Group Problem Solving is 31-Wonderful!

One of the first activities I tried with my students this year was a card game that I found on Sarah's  blog:  Everybody is a Genius   If you teach grade 5 math or higher, this is definitley a blog to follow.  Sarah does a great job of sharing her ideas, and her math notebooks with the blogging community, and I am super grateful for that!
Last year, Sarah wrote about a game she played with her classes called 31-Wonderful.
This photo is courtesy of SARAH at Everybody is a Genius

It is a card game of strategy where students need to create a 5x5 array using 25 cards of their choice.  The rows and columns must add up to 31.  It involves strategy and problem solving which really made it interesting for me on the second day of school.  I gained a HUGE amount of insight as to what my sixth graders were capable of, and how they worked together.  We have our work cut out for us this year mathematically, but it was really nice to see most of the groups get along and work collaboratively.


This week we are finishing up our baseline testing.  We use AIMS Web, so my students had to take a baseline for M-CAP and M-COMP. We will also begin using our Pearson DIGITS program as well.  I spent time last week setting up the basics of my Interactive Notebook for math, so we are ready to launch our math workshop model.  That will be an interesting addition for me this year.  I am really hoping to make it work within the 42 minutes I'm scheduled for math.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!  I'd love to hear your tips and tricks for launching!

And speaking of needing work as a community, I'm taking a moment to reflect a little on the importance of September 11th with my class today.  It is amazing to think that these Smarties were not even born when our country was faced with this adversary.  Why not show kindness in your community and Pay it Forward today?

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