Creating Practice Opportunities with Games

8 Feb 20238 Feb 2023

In my district, we are fortunate to have core curricula that provide meaningful learning opportunities, that have helped us build coherence in terms of both content and practices across K-8.…

Facilitating Number Boxes, Part 2 – Supporting Reasoning with Representations (Learning With Students)

15 Dec 20223 Feb 2023

"Hmm.. 8 + 3. Let's put the 8 in the ten frame. If we add 3, will it be more than, less than, more equal to 10?" Kyleigh missed parts…

“What Are You Hoping For?”: Facilitating the Number Boxes Game to Develop Reasoning – Learning with Teachers

8 Dec 20223 Feb 2023

Number Boxes is one of my favorite games to play. The set up looks similar to an Open Middle problem, with empty boxes that you will place digits into. Open…

Understanding Negative Numbers: In Praise of Tiny Games

1 Feb 202217 Jun 2022

"Is this right?" Inaya asked me, pointing to the equation she'd recorded on her paper: 5 + (-8) = -13 We are one week into our 7th grade unit on…

“Oops, I Forgot”: Small, Beautiful Moments

2 Jan 20228 Oct 2022

I sat with fourth grade teacher Ms. Goldman in the back of her classroom as students cleaned up materials from the class. There were 15 minutes left in the school…

Johnny Upgrade

29 Sep 20203 Apr 2021

If you've never played Johnny Upgrade before, you should know that it begins with music. Epic music. Like anthemic, sweeping, about to vanquish the villain at the 11th hour music.…

Debate in Kindergarten: Building Appreciation for Ten Frames

20 Jan 202020 Jan 2020

If we want students to harness the power of visual representations -- to own them -- students need to understand why that representation is important.  Visual representations can be elegant…

Tyler’s Dilemma: Digging into Unit Rates, and One Student’s Resistance

11 Oct 201911 Oct 2019

"You have a choice of which version of the game to play," I said, as I placed out four different gameboards and spinners for our focus game. Tyler's eyes narrowed.…

One of Favorite Games: The Skip Count Game

30 May 20198 Feb 2023

This game is part of my "simple but high leverage" collection of games that are flexible, engaging, and easy to prep. Others include Number Boxes and the Answer Is... I've played the…

One of My Favorite Games: Number Boxes

29 May 20193 Feb 2023

This game is part of my "simple but high leverage" collection of games that are flexible, engaging, and easy to prep. Others include The Answer Is... and the Skip Count Game. I…

One of My Favorite Games: The Answer Is…

28 May 20196 Jun 2019

This game is part of my "simple but high leverage" collection of games that are flexible, engaging, and easy to prep. Others include Number Boxes and the Skip Count Game. I have…

The Simple-but-High-Leverage Game Collection: Making Games Routine

28 May 20193 Feb 2023

We use instructional routines in part because their predictable structure allows students to focus on the mathematics. So why don't we do this with simple, high leverage games? Games aren't…