Anyone out there hear of Everyday Mathematics? The school district where I am working at has just implemented this new curriculum K-12. Personally, I don’t really care for it. The ways of thinking are very abstract and often confusing for the students. I am using the Kindergarten Level to teach 3 First Graders and the very first lesson on the first day of school was about measurement! Mind you, my kids don’t know how to count past 15, say the days of the week, or know their birthdays. Needless to say, this lesson did not go over very well! EM uses alot of manipulatives and they are very time consuming to create. I have done nothing but make a ton of adaptations to almost every lesson. Granted, my students are Learning Support kids but I have heard alot of negative opinions from the other teachers.
I co-teach during Math in a 3rd grade classroom and have seen my fair share of confusing faces on those students. I never knew there were so many abstract ways to learn how to add. I was taught using the re-groping method but now there is partial-sum method, counting down, adding up and who knows what is yet to come! One day they are doing number stories, the next they are working on fractions, then time. I don’t know if it’s because I’m new to the series or what but I haven’t seen one lesson that I really liked. How about you, what are your thoughts on Everyday Math? Love it? Hate it? Never Heard of it?

Anyways, I found an article on WIkipedia about Everyday Math and decided to add my two cents on there about how two of the most popular games the students play every Friday.

The following is what I posted to Wikipedia:
Games include:
Addition Top It This is when two to three students use a deck of playing cards (0-10). The cards are shuffled and the deck is placed in the middle of the players. Each player takes two cards and adds them together. The player with the highest sum wins that round and takes the other players cards. The game is over when there are not enough cards left for each person to pull two cards. The person with the most cards at the end of the game wins.
Beat the Calculator Three students play in groups – one player is the “caller,” a second player is the “calculator,” and the third is the “brain.” The game begins by the “caller” selecting a fact problem by using a deck of playing cards (0-9). That person selects two cards and creates an equation using the two numbers on the cards. The “calculator” then solves the problem with a calculator as the “brain” solves it without a calculator. Students try to race each other to get the correct answer first to the equation. The “caller” decides who got the answer first and that person wins that round. The players trade roles every 3-5 minutes depending on how much time is available.

The entire article can be viewed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyday_Mathematics#Application_in_the_classroom