Beginning of the Year
Welcome to My First Blog Post!!
MATH STATION MATERIALS
Using Links
Welcome to my new math blog! After years of teaching, I hope to now help teachers and parents, as well as others interested in free and inexpensive math activities, foster the love of math in children. Thank you for stopping by to visit; please feel free to ask any questions or leave comments about ideas you have used with similar materials. Let’s get started!
For my first blog post, I would like to share the material called ‘Links’. Links can have multi-purposes so I made these activities to be not just a one-time activity. Your time is valuable so let’s get as much mileage as possible with the same material. Links, as most hands-on materials are not only fun and engaging but also a way, to get everyone excited about math as they are hands on and encourage ‘math talk’ with peers.
In the beginning of each year, I like to establish usage guidelines for all the hands-on manipulative materials we will be using throughout the year. Some of the materials may be new to students or I may have different expectations and uses from their prior experiences. Initially, I introduce and model each manipulative material to the whole group. Then it can be used as an activity either with a partner, small groups, or independently, in a rotation choice station.
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| Linking by color It is worth spending this extra time in the beginning of the year so that each child knows the guidelines and proper uses; this also allows you the time in the future to work with other students, conferencing, or in some other capacity instead of being the ‘station guard’. |
Many of you may not have links in your room but do not worry. Any materials that have 4 attributes will work just fine. Some examples include square links, colored paper clips (Dollar Tree), unifix cubes, counters (teddy bear, colored circles, etc…).
Suggestions to Get You Off to Great Start
Be sure to give students time to explore the links, especially if they haven’t had prior experience with them. In this lesson, I used oval links, but you may have other types of links, such as square links. When exploring they may string them together which is fine but later be sure to distinguish how to properly use as a math tool and not free constructing time.
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| These are the free exploring things I designed. |
Review the idea of ‘patterns’ and discuss the naming of patterns, such as ABC, 123, etc.
I have used this activity with both small groups and as a rotating center. It is helpful to introduce this activity at the beginning of the year in order for students to understand how to correctly use the links (otherwise, they tend to just make designs or strings as in free exploring) and to become familiar with ideas of naming and identifying patterns.
For this particular patterning activity, you will need links or materials with 4 different attributes and pattern cards. There is also a blank sheet for you to make your own patterns, using numbers or other symbols instead of letters-ABCD, or children can write their own ideas. Please download the freebie at my teacherspayteachers store-MakeMathMagic https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Make-Math-Magic and use in whatever manner works for you.
I initially made these pattern cards to be used with Links but have used them for other activities such as sorting, categorizing, etc. I introduce Links at the beginning of the year, so we can properly use them later for adding, subtracting, multiplication arrays. At the end of this posting, I will have photos of ways I have used Links for 1 to 1 counting, adding, subtraction and multiplication arrays.
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| AB and ABC Pattern Cards |
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| ABB and AABCDD Pattern Cards Directions |
1. Turn all the cards face down. Depending upon the level of your students, you may wish to separate and use only some of the pattern cards. For instance, the most simplistic pattern is AB; some are more sophisticated such as ABCDBBD. You decide when and how is the most appropriate use of the cards.
2. Once the students have decided which color link is going to be an A-B-C-D, they are ready to represent that pattern with the links, or whatever material they are using. They need to reproduce the pattern at least2 to 3 times in order to show they understand that the pattern continues in that order.
3. Ask the students to do several pattern cards and then share their thinking with a friend or partner. If friend or partner agrees, they may move on to other cards.
4. You can decide if you want them to select 2 or 3 of their patterns to draw in their journals. When I did this, I discouraged using it as an ‘art project’ but rather encouraged them to simply show and name the patterns. An example might be to draw a line in that color to represent the Link color.
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| Pattern Cards |
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| Blank Pattern Car |
I initially made these pattern cards to be used with Links but have used them for other activities such as sorting, categorizing, etc. I introduce Links at the beginning of the year, so we can properly use them later for adding, subtracting, multiplication arrays. At the end of this posting, I will have photos of ways I have used Links for 1 to 1 counting, adding, subtraction and multiplication arrays.
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| Pattern Cards Included |
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