Jennifer Rising, LFCDS’ new Lower School Math Coordinator, is
thrilled to be a part the School community. “I love this
school, its family of students, parents and faculty and its positive
approach and values! I am enjoying collaborating with the faculty to
create an awesome mathematics program!” says Jennifer, who has
been teaching for 10 years.
Jennifer received her BA in Music from the Eastman School of Music of
the University of Rochester, a BS in Education from Western Carolina
University, a MS in Mathematics Education from the University of
Georgia and is currently completing an EdD in Mathematics Education
from Columbia University.
Her vision for the department is based on the belief that LFCDS must
prepare students for a world that we can’t even begin to
envision today. This requires that students not only have sharp
computational skills, but that they also become logical thinkers who
can reason through any problem given to them. Thus, our students are
also taught to be inquisitive and reflective thinkers who can analyze
their work both individually and as a team, and can discover creative
new solutions to challenging situations.
“Most of us remember worksheets and heavy textbooks when we
think of our mathematics education, but a math class at Lake Forest
Country Day School is very different. Research shows us that children
learn new skills best through guided discovery and retain that
knowledge best by sharing ideas,” says Jennifer.
In Kindergarten, students begin to explore measurement in a very
captivating activity – My Baby. With parental help, fabric
patterns are cut out, stitched together and filled with sand equal to
each child’s birth weight, giving every student their own
baby. Next, children learn to compare weights. Of course, just lifting
the baby can be difficult to guess, but using a scale makes the task
much easier. Even with exact weights, students need to use number sense
to complete this challenging assignment.
First graders recently worked on the concept that the same sum can be
reached using different pairs of addends. For example, a sum of 7 can
be found with 1 + 6, 2 + 5, etc. While this might sound obvious to
adults, this can be a challenging concept for young children with
limited experiences. Recently, students looked at the pairs that can be
formed and noticed how every counting number of 6 or less can be used
to make a math sentence. Next they looked for a pattern to help them
find these pairs, and they found that if you place these numbers in
order – 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 – you connect each
successive outside pair, and when drawn with an arc can create a number
rainbow, as follows:
Second graders just completed a unit introducing estimation called
Watermelon Math. Each group had their own watermelon. Before they could
make the first slice, students needed to make their guesses. How big
around is it? How many stripes does it have? How much does it weigh?
How many seeds will it have? A connection to a science topic was made
with the question of, “Will it float or sink?” (It
floats!) After making their guesses and discussing the reasonableness
of their responses, the watermelon was weighed, measured, counted,
sliced and finally eaten. The unit finished with a fun seed spitting
contest in which students measured who could spit the farthest.
Third graders are exercising their math skills using new
problem-solving notebooks. Students are given a complicated problem on
Mondays and they have all week to think through a solution. While that
would normally be challenging enough, students are then asked to write
about their process of solving the problem. How did they go about
solving it and why did they choose the method they did? This is an
unusual assignment in math because having the
“correct” answer is not the most important point,
but rather being able to explain your thinking is key.
Fourth graders have begun using “Hands-on
Equations,” which is an early algebra program that uses pawns
and dice to represent the abstract theories of algebra. Using these
concrete models, students can see and understand why the order of
operations matters and what happens to an equation if you perform an
action on one side of the equation without applying it to the other
side. By the end of this training, students are eager to work with
variables, positive and negative integers and inequalities.
Jennifer believes that every child can succeed in mathematics given the
best learning environment for that child: “Math is such a
fascinating subject once you set your fears aside, and I love to show
students the beauty, logic and magic of mathematics!”
