“Why?” is a question I hear often when discussing taking learning outside. I would like to share just a few of the many reasons I have learned from my experiences of taking math outside. It is FUN! Yep, I said it. And who doesn’t like fun? And shouldn’t learning be joyful? Besides creating a positive… [Read More]
Mrs. Lewia’s Class: Math with Leaves
In the month of October, we have been using our surroundings and the world around us to help connect us to math in many different ways. The first week when we noticed the leaves starting to fall, we made some information observations as we walked into the woods about the changes that were happening. “they’re… [Read More]
Nature Splat
We started this school year with a focus on number sense and one of the ways that we did this was using Steve Wyboney’s Splats. Splats are a visual representation of numbers with part of the image covered. Students have to use number sense to find the missing information. My middle school students made the… [Read More]
Bippity, Boppity.. Management!
Classroom management strategies is one of the most discussed topics by educators. We live it everyday, yet we are always searching for the ultimate technique that will work in every situation. The truth is, there’s no magic wand. There are too many variables inside and outside the classroom to have one easy fix, but isn’t… [Read More]
Failure: An Opportunity to Learn
“Mathematicians, today we are going to pretend that we are surveyors! Do you know what a surveyor does? They use data and measurements to determine boundaries of a piece of land. We are going to gather our own data today within the boundaries of our outdoor classroom!” What happens when you ask 40 second graders… [Read More]
Array Building
“Wait, we are going outside for math, and you don’t want us to bring anything with us?!” Without any pre teaching I asked my students to put their materials down, grab their jackets, and meet me by the back door. As we entered the playground I instructed them to find natural objects (mass quantity) to… [Read More]
Angling Around the Woods
While learning about different kinds of angles, I had asked my students to find examples around the classroom. We then thought, ” Where else we might find them ‘in real-life’ ?” The obvious next step was to look outside. I like to have students use non-standard measuring tools to estimate dimensions (something many of us… [Read More]
With Teamwork and Sticks!
We have been learning about what arrays are and how to use them to represent multiplication equations. Last week, my class went into the woods to take on the challenge of creating arrays themselves with the help of the natural resources around them. Students worked in teams of two to use natural objects to create… [Read More]
Building Arrays in Nature
When learning about multiplication you have to understand the concept of equal groups. When you have equal groups it has the same number of items as all of the other groups. In order for the students to understand what I meant, I had the students arrange themselves into equal groups. However, they could only have… [Read More]