Story:This Math Vitamin is based on our read aloud story about a mystery at the State Fair. The kids in the story are entering various contests at the fair; the pie competition, and arts and crafts competition are popular choices! As the story unfolds, forms to enter the contests have gone missing around town. Our students are working to solve for how many forms are left over after 8 have gone missing on this particular day.

Suggested manipulatives: Use items such as Unifex Cubes, Multilinks, beans, counting bears..anything that can be easily handled for one to one counting.

Prep time: Adapting the vitamin wording to fit your specific story, putting manipulatives out in the room and copying the vitamin documentation forms will take about 15-20 minutes. Set up is always more fun and shorter on time if you do this activity with a colleague.

Classroom time: Asking children to “do their best work” for each Math Vitamin assumes that some children will need a longer time than others. Ideally you want to offer a block of time for Math Vitamin projects and have another task available (writing, free exploration etc.) for those students who finish work prior to their peers. For this project allow 20-45 minutes for students to work through all the steps.

How to individualize/stretch: Exposing young children to the concept of subtraction is fine to do, but it is also developmentally difficult as they are trying to figure out items that are no longer there. Start with counting one on one objects and them have an interesting story that invites them to remove items and disucss how many left. Progress with larger numbers, 100’s charts to help keep a visual perspective of original numerals. Extend to projections and patterns over time with repeated subtraction and use T-charts for documentation.

Story:Students in this classroom are working on a Math Vitamin that requires them to take on the role of museum curator for the day. Not only are they learning that curators plan the museum exhibits, they also plan the space used for displays and make sure that each exhibit has space for visitors around each artifact. They begin by learning the total area of the museum’s exhibit room from their teacher. From that point, they use a resource “key” that states the area needed for each type of display they may deicide to install. The focus for this work is getting students to hone their subtraction skills for working with larger numbers. Prior to this task, students have done a lot of work with place value and addition with multiple digits.

All Math Vitamins require students to build, draw and record their work as well as share their thoughts with peers and teachers. The strong UCDS math community within each classroom is developed through the process of peer and teacher conversations that focus on exciting mathematical tasks and engaging ideas about the various approaches to solve them.

Suggested manipulatives: Centimeter Cubes (seen in video), Unifex Cubes, and Multilinks for beginners. As skills develop you can use Base Ten Blocks and eventuallyCuisenaire Rods for subtraction projects. Eventually, you will want to use a place value trading mat to enhance each student’s understanding.

Prep time: Adapting the vitamin wording to fit your specific story, putting manipulatives out in the room, creating the resource key and copying the vitamin documentation forms will take about 15-20 minutes. Set up is always more fun and shorter on time if you do this activity with a colleague.

Classroom time: Asking children to “do their best work” for each Math Vitamin assumes that some children will need a longer time than others. Ideally you want to offer a block of time for Math Vitamin projects and have another task available (writing, free exploration etc.) for those students who finish work prior to their peers. For this project allow 45-60 minutes for students to work through all the steps.

How to individualize/stretch: Subtraction is a difficult concept for many young students…discovering what is disappearing. Start by teaching the cover and count method with small numbers of items. Progress to cover and count with double and triple digit numbers. Once this process is easy for students, merge your place value work with subtraction. Have students begin to trade and borrow with base ten blocks. Start with a 100 flat and let students roll dice and subtract/trade the amount of each roll as they go. Next start to use the algorithm for documentation.

Story:Following weeks of projects about the 50th anniversary of the 1962 Worlds Fain in Seattle, students recently returned from a trip to the space needle. They know that 563 people (including UCDS) traveled to the top of the needle that day and that most people traveled in groups. Students are given a “resource key” with the other names and group numbers to refer to as they work. The focus of today’s vitamin is on subtraction and place value based trading/borrowing, thus students are asked to figure out how many people at a time could ride the elevator and how many people would be left on the ground waiting for the next elevator ride to arrive. All Math Vitamins require students to build, draw and record their work as well as share their thoughts with peers and teachers. The strong UCDS math community within each classroom is developed through the process of peer and teacher conversations that focus on exciting mathematical tasks and engaging ideas about the various approaches to solve them.

Suggested manipulatives: Centimeter Cubes Unifex Cubes Multilinks As skills develop you can use Base Ten Blocks and eventually Cuisenaire Rods for subtraction projects. Eventually, you will want to use a place value trading mat to enhance each student’s understanding.

Prep time: Adapting the vitamin wording to fit your specific story, putting manipulatives out in the room, creating the resource key and copying the vitamin documentation forms will take about 15-20 minutes. Set up is always more fun and shorter on time if you do this activity with a colleague.

Classroom time: Asking children to “do their best work” for each Math Vitamin assumes that some children will need a longer time than others. Ideally you want to offer a block of time for Math Vitamin projects and have another task available (writing, free exploration etc.) for those students who finish work prior to their peers. For this project allow 45-60 minutes for students to work through all the steps.

How to individualize/stretch: Subtraction is a difficult concept for many young students…discovering what is disappearing. Start by teaching the cover and count method with small numbers of items. Progress to cover and count with double and triple digit numbers. Once this process is easy for students, merge your place value work with subtraction. Have students begin to trade and borrow with base ten blocks. Start with a 100 flat and let students roll dice and subtract/trade the amount of each roll as they go. Next start to use the algorithm for documentation.