To begin students brainstormed what words could be used in a subtraction story problem as a way to build a base of prior knowledge. After listening to the song they then were able to add to their bank of words. The next step students selected a subtraction word to include in their own story problem. After creating the story problem they made an illustration to go along with the problem. (Just another way to integrate the content areas!) The final copies were then compiled into a classroom book. Later, this book along with other books that previous students have made, will be used as an activity. Students will select story problems within the book as a task on the work board (centers).
The final actvity that actually was presented to the guests at math day was a music video of the students singing and acting out the song written by Amy Lowe (If you are not familiar with her she has some great CDs that target concepts 3rd graders learn.) You can access the song by clicking on the video/link below:
