Use a Big Opening for Class
In your planning, consider what you most want students to know and then work backward to develop an opening that promotes sustained interest toward that goal. If possible, represent the unit in several different ways that appeal to different learning strengths and levels of achievable challenge so you can continually engage all students.
Here are some fascinating facts you can use as “big openings” with your students to help them with number sense, specifi cally with understanding large numbers:
• One billion seconds is almost 32 years.
• One billion eye blinks (each eye counted separately) occur during an average human lifetime.
• One billion grains of salt fi ll a bathtub.
• One billion words are heard and read during a lifetime.
• Three billion heartbeats occur during an average lifetime.
Notes:
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Learning to Love Math