Number Sense K to 3: Are You Teaching the BASICS?

Who should attend

Classroom Teachers, Learning Coaches, Content Coaches, Instructional Leaders and Aides

About this learning opportunity

Five years into the revised curriculum implementation and time to take stock. What are the BASICS in this revised curriculum and how do you sequence instruction to provide for the most success for the most number of students? All manipulatives do not lead to meaning and some can actually block or prevent understanding. Moving from manipulatives to the mathematics they uncover is a carefully orchestrated process and this workshop will share with you a series of clearly defined pathways to getting students to fluency.

Develop a year plan that focuses on integration, differentiation and building student confidence and competence with number, number facts and solving number problems.

The models you choose and the way you integrate them into your Instruction and Assessment matters.

We will work with models to develop BASIC thinking skills, BASIC number properties and BASIC number relationships that students will encounter over and over as they continue through school. Sequencing models this way requires students to apply themselves to their learning because it puts the focus on engagement: thinking, reasoning, gaming, puzzling and learning to evidence and explain solutions.

This approach deliberately includes students in setting & reaching learning goals, and in evaluating and reporting on their personal progress. The result is students who not just “know” but can deliberately “apply” Basic Facts to solve problems.

How important is equality? When and how should I teach it? Are dot collections enough? Why are kids still counting? What do we do with fingers? Why just five in Kindergarten? Ten frames: A tool for thinking? A crutch for counting? Or just mimicking answers? BE CAREFUL..... What do we do with subtraction? When do we work with equations? Hundred charts, numberlines, skip counting and place value. What do I teach ? When? Why it does matter! This workshop will include Chunk Its a manipulative that bridges the gap from collection to ten frames. This workshop will include work with Cuisenaire Rods A tool for thinking that bridges the gap from block collections to Empty Numberlines.

All addition and subtraction strategies are not created equal! Some of the strategies demonstrated in the current assortment of available resources can actually do more harm than good if we let students continue to practice them.
All manipulatives do not lead to meaning. Using manipulatives poorly is worse than not using them at all. The strategies we discuss and practice are ideal for the inclusive Alberta classroom as they allow for multiple points of entry and provide levels of challenge to meet the needs of a wide range of learners.