Interactive Math Notebook in the Making

As we start the year creating out Interactive Writing Notebooks, we are beginning to put together our Interactive Math Notebooks. There are just so many words students need to know in order to understand math, so I decided to put together a math notebook which focuses on vocabulary.

So on Monday I told the kids that we would be starting a new notebook. And with that announcement, I heard cheers. I love how much they love these notebooks. I showed them their new notebooks, which apparently look like Minecraft. When it comes to video games, I'm clueless. After the kids got past the Minecraft conversation, we got to work.

We began with the word equal. Although students use the word and write equal signs daily, I've decided many kiddos don't actually understand what equal means. We worked on the word each day this week, and soon the students were gaining a deeper understanding of what equal means in math.

In the meantime, we were learning about arrays. I don't like to work on this many pages in a day/week, but we had some catching up to do.

First the kids needed to see an array and understand what it is. Each notebook section begins by developing an understanding of the vocabulary used in math. Then students work on the concept. Whether it be in the notebook or in their math books, students need the vocabulary to understand what they are doing. After we put together the notebook page, the kids made their own arrays with stickers while referring to their notebooks.The following day I had them write an equation to match the arrays they made from stickers.

On Wednesday, we continued building on our new word--array.

The kids colored their pages. Then we cut out the pieces and matched them with an equation.

On Thursday, the kids added to the arrays section. Underneath each array is an equation to match it.

I gave each group a stack of hamburgers. Who wouldn't love arrays made of hamburgers? So one person made an array and the other group members had to write an equation to match the array. Each student had a turn making an array. Who knew arrays could be so much fun?

Before starting our notebooks, we focused on the word equation. We use the word daily in math and it is becoming part of their vocabulary. This week we will start on the word digit and begin learning about place value.

I see a difference in my students' abilities to understand math with the focus on math vocabulary. I'm excited to see the growth! And I am excited to see their excitement!