"Poetry? I thought you teach math?!"

Many students (eventually, adults) dislike or are disinterested in math because they see it as boring and limited-- problems assigned in textbooks/homework, or as just another subject learned in school. One of my goals is for your student to enjoy math, to see it as relevant and useful in everyday life outside of school, perhaps even interesting, as we discover patterns and challenge ourselves to "solve puzzles and mysteries". This year, I have started integrating more literature and reading comprehension strategies into our math workshop. One of my favorites has been our poem of the week. Each week, I select a poem with mathematical connections. At dismissal, we've been reading and interacting with the poems each day to help us practice the skill of visualizing, which is crucial to problem solving. Mondays I read the poem aloud, then the students join in the reading. Tuesdays we focus on unknown vocabulary terms. Wednesdays we look for a math skill connected to the poem. Thursdays we interact with the poem through movements or assigning parts (the students love this!). Fridays we practice visualizing-- brainstorming what we "see" and illustrating the poem.

I look forward to sharing more ways we're making math meaningful and igniting our curiosity and sense to wonder. Today was also Jaguar Spirit Day!

Stay tuned! Soon we'll be using football to continue building our number sense. Have a great weekend! :-)