Elementary Resources

[Phil Wagner]

So its happened. My 5 year old son came home from school and said, "I hate math." Not a happy moment for me.

I talked it over with the teacher and she said she's not happy either that the curriculum she's been assigned has doubled the amount of identifying shapes and other less exciting activities.

She gave us this attached document with various websites to try. Some of them make me cringe while others, like Illuminations I was surprised by how quickly he became bored.

He loves building with Legos and Minecraft, drawing, reading, and in general loves playing and learning. If anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate it as most of my experience is with middle/high school resources and ideas.

Thanks!

[Oleg]

Dear Phil,

I work for LAMC, Los Angeles Math Circle run by UCLA Math. Dept. A part of it, the Early Elementary Circle is aimed at 6 and 7-year-olds. We post all our materials on-line for free.

Please take a look at a sample handout.

http://www.math.ucla.edu/~radko/circles/lib/data/Handout-770-871.pdf

You will find more at the following URL.

www.math.ucla.edu/~radko/circles/calendar.shtml?group=Early+Elementary

If you see something you may not know, like pigpen ciphers from the first handout for this academic year, just look it up in Wikipedia. Our program is time-tested, so you wouldn't waste your time.

To see the handouts from the years past, please take a look at our archive.

http://www.math.ucla.edu/~radko/circles/archive.shtml?

Another free Internet resource is my book "Modern Math for Elementary Students" kindly posted by Maria at the following URL.

http://www.naturalmath.com/DeltaStreamMedia/OlegGleizer_ModernMathK2.pdf

Hope this helps.

Oleg

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[Maria Droujkova]

Organize a math circle for your kid and his friends, Phil. If not you, who then?

We had a lot of LEGO activities last time I ran a calculus circle for little ones: http://www.moebiusnoodles.com/tag/inspired-by-calculus/

There is also a book called I Hate Math that may be therapeutic. Full of good activities, too.

Cheers,
Dr. Maria Droujkova

moebiusnoodles.com
919-388-1721

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[Mike Thayer]

These suggestions to help Phil & his son are fine, but what about the larger issue of students being taught soul-deadening math in school? What about conversations with the math supervisor? What about petitions? What about conversations with state & local officials about Common Core, standards, state testing, the whole nine yards? I love math circles and think they can be a great adjunct solution, but (a) not every kid lives in a place where such a thing is practical, and (b) they're not a replacement for meaningful math instruction IN classrooms.

-mike

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http://hyperbolicguitars.blogspot.com

Twitter: @mthayer_nj

[Julia Brodsky]

Phil, 

this is very sad, and it is even more sad that many families find themselves in this situation. Mike suggests to fight the system, but it will not help your son in the near-term. 

The first thing I would do is to sit with your son and make a list of what specifically he likes and dislikes about math, what bothers him the most. This will destroy the generalization " I hate math". Then, together with him, come up with a list of solutions of what can be done ( clever sabotage is also a solution :).  Try to explain the situation to him, showing all pros and cons. Ask him to invent better ways to teach math to his peers. Try to cooperate with the teacher to implement those ways in school. Other words, turn the case of boring math into a fun, challenge problem for him, that would allow him to change the world to the better.

Julia Brodsky
www.artofinquiry.net

[Maria Droujkova]

On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 6:20 AM, Mike Thayer <michael....@gmail.com> wrote:

These suggestions to help Phil & his son are fine, but what about the larger issue of students being taught soul-deadening math in school? What about conversations with the math supervisor? What about petitions? What about conversations with state & local officials about Common Core, standards, state testing, the whole nine yards?

I'd like to learn how to do these parts well. Do you have any success stories to share? I'd love to see what people have done at these levels that worked well.

 

I love math circles and think they can be a great adjunct solution, but (a) not every kid lives in a place where such a thing is practical, and (b) they're not a replacement for meaningful math instruction IN classrooms.

If you don't have any math circles at your place, start one, and more than just your kid will benefit. A good dad like Phil is a direct asset to the community, and a math circle is an independent way to immediately share that goodness. I agree that strong instruction in one place won't directly cure problems of another place. And yet, there are always indirect influences that are sometimes quite lovely.  

[Mike Thayer]

On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 4:53 PM, Maria Droujkova <drou...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 6:20 AM, Mike Thayer <michael....@gmail.com> wrote:

These suggestions to help Phil & his son are fine, but what about the larger issue of students being taught soul-deadening math in school? What about conversations with the math supervisor? What about petitions? What about conversations with state & local officials about Common Core, standards, state testing, the whole nine yards?

I'd like to learn how to do these parts well. Do you have any success stories to share? I'd love to see what people 

have done at these levels that worked well.

Talking with supervisors - you call them up and make an appointment. Talk to other parents - I've given talks at my church, for example. If you feel strongly enough about a particular issue, petitions at least get the ball rolling.

 

 

I love math circles and think they can be a great adjunct solution, but (a) not every kid lives in a place where such a thing is practical, and (b) they're not a replacement for meaningful math instruction IN classrooms.

If you don't have any math circles at your place, start one, and more than just your kid will benefit. A good dad like Phil is a direct asset to the community, and a math circle is an independent way to immediately share that goodness. I agree that strong instruction in one place won't directly cure problems of another place. And yet, there are always indirect influences that are sometimes quite lovely.  

I agree that he is an asset, but he's also in a major city and tech center. Exactly the kind of place where a math circle could easily get traction and the numbers of people to make it possible. That's not everywhere. Also, it doesn't address the classroom component itself. I love informal learning, but if that's the only mechanism we've got to get kids interested in mathematics that's a huge problem.

 

-mike

[Maria Droujkova]

On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 9:50 PM, Mike Thayer <michael....@gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 4:53 PM, Maria Droujkova <drou...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 6:20 AM, Mike Thayer <michael....@gmail.com> wrote:

These suggestions to help Phil & his son are fine, but what about the larger issue of students being taught soul-deadening math in school? What about conversations with the math supervisor? What about petitions? What about conversations with state & local officials about Common Core, standards, state testing, the whole nine yards?

I'd like to learn how to do these parts well. Do you have any success stories to share? I'd love to see what people 

have done at these levels that worked well.

Talking with supervisors - you call them up and make an appointment. Talk to other parents - I've given talks at my church, for example. If you feel strongly enough about a particular issue, petitions at least get the ball rolling.

 

 

I'd like to specify what type of success stories I seek here. When a kid claimed to hate math, and parents did something from the list you made (conversations with the math supervisor, petitions, conversations with state officials...), and as a result, the kid turned around and changed his or her relationships with math - but also, it helped other kids around. Do you have success stories like that? I'd like to learn from those.

 

[Mike Thayer]

Got it. Mostly it's been parents who have had conversations with me, and I've pointed them to supervisors etc. I've talked with the math supervisor in the district we live in, as well as supervisors elsewhere, and they all genuinely want kids to have better relationships with mathematics. But to point to a particular kid whose mathematical life has turned around because their parents have had those kinds of conversations - sadly I cannot. I'm dreaming, I suppose, but only because I can't think of what else to do beyond hoping someone outside of the schools will help.

[Maria Droujkova]

On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 10:10 PM, Mike Thayer <michael....@gmail.com> wrote:

 

I'd like to specify what type of success stories I seek here. When a kid claimed to hate math, and parents did something from the list you made (conversations with the math supervisor, petitions, conversations with state officials...), and as a result, the kid turned around and changed his or her relationships with math - but also, it helped other kids around. Do you have success stories like that? I'd like to learn from those.

Got it. Mostly it's been parents who have had conversations with me, and I've pointed them to supervisors etc. I've talked with the math supervisor in the district we live in, as well as supervisors elsewhere, and they all genuinely want kids to have better relationships with mathematics. But to point to a particular kid whose mathematical life has turned around because their parents have had those kinds of conversations - sadly I cannot. I'm dreaming, I suppose, but only because I can't think of what else to do beyond hoping someone outside of the schools will help.

I think action directed right at kids is quite helpful. What Julia said - work with the kid, see what makes sense to him. What you do with music and math and kids, at Hyperbolic Guitars, that sort of ideas. I've seen direct action with kids making a difference. Helping people who work directly with kids can be very effective too, if these people have power to change the way they do things. So I have lots of hope about parents...

[Anna Roys]

When my home educated sons were about that age our family had great fun together coming up with our own units of measure, such as their pinkie fingers,  buttons, sticks, toys, whatever was laying around -  measuring everything we could think of and keeping records giving them practice writing numbers.   Typically being able to count to 20 is reasonable at that age, so we counted rocks and  and made  vatious sets of them by categorizing ones with certain characteristcs.

Now I am a tenured certified teacher K-8, but back then we were just having family fun.

Anna

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[Melissa T]

Hi everyone, 

Resource Room Math teacher just chiming in that I am very interested in this conversation and hope that it continues.  I am one of those people that are fighting against the Common Core and its developmentally inappropriate components, along with the related high stakes testing that is putting undue pressure on students, teachers, and schools. I feel that this is causing a lot of the math anxiety and leading kids to "hate math".  

Alas, I still have to follow the standards and do my best in my classroom.  Looking for further ideas!

Melissa Tomlinson

[David Chandler]

For several years I taught a class for mixed elementary grades, 2nd and up, (at a charter school for homeschoolers) called "Math Explorations."  I described it to people as "stuff that doesn't look like math."  Attached is a topic list.

I had one girl in particular who was brought to class with major math anxiety.  After attending a few sessions this was her favorite class.  She had major improvements in the spring standardized testing even though the class did not cover any traditiona math "skills."  I think it just relaxed her about a dreaded topic.

The topics were things I dreamed up based on my own intuitive sense that there was potential for some level of fascination, whether it was "math" or not.

--David Chandler

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[Phil Wagner]

Thank you all these are great resources/suggestions. I'll follow up someday to update how things are going.

[Bradford Hansen-Smith]

Phil, go to wholemovement.com to the "how to fold" page. Together fold what is there and look for the math each of you know, then discuss what you see that you do not know. Explore together each bringing to the other what is there to be discovered.

Bradford Hansen-Smith
www.wholemovement.com