Math Strategy Posters

These are some strategies we've been working on when solving story problems in math.  I may have to repost if/when I make them cuter.  ;o)

Math Problem Solving Posters

Skip Counting Problem Solving

We've been working on beginning our math units each week with some sort of "real problem" for the students to solve that will hopefully get them thinking in a way in which they need to use the strategy being taught for that week.  Here is an example of the problem we did for skip counting:

Mrs Garza will have 16 children in her first grade class.  Each child will have a set of 5 crayons.  How many crayons will there be?

The students were told they could solve it in their math journals or use crayons, if they wanted to.  Some of them chose to work together with others at their table.  Here are some of the solutions they came up with:

 

Ana decided to draw her groups of crayons.  She wasn't finished yet when I took this photo.

 Giselle and Ximena decided to work together using crayons to construct actual groups of 5.  They asked for rubber bands to group them more easily.  :)

Rosaisela chose to draw a square for each crayon and group them by rows of 5.

Colin was counting by 5's, showing his counting with the numbers, then added, "She's gonna need a big
basket " because there will be 80 crayons.  :)

Nathaniel drew a number line to 16.  Then he wrote a 5 under each number.  He said when he realized it was counting by 5's, he easily added the "count by 5 numbers" (5, 10, 15, 20...).