math mandalas

On Monday we introduced math journals, a home for all of the children's work counting and showing how many. I reminded the children about math art Chris Gluck had shared with us during our zoom meeting; mandalas. Chris said that mandalas have a center and then an equal number of materials or objects in each surrounding circle.

Mandalas are a creative opportunity to practice counting and showing how many, counting objects in a line and in a group, recognizing how many objects quickly and consistently, and building circles and curved lines.

We used delicate sand dollars from Helen as our center. Then 5 objects in the first circle and 8 objects in each surrounding circle. While children built their mandalas, we asked; How many shells? How many gems? Can you show me with your math hands? How many more to make 10?

Many of the children then used their iPads to take pictures of their mandalas and posted them to a seesaw lesson about mandalas.

Mandalas are a peaceful way to represent how we are all connected while also practicing essential counting skills! Pictures of their mandalas will be used as the front cover for their math journals. 

In your child's math journal you may find responses to math questions from the morning message, different ways of showing how many, real-life math problems connected to our names and community, pictures of whole group work, and story problems!

Here is an example from this week;

How many friends? Children used the number 18, lines, dots, and groups to show how many friends during our morning message work. We can show how many in different ways. We can learn from the work of a peer. 

Sam organized her small lines into groups of three, making it easier to check her counting.

We glue responses into their math journals and then I revisit with the children during math workshop. I open their journal and ask them to check their counting or tell me about their work. 

If there was a mistake on their sticky note, we celebrate it and keep it, because mistakes are an important part of learning. Then we practice re-counting and the children respond again on a new sticky note.

Revisiting their work with them is important for honoring and learning from mistakes as well as inviting children to try the challenge of showing their thinking a different way, such as with a 10 frame.