Reggio-Inspired Mathematics

spring institute 2017 - event information

Pacific Spirit Park

Saturday, April 22, 2017

10am - 12 noon

This spring we will not be doing a "formal" spring institute with powerpoint presentations and resource displays and such. Instead, Lauren MacLean and I will be facilitating a "walkshop" through an area of Pacific Spirit Park in Vancouver, considering the experience through a mathematical lens - what do we notice? what do we wonder?

Where does mathematics live here? How can we create mathematical experiences for students inspired by a natural environment?

Lauren has been involved with Soaring Eagle Nature School and brought her kindergarten class from Blair Elementary in Richmond to this site three times during the last school year - she has lots of knowledge and outdoor learning experience to share!

If you are using GPS, the address for our meeting location is 4915 West 16th Avenue, Vancouver. The entrance to the parking lot is on the north side of West 16th Avenue, heading west from Dunbar. There is quite a bit of parking in the lot, but if it is full, there is also street parking. There are washrooms near the parking lot.

There is no cost or registration, no snacks/food are being provided - it is an informal event. 

We will be going rain or shine so dress for the weather! It is an easy walk, by no means a hike. We will be walking along marked trails with some movement through uneven terrain. There is a running stream and standing water/boggy areas depending on rainfall.

We will do a welcome circle just past the buildings near the parking lot and then will proceed to walk towards the Lily of the Valley trail which is for walkers only - no bikes or dogs. 

I will take lots of photographs and potentially, with other submissions from attendees, we will co-create a "math walk in the forest" resource.

We will wrap up our time together at noon, but groups of attendees might want to continue the conversation over lunch in Kits, during a visit to Kidsbooks, visiting the new Reconciliation Pole on campus or visiting the UBC Botanical Garden (there's a great canopy tree walk). 

Looking forward to next Saturday!

Janice

cross-district dinner meeting: January 25 2017

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