GRADE 2 - MATH / Expanded and Standard Form

Differential learners may have difficulty with expanded form.  So I used this method on the whiteboard.

This was my goal.

I made 2 cards, blank on the underside and with "0" the top side.  

The student placed the zeros in the tens and ones place to see the value of the hundreds digit.

The the student turned the middle card over as if turning a page which blocked the hundreds place, displaying the value of the tens digit.

Then, the student turned over the final card, turning it like a page covering the tens place, exposing only the ones place.  

Finally, I have the student add the numbers again to show the original, standard form.

or

GRADE 2 - MATH / Money - Counting by 5s

Understanding the relationship between counting by 5's using a hundred's chart and counting nickels.

GRADE 2 - MATH / Money

Students with learning disabilities can have extreme difficulty counting money.  So, these are the steps I used to scaffold learning.  First lesson, pre-teach coin values.  Student writes the value right on the face of the coin.

Second lesson, use blocks to represent coin values.

Student place corresponding blocks with coins of the same value.  

Student can then add blocks incrementally.

When quarters and half-dollars are taught, I use real coins...

and write the value with a sharpie on the back of each coin.

(Sharpies are erasable)

When counting money, the student can place the coin to match the pictures on the worksheet.

(I find student confuse nickels with quarters, so this is a useful technique)

GRADE 2 - MATH / Fractions

Fraction Box

I have found that my young students with spacial/visual disorders have trouble with placement when it comes to fractions.  The fraction bar gets confused with many other lines on the page.  So I started using what I call a "Fraction box" to make it easier for them to understand that the part goes in the top box and the total goes in the bottom box.  

It's not a great stretch of the imagination, but the simple addition the the fraction bar really helps them visualize how the fraction should look.

GRADE 2 - MATH / Window Adding

Some students have difficulty copying and aligning problems, so I have them write the numbers in a window.

The student adds the ones column and shows the answer with number cards.  The student can see that 2 digits should not be place in one box and carries the one to the tens column

like this...

The student then adds the tens column and shows the answer with a a number card again.

The student then prints the answer.

This tactile activity has been very helpful with my differential learner who gets very distracted using blocks and manipulatives.

GRADE 2 - MATH / Adding Tens using a # Chart for differential learners

GRADE 2, 3 - ELA / PARAGRAPH CONTENT, Which sentence doesn't belong?

To accomodate students who are special needs, I hand-wrote in a journal book, some of the paragraphs form the Evan-Moor  Paragraph Writing Workbook.  I then, cut underneath each sentence but left it attached to the book on the left side.  One sentence does not belong, and all the student has to do is tear out the sentence.  They can, then, read the complete paragraph w/o the sentence that doesn't belong.

GRADE 2 - MATH / EVEN NUMBER PATTERNS

I had my 2nd grader write out the even numbers in columns as shown above and then color code the patterns.  This is a great method for visual learners.  The student can see that the number on the left of each column repeats and the numbers on the right all count 2, 4, 6, 8, 0.

GRADE 2 - MATH / ALGEBRA, Find the missing part

Younger students often have difficulty with algebra problems.  For example  3 +  ___  =  10.

so I use a technique which I call the "Build the Ladder" to help them discover the answer.

Students place the number of blocks down that they know in the "I have" section.  In this case 3 blocks.
They right the total number that they have to count up to in the box which is labeled "Stop" to remind them to stop counting.

Here you see the rungs of the ladder drawn on as the student counts 1,2,3 (from the blocks)......4,5,6,7,8,9,10 (on the ladder).

The student then counts the number of rungs on the ladder to find the missing part....7.
I'm a big fan of the white board and my students love working on them too!

GRADES 1,2,3 - MATH / WRITING REAL WORLD PROBLEMS

Writing real world math problems can be challenging for some students, so I created the above template and laminated it so that my students have sentence starters on a white board.  This gives them a structure to create a problem.

The first sentence starter reads (There are....)
The second starter answers the question (What happened?"
The third starter reads (How many....) and asks (What is the question?"

The picture above is my 1st grader creating a problem using the template.

The above picture shows her problem written on paper with a picture to match 8 + 7 = 17.  I let her use phonetic spelling, but it basically reads (There are 8 flowers in the museum.  Bori gives 7 more to the museum.  How many flowers in all?)

I am so proud of this student...when I first enrolled her she would not attempt to sound out and write a word if she thought it would be wrong and now she is writing sentences!!

These templates can also be used for subtraction.

GRADE 2 - MATH / COUNTING ON

Counting on is a difficult skill for some students, especially if they have a learning disorder.  I created this mat for scaffolding.  The student can see where the big number goes, and can also see that he/she must count the remaining (little) numbers on the fingers.

I made cutouts of numbers to place in the head part of the drawing.  And students use blocks to put on the fingers.  Here is an example of 8 + 3 = 11.  It is great for visual learners.

After they have mastered the skill in this way, I transfer the concept so that the student is putting the big number in his own head or in his mind and I have him put the blocks on his real fingers to help count.  Note that part of the counting is still visual.

Eventually, I have students put the big number in their mind and count on fingers w/o the block.

Finally, the students count on mentally.