Saturday, October 20, 2012

Common Core Standards for Math in First Grade

We will implement the first grade Common Core Standards for Math beginning next school year. This year is a transition year. Our district is providing us with training to help make the changes.

A few ideas and points from our last training:


The Teaching Channel site has videos on lesson ideas and teaching practices. Many of the videos include lessons using the Common Core Standards for Math. The videos can be viewed for free.

Counting, building numbers, problem solving, and number work will be areas of focus this year for my class.  A resource for number work is:


Number Talks by Sherry Parrish

Some of the topics included in the book are using real life contexts, using models and tools to anchor student strategies, and number talks specific to first grade.

One of the tools that we discussed in our training and is discussed in the book are rekenreks.

Rekenreks have two rows of beads. Each row has 10 beads. The 10 beads are made up of two different colors {5 of one color and 5 of the other color}. They can be used for counting, adding, subtracting, making different number combinations to 20 and more. The Math Learning Center has information on using rekenreks as visual models. 

We saw some samples of rekenreks made by teachers. The backing was made of heavy cardboard or mat board. Two different colored beads were strung on a heavy beading elastic. The elastic went through holes in the board and were secured with tape on the back. You can find directions for making rekenreks at K5 Math Teaching Resources.

The students in my room will have lots of experiences with problem solving. Sometimes I use student names in the problems. It makes it more personal and the students enjoy working out problems about their classmates.

Other times I connect the problems to seasonal topics. I created a packet of first grade story problems that could be used throughout the fall season. Math addition story problems for FALL, HALLOWEEN, and THANKSGIVING are included. The story problems contain different problem types and a range of numbers for each problem. Click on the picture to preview FALL MATH Addition Story Problems


I would love to hear about some of your first grade Common Core Standards math tips and ideas.


1 comment:

  1. That book is on my list of math books to buy. I'll be using rekenreks this week for the first time. I'm looking forward to it!
    ❀ Tammy
    Forever in First

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.