The Build Math Minds Podcast Christina Tondevold

It is commonly thought that Geometry in the early grades is just about getting kids to name and identify shapes.  There are actually 4 big ideas talked about in the Navigating Through Geometry book.  One of which is the work around two- and three-dimensional shapes but it is so much more than just naming & identifying shapes.   In this episode we take a look at what knowledge kids in PreK-2 should be developing around shapes and the types of experiences you can provide to help them develop it. Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/165 
 

There are 4 main strategies children tend to use to solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems.  These math strategies are not tricks.  Their foundations are built on number relationships and properties of operations.  In the Math Strategy Sessions we have already explored 3 of the strategies and our next session is focused on helping kids use and understand the Inverse Operation Strategy (https://buildmathminds.com/strategy-sessions to register).  This is more than just helping kids know Fact Families, it’s about helping them understand the meanings of the operations and the connections between Addition-Subtraction and Multiplication-Division.  Helping your students develop the Inverse Operation Strategy will last them the rest of their lives.  In this episode I’m sharing the first books I read that highlighted the importance of helping kids develop the strategy.  I never learned I could solve a subtraction problem with addition (or division with multiplication) until I was an adult.  Kids should be building this understanding way before I did.  Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/164 

There are lots of Problems of Teaching when you are helping young kids learn mathematics.  One of the hardest ones is helping your students to be successful learners, constantly trying to manage a large classroom of students who often are not very productive. In the book Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching by Dr. Magdalene Lampert, there was a line in the chapter Teaching Students to Be People Who Study in School, that still has me thinking: “...if we view students’ productive or unproductive actions in the classroom as expressions of who they think they are, then classroom management merges with something that might be called ‘academic character education.’”  That whole section of the book got me thinking of things you could do in your classroom to help your students be students who study mathematics, which in turn helps them to be successful learners.  Listen for my 4 ways to help your students be successful learners of mathematics.   Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/163 

In this video I’m sharing a part of a book that made me go “Hmm, I’ve never really thought about that!”  It has to do with just how precise we can actually be when measuring items. One of the Standards of Mathematical Practice is “Attend to Precision” which is about being precise in all mathematical vocabulary and content, but just how precise should we make students be when it comes to measurement?  Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/162  

I love pies, Pecan Pie especially, but I don’t love them during math time.  Pies, well circles in general, are an overused visual when it comes to the teaching of fractions.  In this video we take a look at visual fraction models that are much better to use and will be helpful to your students as they progress into other mathematical concepts like percentages, ratios, etc.  Get any links mentioned in this video at BuildMathMinds.com/161 

After the 2024 Virtual Math Summit, there was so much mention of using Sentence Stems I wanted to dig a bit deeper into them.  In my research I stumbled upon an old blog post by one of my favorite Math-y people, Sara Van Der Werf.  In this podcast episode I’m sharing a piece of her blog post that talks about one tweak you can make to Think/Pair/Share (or Turn & Talk) to help get your students more engaged in the math discussion.  Take a listen and go to buildmathminds.com/160 for any links mentioned in the episode.