Singapore Math

I am going to make these to go
with Count and Quack!

I have to admit I was curious when I heard the term Singapore Math.  I think I have a math brain and would rather do math than read a book.  I know kind of crazy right.  I often try to find ways to help with my teaching of math.  Over the years I have found number sense to be a tough subject.  Osceola Elementary sent a group of teachers to the annual Singapore Math Conference this summer.  They in turn are teaching teachers strategies and sharing resources to improve math instruction.  The 3 hour workshop at Turie T. Small Elementary was jam packed with ideas and games to use right away in the classroom.  Kim Fischer, Janet Dockery, and Meredith Gilbert were AMAZING! They started the workshop with a pretty tough word problem.  Yes, the end to our summer...  They also said something so profound, "If I can see it, I can do it!" We then went on the see them "model draw" several word problems.  WOW!  I could see the problems and found another strategy to use with students to teach word problems.  Then it was off to the primary section with Meredith.  She had samples she made, visuals to show, and paper games for us to copy.  I snapped pictures left and right wanting to make sure I had everything documented.  Thanks to these ladies I feel confident about teaching number sense in a different way this year to my first graders.  I truly believe it would make life easier if children really had number sense.  I learned you can't teach number sense it has to be developed.  I plan on keeping in touch with these ladies so I can develop away...