I worked with a sweet little girl this summer, for the second year in a row, on maintaining her math skills during the break from school.
(She also happens to live across the street from me, so it makes it extra easy and fun.)
She's going into 3rd grade this year, so we did a lot of practicing basic skills that will come up over and over again, grade after grade.
Three of the most important skills we worked on solidifying were addition with carrying (when to do it and when not), subtracting with borrowing (same!) and becoming fluent with place value names.
As a 6th grade learning support teacher, I can safely say that those continue to be three major areas that students can continue to struggle in throughout the years. I know that I weave all three of those concepts into my curriculum lessons as much as I can.
It's especially important to keep referencing numbers by their place value name. As a teacher and a student, to keep saying, "The number in the ______ place is ______" or "The number in the ones place has to borrow from the tens place" instead of "This number borrows from this number."
Anyway, I decided to make process cards for her to keep remembering the when and WHY of these types of problems as she begins the school year (in a couple of weeks.....eeeek!!!)
Process cards are great for teaching and practicing any math skill, in any chapter, on any concept, in any grade. They provide a visual with CONCISE reminders/steps for completing a certain type of problem.
They are especially helpful for students that have trouble processing or remembering multi-step directions.
I've provided an example of the type of process cards I made for this particular student in case anyone would like to try using them in his or her classroom.
My suggestion for making them classroom friendly is to print it out in color, get it laminated, cut them into cards, punch a hole in the top left corner, and keep them on a ring like these, found on Amazon....
Loose Leaf Rings
I had NO idea what to call these things when I searched on Amazon, but here they are! I bought a box of 100 last school year and I use them for SO many things. If you use them for student process cards, you can have students add to their rings as the year goes along. I have my students clip them into their binder rings so they always have them.
Click here to open PDF of process cards
Anyway, I hope someone out there in Teacher Land finds them useful, and Happy Beginning of a New School Year to all!!!
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