Using Thinking Maps in Math

As most of you may know after reading previous blog posts, I'm a big fan of thinking maps. Well, lucky for me, my new school uses thinking maps too!  So, today we started using thinking maps in math.  Our assignment in Everyday Math was to show how numbers have equivalent forms and that there is more than one way to write a number. Well this fits in perfectly to thinking maps and perfectly into differentiation. 

Here we made a circle map as a class coming up with numbers that equaled 10.  This was my time to model how to do the activity and also show kids how there are many ways to come up with a number. I love when they start to see that it doesn't just have to be two numbers added together - that it could be 5+2+3 and I love when they see the various subtraction sentences too.

 

 

Here's a student sample. I gave each partnership a different number. For my kiddos who have a hard time with math, I gave them a number below 10 - 7, 8, 9

 

*Disclaimer* Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to finish these in our math block so you are just seeing the beginning stages.

 

 

For my kiddos, who are ready for more of a challenge I gave them numbers in the teens up to 20.  Eventually this activity will be moved into math stations and kids can choose from a variety of numbers - especially friendly numbers - 20, 30, 40, 50, etc. to get them familiar with using those friendly numbers throughout math.

 

My goal is to post more during the week and with school getting into full swing that has been a little difficult. But, I'm hopeful tomorrow to have a post on my introductory math stations.  Have a great night!