based on the book, If the World Were a Village by David Smith.  Makes percents easy to think about and understand as an extensions of fractions without calling them percents.  Every time I have done the lessons with classrooms of fifth graders the discussions are so meaningful!

Have you seen my new Bump It! book?  The games will change your classroom!  Watch the new game going up this week as a freebie!

More in a few.  Off to watch my Golden State Warriors go for the record number of wins tonight, making history!!!  Steph Curry for President!

Spring Update!

Had an opportunity to speak about math fact fluency at the NCSM Conference in Oakland held this week prior to NCTM Conference in San Francisco! What a great conference! It is getting to that time of year where our thoughts are centered on test scores and the limited time left in the school year. It sure does fly.

It sure was fun creating a new class on proportional reasoning with fractions. Packed it full of meaningful ways to supplement the “dry” chapters on fractions in the math textbooks. One of my favorite lessons with upper grades is based on the book, If the World Were a Village by David Smith. Makes percents easy to think about and understand as an extensions of fractions without calling them percents. Every time I have done the lessons with classrooms of fifth graders the discussions are so meaningful!

Have you seen my new Bump It! book? The games will change your classroom! Watch the new game going up this week as a freebie!

More in a few. Off to watch my Golden State Warriors go for the record number of wins tonight, making history!!!  Steph Curry for President!

January 4, 2016

Ok 2016!  Here we go, ready or not!  January is such a good month to start fresh with high expectations!  Why not kick Kim’s Number Line into action with a three-minute “Number Line Chat” three times a week!  Use the questions I wrote that are posted in the Free PDFs and Conference Files section (www.creativemathematics.com).  Those questions will make your life easy to have a intensive and meaningful conversation with your class about number sense!

Here I am in Franklin, Tennessee ready for two workshops tomorrow!  One for K-4 and one for 5-8.  I love the topic-“Classroom Management of a Balanced Mathematics Program.”  This topic is something I think about every day.  How can we maximize the time we have for mathematics and not waste a moment while including reinforcement of skills, drill and practice, teaching of content and small groups for a RTI model.  Watch for some future blogs taking apart this model of balance!

Excited to be previewing my new class locally (Fun with Fractions!) in February and then on the road in March!!!  I have taken the theme of proportional reasoning that accommodates all the standards of fractions starting in first grade and going through fifth grade!  Lots of new tools and games coming.

Holidays were so great with our daughter, Halley, home for almost two weeks!  Our world was right!  Finally had a month of much-needed rain!  Christmas was sweet!

Mathematically yours,