Bridges and More About Math

As you know, we are currently piloting two new math programs in our district. Our class has been piloting the Bridges in Mathematics program since September and will be using the program at least through December. As part of the piloting process, I am serving on a district committee that is visiting schools in Vermont who are using the programs we are considering. On November 3rd, I was at Moretown Elementary observing the Investigations 2 program. On Friday the 13th, I'll be visiting Orchard School in South Burlington to observe Bridges in action. The kids and I wrote an article for the Blue and the Gold, our school newspaper, about what they think about Bridges. I thought you might enjoy reading what they have to say.

The photo included in this post is Sam showing us a growing pattern made with pattern blocks.

Here's the article...Fun with Bridges, Math, and Bugs

"Do you know what beetles and ants have to do with math? If you were trying out the 2nd grade math program called Bridges in Mathematics like we are, you would see the connections. We just finished our first unit on sorting and patterns and now we are studying ants and problem solving. In our first unit, we learned about growing patterns and repeating patterns. Our class used beetles and other bugs to make patterns. We made paper beetles that showed information about us like our favorite seasons. You could tell the information by looking at the key. For example, the number of stripes showed how many people are in our families. All of us also sorted beetles and lots of other things in many different ways. During math, we did Work Places which were really cool! Some Work Places are stations with games that you have to think about. There are also problem solving, building, and invention Work Places. In Bridges, we don’t have workbooks like we did in Everyday Math, but we do have papers. We spend a lot of time talking about our math thinking. We really like all of the games, stations, and different kinds of activities in this program. Mrs. Bianchi’s mathematicians think Bridges is fantastic and very fun!"