Virtual Manipulative - Money Grades 3-5

This manipulative is very useful for students who may need extra practice with basic money concepts. There are three skills that students can practice involving money. Students can work with making coins equal to $1.00, identify how much money is shown, and placing the requested amount into the box. This is a very basic manipulative but would be great for lower level kids or kids who need some reinforcement.

Cuisenaire Rods Lesson Plan - Plots and Paths

Anticipatory Set:
Complete/Review Do Now and homework

Learning Expectations:
* compute the perimeter and area of shapes
* compare shapes with the same area
* discover that shapes with the same area can have different perimeters

Activities:
* Arrange three Cuisenaire Rods—two reds and a yellow—on grid paper so that the rods lie within the grid lines and at least one centimeter of each rod touches another. Trace around your shape.
* Remove the rods and show the class your “plot.” Have children confirm that the area of your plot—the part that could be covered with grass—is 9 square units.
* Ask children to figure out how long a “path” is needed to go completely around the edge of your plot.
* Reinforce the understanding that the perimeter of your plot—the “path”—is 16 units by counting and numbering each unit.
* What happens when you make different-shaped plots with the same set of Cuisenaire Rods? Use 2 whites, 2 reds, 2 light greens to create a plot. Record on the grid paper and calculate the perimeter and the area. Use the same 6 rods to create additional plots. Record and calculate perimeters and areas. Discussion Questions: What is the shortest possible perimeter? What is the longest? How are plots with the same-length paths the same? How are they different?
* FasttMath, Virtual Manipulatives

Assessments:
* teacher observations, student-directed discussion, drawings

Materials:
* communicators, cuisenaire rods, cm grid paper

Tech Infusion:
Promethean board - flipchart, laptops, voters

Accomodations/Modifications:
* teacher designed groups
* differentiated assignments/activities (centers to reach all levels)
* extended time-classwork/assessments(when needed)
* restructured homework assignments for both above level and below level students
* use of manipulatives/graphic organizers
* extension activities/alternative assignments
* organizational strategies - notebooks/book boxes/folder systems
* cloze-notes/study sheets/practice sheets for further reinforcement
* modified assessments - M/C, SCR, ECR, O-E
* preferential seating
* seating near positive role model
* encouraging independence/student initiative
* includes a rich variety of resources, media ideas, methods and tasks
* proximity to teacher
* personalized monitoring tools (checklists, goal sheets, thumbs up/down level understanding monitors)
• Homework: Math - extended-constructed response
• Standards: MA.4.4.2.4 D.2.b, MA.4.4.2.4 E.1, MA.4.4.2.4 E.2

Virtual Manipulatives - Week 10 - Triominoes

This manipulative is found in Geometry - Grades 3-5. In triominoes students manipulate pieces to create a pattern. Pieces can be turned and flipped and need to be matched according to the color. When pieces are matched correctly they stick together. This is beneficial to help students practice manipulating pieces and visual thinking skills.

Buidling to Spec - Cuisenaire Rod lesson plan #2

Lesson Plan – J. Pisano
Building to Spec – Cuisenaire Rods Grades 3-4
Complete/Review Do Now and homework

Learning Expectations:
*construct shapes that satisfy a given set of conditions
* give and follow a set of directions
* compare different shapes that may result from the same set of clues

Activities:
* Give a set of clues and have students build a Cuisenaire Rod shape that fits the clues – allow pairs of students to adjust and discuss their solutions after each clue is given.
• The shape is a hollow square
• The shapes uses more than one color
• The shape has exactly six rods
• One of the rods is purple
* Share solutions and discuss how they are alike and different. Students complete On Their Own
* How many Cuisenaire Rod shapes can you build that satisfy a given set of clues?
1. Work with a group. Pick a set of clues. You will take turns removing clues from the envelope and reading them aloud.
2. After the first clue is read, you should make a shape that satisfies the clue. Check one another’s work. Your shapes may or may not look alike.
3. After the second clue is read, you may make changes to your shape to satisfy both clues. Check one another’s work.
4. Read the other clues, making any necessary changes.
5. Compare the final shapes to make sure that they each satisfy all 4 clues. Record your shapes.
6. When your group is finished return clues to envelope and choose another to repeat the activity.

Discussion questions – In what ways did you change your shape to satisfy a new clue? What type of clues did you find the hardest to satisfy? Explain. Do you think the order in which the clues came out of the envelope made a difference? Would a different order have made it easier to build the shape? Explain.

Extending the Activity
1. Students create a shape using 6 rods or fewer and write as many clues as they can to describe the shape.
2. Students work in pairs to create a shape and write a set of 4 clues that describes the shape. Exchange sets of clues and try to solve.

Assessments: teacher observations, game play and follow up discussion

Materials: Cuisenaire rods, 1-cm grid paper, clues
Tech Infusion: Promethean board – flipchart, laptops – Virtual Manipulatives website

Accomodations/Modifications:
* teacher designed groups
* differentiated assignments/activities (centers to reach all levels)
* extended time-classwork/assessments(when needed)
* restructured homework assignments for both above level and below level students
* use of manipulatives/graphic organizers
* extension activities/alternative assignments
* encouraging independence/student initiative
* includes a rich variety of resources, media ideas, methods and tasks
* proximity to teacher
* personalized monitoring tools (checklists, goal sheets, thumbs up/down level understanding monitors)

Homework: short-constructed response review
Standards: MA.4.4.5 A.1, MA.4.4.5 A.2.b, MA.4.4.5 A.5, MA.4.4.5 B.1.b, MA.4.4.5 B.2, MA.4.4.5 B.3, MA.4.4.5 D.2, MA.4.4.5 D.3, MA.4.4.5 D.4, MA.4.4.5 F.1

Geoboards Lesson - Area of Four

This lesson is found under Grades 3-4 Geoboards - Area of Four - Children use geoboards to make different shapes, each with an area of 4 square units.

Anticipatory Set:Complete/Review Do Now and homework

Learning Expectations:
· make shapes with a given area
· use a variety of methods for finding area
· discover that different shapes can have the same area

Activities:
Can you make different-looking Geoboard shapes that have the same area?
• With a partner, make at least 9 different Geoboard shapes, each with an area of 4 square units. Work together to decide how to measure the area of each shape.
• Record your shapes on geodot paper.
• Now choose 2 of your shapes to record on large geodot paper.

Have children take turns posting their larger drawings. Ask children to compare the posted shapes to see if any are congruent. Have them remove any duplicate shapes so that the posted solutions are all different.
Use prompts such as these to promote class discussion:
v How did you find new shapes?
v How did you make sure each shape had an area of 4 square units?
v For which shapes was finding area easy? For which shapes was it harder? Explain why.
v What do you notice when you look at the posted shapes?

Extending the Activity
1. Have children create categories by which to sort their posted shapes. Some examples might be number of sides, square corners/no square corners, parallel sides/no parallel sides.
2. Have children repeat the activity for shapes with areas of 3 or 5 square units.

Assessments:teacher observations, shapes, student-centered discussion

Materials/Tech Infusion:communicators, geoboards, laptops, Promethean board, Virtual Manipulative – geoboards

Accomodations/Modifications:* teacher designed groups* differentiated assignments/activities (centers to reach all levels) * extended time-classwork/assessments(when needed)* restructured homework assignments for both above level and below level students* use of manipulatives/graphic organizers* extension activities/alternative assignments* modified assessments - M/C, SCR, ECR, O-E* encouraging independence/student initiative* includes a rich variety of resources, media ideas, methods and tasks

· Homework: Math – open ended response question

Geoboard Lesson Plan - 3, 4, 5 and more

This lesson comes from Geoboards - Grades 3-4 on the lesson plan disk. This lesson allows children to make polygons with different numbers of sides on their Geoboards. They then investigate the similarities and differences.

Anticipatory Set:Complete/Review Do Now and homework
Learning Expectations:
*classify polygons according to the number of sides
* discuss attributes of geometric shapes
* use the language of geometry
Activities:
* How many different polygons can you make on the Geoboard?
• Work with your group. Each of you make a closed shape—a polygon—with 1 rubber band. Each person’s shape should have a different number of sides.
• Compare your shapes. Once you agree that each shape has a different number of sides, record your shape on geodot paper.
• Repeat this process until your group thinks it has made shapes with every different number of sides that it can.
• Record your square. Think about how you could rearrange the tiles to form a different solution. Look for other solutions. If you find any, record them, too. Be ready to explain the decisions you made.
** Students work with both geoboards and the virtual manipulatives.

Thinking and Sharing
Post children’s shapes into columns by number of sides. Begin by calling for shapes with three sides and continue by calling for shapes with an increasing number of sides. Label each column by the number of sides. Then, when all the shapes have been posted, write the appropriate geometric names above each column—Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Pentagons, Hexagons, Heptagons, Octagons, Nonogons, Decagons, and so on.

Use prompts such as these to promote class discussion:
* Look at the shapes in one column. How are they alike? Are any exactly the same?
* How are the shapes within a column different? Why are different-looking shapes in the same column?
* Which shapes were the hardest to make? the easiest?
* Do you think it is possible to make shapes with even more sides on the Geoboard? Explain.

Assessments:teacher observations, shapes, student-centered discussion

Materials/Tech Infusion:communicators, geoboards, laptops, Promethean board, Virtual Manipulative – geoboards

Accomodations/Modifications:
* teacher designed groups* differentiated assignments/activities (centers to reach all levels) * extended time-classwork/assessments(when needed)* restructured homework assignments for both above level and below level students* use of manipulatives/graphic organizers* extension activities/alternative assignments* modified assessments - M/C, SCR, ECR, O-E* encouraging independence/student initiative* includes a rich variety of resources, media ideas, methods and tasks
**** Homework: Math – open ended response question

Virtual Manipulatives - Geoboard Coordinate

I like this manipulative found under Geometry grades 3-5. This is similar to the basic geoboard manipulative where the students can place rubber bands and make shapes. It also shows the perimter and the area of each shape. This coordinate manipulative is useful to introduce students to the 4 quadrants and negative numbers. I have been working with my students on graphing ordered pairs and this allowed them to continue to explore the negative numbers and get comfortable working with them while creating their own designs.