I have tried to pick a favorite speaker from my three days at CAMT last week, and can only get it down to my top 3. However, if you were to ask me the most FUN I had at any CAMT session, the winner would be Creative Mathematics: Kim Sutton. It was called Rock and Roll With Games Students Can Count On. If nothing else it was the only session featuring a MATH PARTY where the teachers got to sing and dance!
I have loved Kim Sutton’s math materials for many years. I have used Place Value With Pizzazz with more students than I can count. There is an entire post on this site about her amazing book The Power of Digital Root. To meet Kim in person was a little like meeting a celebrity!
When I first came into her session she was inviting all of the participants to come up to the stage. When we came up there she gave us all physical copies of the gameboards she would be demonstrating for us. You too can get these by downloading on her website here. Handouts for her fractions session and improving working memory session are also currently available as well as many other items). She also gave us each a tetrahedron dice and a bag of colored chips. The first ten people got a bag of dominoes as well. Her color coded number line was on display, and she was asking teachers what they noticed about it modeling exactly how you would ask a child.
As the time came for the session to start, music was playing. She also displayed a poem called A Friend Should Be a Mathematician. I can’t find it anywhere now and wish I had taken a picture!
As soon as Kim started talking her enthusiasm was infectious. There are very few teachers who can pull off talking to a group of adults just like they would their students without it sounding forced, but she did it! I could picture exactly what it would be like to be in her classroom. She had all the adults on their feet singing, dancing and clapping to math songs. She had us all playing games. It was engaging, it was fun, and I could see just how it would work with children.
I especially love the way she keeps things real and practical. Her games are designed so you don’t need a lot of specialized materials. There are different variations on the same game so you aren’t constantly having to teach the rules of game play. She gave us an example of a simple but effective game called Digit Detectives that students can keep in their math folder and easily play when you have just a few minutes of time. She gave suggestions for math literature that went with each of her games. You could tell she has vast classroom experience with real kids and knows what it is really like.
A few of her important points:
- There are 5 four letter words that motivate kids: Game, dice, food, race, song.
- Games are the practice of math. Anything that is a worksheet can be a game instead.
- A child’s first counting tool is always their fingers.
- If you use a random number digital download the kids will listen and not ask for the number to be repeated! (told you she “gets” real kids!)
For more please see Kim’s website Creative Mathematics (also listed on my full teacher resource page) or follow on Facebook here. And if you get a chance to go to one of her workshops I highly recommend it!
