Knee Deep In Problem Solving!!!!

Hi friends!
Well I have certainly learned a lot this week!  We are into our second week of problem solving and I was quite delighted with how well my little kiddos seemed to be grasping the various strategies.  I wanted to get some our learning up on the wall - visual reminders of how much we are learning.  I wanted the kids to solve the problem using a number line, tens frames, and drawing a picture.  That should be easy right?  Nope!!  It was what stumped them that surprised me.  They couldn't draw tens frames!!  This shocked somewhat surprised me since we have used tens frames off and on since September!  Suddenly my kids thought tens (and I emphasize the word "TENS") frames should have 21 boxes!  Seriously???   So we spent 15 minutes just practicing drawing tens frames - who knew?  I found this interesting because when we are going over Provincial testing results we often wonder where the learning breaks down - it could simply be that they didn't know how to draw a tens frame!!!  Once they got a hang of the whole tens frame thing we were off to the races!

Then we did a super cute bulletin board display.  In keeping with our movie theme I chose 12 different movie  characters and made a problem for each character.  The kids each picked their favourite character and then did the corresponding problem.  They decorated their character and added some glitter - because everything looks better with glitter - even Superman!

So the great news is that I have added 59 pages to my problem solving unit "Problem Solving Super Stars" - just click HERE if you're interested:)   I added another problem solving booklet and all the problems and characters to make your own bulletin board!

Enjoy your weekend!

Bye for now,

Natalie