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Digi Blocks are Fun and Engaging!

It is Wednesday and almost Winter Break (7 more school days to be exact) but I wanted to begin chronicling our work with Digiblocks. I have found that in many of the classrooms, I work in, the understanding of base 10 and the ratio of 10 in our number system was a very difficult task. The students at this age level ( k-2) are still continuing to count one by one and also have a difficult time understanding re-grouping. I was on the web and I stumbled upon da da da DIGI BLOCKS. The Digiblocks are a great tool to help with this.!!!! I have tried using base ten blocks and other tools but students still had a difficult time understanding when to create a group of 10 ones and turn it into a 1 set of 10. The design of the Digiblocks creates a very concrete, interactive visual for students about the base 10 system. I am all about using what you got but this experiment with DIGIBLOCKs seems so far  like it is well worth the cost investment.

So, we began using Digiblocks today.  I wanted to make this a fun and engaging introductory lesson. I used a Counting Collections format.  Here is some information about Counting Collections, from Scholastic. It is based on the work of Megan Franke at UCLA lab school, she is a contributor to the theory behind CGI Cognitively Guided Instruction. I have had the awesome pleasure of hearing her speak every year for the last 4 years. She is mathtastic and this coming from someone who did not enjoy math until adulthood.  First, we divided into pairs, then I gave them almost no direction other then count your collections.  And this is what it looked like....

Here they are counting their Collections, We had started with some Number Routines using the 100's chart.

With little direction they were able to count the DigiBlock collection they were counting single digi- blocks (I used the words one, single, units to give depth to their math vocab.) their classroom teacher

( Mrs. Esh) was impressed with their engagement. I was too they were working together counting and counting and counting.  I did set a timer to give them a sense of urgency and it worked. Next, we had to step it up a bit. I had given them a little heads up during our Number Routines by having them count from various numbers for example: I asked them to start at 7 and stop and 52 counting by ones, My question was: How many sets of 10 can you create with this number set we counted? The students were able to circle sets of 10 but really what made this POP was when I showed them the 10 holder.  They were fascinated by these. I had them estimate how many holders they might need and then they began to fill the holders with 10 single digi-units. On the Digiblock website there is a video that shows if each holder does not have 10 the holder would not close to make 1 set of 10. I did not believe it but it is true, it will not lock unless it is a complete set of 10. LOVE THIS ! also their is a tiny embossed 5  inside the holder when it is filled with 5. WOW!! this will be cool and useful in future lessons. 

Here they are they made stacks of ten then put them in the holders to create a new value for 1, 1 set of 10 instead of 1 unit this the most difficult in the base 10 system for young mathematicians to comprehend changing the name of what they counted.  They were surprised at how easily they counted by 10's then the knew instinctively that they could not count the single digi blocks as 10's Not ONE PAIR COUNTED THE SINGLES BY 10's  WOO HOOO!!!! with base 10 blocks this does not happen kiddos usually continue to count the singles by 10's. For example: If they had 4 ten sticks and 3 ones they may count it, 10 -20 -30-40 -50 - 60-70.  Next week, they want me to take their 10 holders and but them into 100 holders to see how many sets of 100 they counted altogether as a class. We are going to open our lesson next week with this idea. I am also going to introduce our Math Notebooks where we are going to keep track of our Counting Collections, Digiblock work and other math work. Today was a good day for these young Mathematicians.

Here they are stacking sets of ten.

Now they have moved on to putting the singles in to 10 holders. NOT one group counting the singles as 10's they all knew to switch back to counting by 1's. LOVE IT. Way to Go MUSTANGS.

I thought this was a great connection. They used their 100 chart to organize their counting. These two boys said" YES, we came up with a cool strategy." when I walked over to take a picture of it. They were right!

FLocabulary!

Okay, it has been awhile. I have had two sick make that three sick kids including my husband but they are all on their way to recovery now. Thanksgiving was great I am thankful for so much but right now I am going to be thankful for my job. I have been modeling lessons in classrooms and one thing that I found to be successful in the kindergarten classrooms was music and math. I sorted my math songs in itunes into one playlist. It was comprised mostly of Heidi Songs and Have fun Teaching.

We played several games that I will post later that involved physical movement with the songs. I wanted to expand this so I looked through my 4th grade lesson plans to see how I incorporated music in 4th grade. I found a good old friend, Flocabulary. I have been preparing my next set of modeled lessons to include Flocabulary.

 Now, let me tell you all the reasons why I love it.
1.First, I have used it before but since I am a traveling teacher I did not purchase a subscription this year and Flocabulary generously has let me have subscription to use in all my classrooms.

2. The songs on Flocabulary are really catchy and well written and appeal to even the coolest of cool kids. They hire professionals to write the hooks and lay down the tracks and it is very clear when you listen to the songs.

3. It it so much more than just a song to engage students.  Now, you can print the lyrics for the your kiddos to go home a learn or sing along with the streaming video.

4. I was at a training with several of my teachers and one of the most frequently asked questionswas" What do you do if they do not know their math facts?" So I began to research and found a couple of neat books that I will post about later.
Mastering the Basic Math Facts in Addition and Subtraction , By Susan O' Connell and John SanGiovanni I previewed the book online and loved that it focused on both fact fluency and conceptual understanding. When you add Flocabulary to these lessons you have a 21century lesson based on conceptual understanding and Common Core Standards.
Here is an example of a Common Core aligned math Flocabulary video

This lovely video is about basic math fact adding 0. 

• CCSS.Math.Content.1.OA.C.6 Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10. Use strategies such as counting on; making ten (e.g., 8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14); decomposing a number leading to a ten (e.g., 13 – 4 = 13 – 3 – 1 = 10 – 1 = 9); using the relationship between addition and subtraction (e.g., knowing that 8 + 4 = 12, one knows 12 – 8 = 4); and creating equivalent but easier or known sums (e.g., adding 6 + 7 by creating the known equivalent 6 + 6 + 1 = 12 + 1 = 13). 
• This hits this CCSS pretty clearly. Then I found Chapter 3 of Mastering basic math facts had a series of conceptual lessons about Adding pretty dang cool alignment. 
• 5. I went further in Flocabulary to find many other resources as well, like problem solving test using algebraic thinking.  There is an abundance of resources on Flocabulary well beyond these it also has ideas on how to teach the creation piece, how to get kids to both analyze and create their own interpretations of the Flocabulary videos. Thusly it truly is bringing Common Core into your classroom.

Okay, so those are just 5 reasons I have many more but I would like you to see and listen for yourself. 

Here is one of their great math videos on youtube! Check it out These are so fun!

Happy Teaching!