IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Ruth, Angela, and Monica using the number line during math workshop.

Today during math workshop, our class had a challenge. Each child had a paper with a number 1-20 and we needed to put them in order. We counted one by one and put the numbers in order, then practiced counting them forwards and backwards.  We talked about what we had created: a number line. We took turns walking along our number line and stepping by each number as we said it. While working on our math workshop problem (a take away problem), I challenged some friends to utilize the number line in their thinking. How could you use this tool to help make a subraction problem easier for you? Monica drew a number line in her math notebook and then counted backwards and crossed out the amount of numbers being taken away. Ruth and I worked together to show “hops” on a number line and drew backwards. Our class will continue to discuss and utilize number lines throughout the year. This is a valuable tool that can greatly help in our mathematical thinking!

After Reader’s Workshop, our class read a book called City Numbers by Joanne Schwartz. This book is really unique because it is filled with photography of numbers all over cities. The kids were excited to see such unusual numbers in such interesting ways (a light up sign that said 2.5%, a store sign that read 7.99, an address) we decided to go on a number walk of our own and see if we could find unique numbers around our school. We wrote what we saw and took pictures. We plan on creating a number book in the style of Schwartz’ book tomorrow.

Friends on our number walk.

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