I recently posted about the difference between the UK and the US standards. One place I find the UK standards lacking i
s in problem solving. Math is focused much more on mental math than working out written word problems. To be sure my students get both of these skills, I developed a program called Problem Solving Path. This is our Problem Solving Path Bulletin Board. You can grab all the pieces free in the Problem Solving Place Bulletin Board Kit I recently uploaded to my Teachers Pay Teachers store. The bulletin board contains 10 “stores”: post office, pizzeria, supermarket, hardware store, police station, train station, elementary school, pharmacy, book store and bakery. I tried to choose places that are universal in purpose to neighborhoods around the world, even though they may look different. For example a hardware store in the the US generally means Home Depot whereas here in Morocco it means a drou
gerie – a small local shop with building, plumbing and electricity materials. Either way, the purpose is generally the same!
Each of the “stores” in Problem Solving place has real-life word problems that are correlated to both the UK and the US standards. (That correlation was time consuming, but definitely beneficial to my students!) We have completed Month 1 and are now working on Month 2. If you’d like to join our global community on Problem Solving Path, feel free to grab the problems from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Oh my goodness you put a lot of work into this problem solving resource. Well done!
ReplyDeleteAt our Annual Teachers Convention this week one of the math sessions reminded me that I'm not doing what I could be and need to be doing with problem solving in math. "If they're not struggling - they're not doing math" is what we were told. Of course I agree, but we'll see how they enjoy "struggling" on Monday - I'm going to work through a multi-stepped Problem of the Week from our program. Wish me luck! And keep up the great work!
Krystal
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