On January 25, at Selkirk Elementary in Vancouver, educators from nine districts came together to share, discuss and plan. District teams set up displays of math experiences, educators had time to connect with other and continuing our focus on spatial reasoning, there was a range of different materials to inspire us.
Instructions to make these "3D" pentominoes can be found here: Pentominoes
Instructions for the geometry tiles can be found here: Geometry Tiles
Districts teams shared some of the math investigations from their districts - always inspiring to see and hear what others are doing. Teachers in this project are also playing with different types of documentations - we saw documentation panels, floor books (inspired by Claire Warden of the UK), students' notebooks and photo and video documentation for e-portfolios.
After coming together as a group and discussing ways to document districts' participation this project and also how to grow this work within our districts, we broke into four mixed-district groups to share and discuss:
–ways you have been focusing on spatial reasoning and thinking in your classrooms
–ways you are making this project visible in your district
–ideas for our writing/publishing project
As one of our areas of focus as a group has been on spatial reasoning, many of us have drawn from the amazing Canadian resource - Taking Shape: Activities to Develop Geometric and Spatial Thinking. This resource is labelled for K-2 but we are finding the tasks extend beyond early primary and there are many connections to our intermediate mathematics curriculum.
After dinner together, Michelle Hikida shared some of the symmetry tasks found in the book that she has been investigating with her grades 2&3 class.
Thank you to Gina Wong and the Vancouver team for hosting us!
~Janice
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