Fourth Grade 100% Club participates in "Cover the Field" math game
Fourth grade students had fun practicing their multiplication facts on Friday, March 6 with a hands on game created by Lansing Intermediate School Interventionist, Ms. Caroline Reynolds. The strategic game, called "Cover the Field", required the students to try to cover an area on a grid by rolling dice and manipulating numbers through what they have learned about order of operations to cover the most squares on a "field" (graph paper). They had to sum two of the dice to create one dimension of a rectangle and sum the other two dice for the other dimension. The students had to think creatively in how they paired the numbers to fill as much of their grid as possible.
This fun project was for students in the 100% Club, which was created earlier this school year by fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Andrea Rothmeyer, who wanted to reward the students for becoming 100% fluent in their math facts.
At the beginning of the school year, 4th and 5th grade teachers went through the Building Leadership Team and District Leadership Team to get a fact fluency program for multiplication and division started. The teachers then began using the research-based individualized fact fluency program called Reflex in Lansing Intermediate School classrooms.
"We are seeing tremendous growth in our students' individual fluency skills as a result of this engaging, individualized, and highly interactive program," said fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Laurie Holden. "Reflex takes around 15 - 20 minutes per session to be effective and meaningful. When we started using Reflex we did not have any students who were considered 100% fluent with their multiplication and division facts. As more and more students reached their goal of becoming 100% fluent, the teachers felt their hard work and progress should be celebrated. That is when the 100% Club was created."
Students who are in the club get their picture on a bulletin board and get to take part in a special math-related activity every other week. Activities include STEM bins, math games, math / logic puzzles, and break out rooms. Reflex also has many rewards and goals built into the program that can be celebrated as individuals or classes. For example, classes can set goals of how many math facts they have answered correctly. Mrs. Holden's class set a goal of 200,000 correct facts answered. Once they met that goal, they had a class reward and set a new goal of 400,000 before the end of the year.
Reflex data shows that our 4th graders have answered 1,579,454 correct facts so far this year!
"We can all agree that whether you are analyzing that number with OLD math or NEW math... that is A LOT of facts!" said Mrs. Laurie Holden.
Great job 4th grade team!