Make a paper and cardboard All-Day Mathmobile that you make travel around your room to show how math connects with all subjects. This little car needs a name: Ms./Mr. _______(your name)‘s All-Day Mathmobile!
Hi and welcome back to Attentionology for K – 5 Teachers!
In many elementary classrooms, math is a subject that teachers are being asked to stress because success in our global economy demands mastery of math skills.
At the same time, many young students feel just that…stress…when they are pressed to learn math concepts and applications that are difficult for them.
Help children in the early grades relax a little with this tough subject by making a fun, functional All-Day Mathmobile to scoot around your classroom.
What in the world is an All-Day Mathmobile?!
An All-Day Mathmobile is an attention-grabbing vehicle…it can be flat and made of paper and cardboard…it can be a dressed up toy car or truck with real wheels…that you make travel around the classroom to show how math connects with all subjects.
Fun and Functional Teaching Tool – However you choose to create your class’ All-Day Mathmobile, the vehicle will serve as a fun and functional teaching tool.
The vehicle’s very mobility makes a key concept concrete for kids…math is something that we use in all corners of our classroom and our lives.
That’s why the All-Day Mathmobile “travels around” under your guiding hands, or in the hands of students under your direction.
The Mathmobile is proof positive that math is not a subject that is limited to math lesson time in school.
Make a Paper and Cardboard All-Day Mathmobile – Cut a car or truck shape out of colored
Convert a large toy car or truck into an All-Day Math Mobile to travel around your room with you or students guiding the vehicle.
construction paper.
Print a name on the vehicle that identifies it as your All-Day Mathmobile.
Optional: Glue cut out numbers on the vehicle or print numbers in dark colors on its doors, hood and roof.
Glue the car or truck shape to a piece of sturdy cardboard. Cut the cardboard to match the shape.
Attach a cardboard or masking tape “handle” to the back of the flat All-Day Mathmobile so that you can hold it from the back when you make it travel around your room.
Convert a Large Toy Car or Truck into an All-Day Mathmobile – Select a three-dimensional toy car or truck that is large enough for you to add to it a sign that identifies it as your All-Day Mathmobile.
“Park” your Mathmobile in a special place in your classroom.
Make the Math Connection – When you first introduce the All-Day Mathmobile to students, explain that it has a special “parking place” because it is permanent to your room. Why? Because math is a permanent part of our lives; it’s a subject that connects with all others.
Create an All-Day Mathmobile Bulletin Board – If you make a paper and cardboard vehicle for this special teaching tool, consider “parking” it on a bulletin board that further illustrates the connections that math makes to other subjects.
Your bulletin board might also include…
Make your All-Day Mathmobile drop by the Math-Time Dessert Cafe where kids can count cookies you spread on a tray before they eat them!
Picture Book Page Counting – Copy the covers of popular picture or chapter books for young readers and post them on the Math bulletin board along with copies of pages of Tables of Contents or different pages that show page numbers.
When you read to the class, set your chair in front of the bulletin board.
Pull up the All-Day Mathmobile. Tell the class that the vehicle is making a stop to count the numbers of the pages that you begin and end reading time on.
Help the class calculate how many pages you have read.
Math-Time Dessert Cafe – Set up a table in front of the All-Day Mathmobile bulletin board.
Post a sign by the table that reads Math-Time Dessert Cafe.
Spread cookies on a tray on the table.
Invite young students to count the cookies you spread across a tray.
Pull the All-Day Mathmobile up to the table and make the connection between math and baking.
How many minutes does it take to bake cookies?…and so on.
Close the lesson by inviting the children to each take a cookie to eat! Yummy math lesson.
(Of course be sure to count out at least as high as the number of kids in class to distribute so that everyone enjoys a treat.)
Add On! – Dream up more ways to use an All-Day Mathmobile as a fun and functional teaching tool that suits your classroom management and curriculum needs.
Making a fun, functional mobile math vehicle of some sort is an example of creating a teaching tool that integrates learning to support how children gain knowledge and skills before they even reach school age.
Remember, you don’t need to be a magician to work magic in any instructional setting!
Please send comments about innovative teaching tools that you’ve designed.
Talk with you again soon,
Barbara ♥ The Lovable Poet
