RiddleMath : Using Student-Written Riddles to Build Mathematical Power - Softcover

Carl M. Sherrill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0970445903 ISBN 13: 9780970445902

Publisher: Morning River Publications, 2001

Synopsis

If you love helping children make sense of math, this fresh, innovative, professional approach may be just what you're looking for. RiddleMath links children's natural love of riddles and puzzles with important standards-based concepts and basic skills practice. This high-quality program gets results because it sparks interest while it supports understanding.

RiddleMath is a resource book for teachers, parents, and tutors. It includes student-written math riddles, along with guidelines for helping children create new riddles for their classmates and friends to solve.

Because it includes problem sets of varying difficulty, this book is appropriate for children ages 7-11 (grades 2-5). It includes work on place value, money, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, geometry, algebra, and word problems.

The 158-page book includes 100 reproducible pages for use in the classroom or at home. The activities were piloted by teachers at six different schools over a six-year period.

About this title

From the Publisher

HIGH Standards = LOW Achievement . . .
What’s wrong with this equation?

For too many children, the use of materials based on the new math standards results in the worst of all possible worlds – math instruction that is very difficult on the one hand, and yet fails to support real understanding through the best teaching practices.

Morning River Publications is proud to introduce the Teaching Lynx materials, which are dedicated to helping kids make sense of math by providing the links that are missing from many of the new programs.

These materials:
- Link powerful math instruction with activities that children love.
- Link abstract math concepts with hands-on experiences.

From the Author

When I set out to create the lessons that eventually evolved into RiddleMath, I had two big questions in mind:
- What math skills and concepts do my students need to learn?
- What do children love to do that might help them learn those things?

Almost universally, children love riddles, guessing games, and puzzles. They also love manipulating things in their physical world. And they love having an audience for their creations — one of the most readily available audiences being their own classmates and friends.

Bearing all this in mind, I began to incorporate student-written riddles and puzzles into my classroom math program. I soon discovered that writing good riddles was not as easy as it first appeared, and that the activity sometimes left students frustrated and confused. Still, I was impressed with the effort that students put into the process, and — especially — with the excitement that resulted when children had the opportunity to solve riddles created by their classmates.

Over the years, by trial and error, I've developed procedures that enable students to write interesting, solvable riddles that reinforce some of the key math skills and concepts of the middle elementary grades.

I hope that others will be able to use this approach to help children fully develop their mathematical potential and to discover the joy of math.

Edition details

• Publisher: Morning River Publications
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0970445903
• ISBN 13: 9780970445902
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 158