Monster Math for Little Kids Workshop

Frame around article about federal funding for MOVE IT Math

“Monster Math for Little Kids” Workshop [in New York City]

UFT Math, Vol. III, No. 1, New York, New York, September, 1990

Kindergartners adding fractions? Calculating the area of a triangle? Oh, yes, and loving it! Learn how all students can enjoy math, doing more earlier than you might have imagined possible, from kindergarten up. This approach to elementary math involves cooperative small-group learning, manipulatives and multiple approaches to computation and problem solving.

The Math Teachers Committee will sponsor an all-day workshop at UFT [United Federation of Teachers] headquarters on Saturday 13 October. With the support of the AFT [American Federation of Teachers]. . . . Paul Shoecraft will come from Texas to explain Monster Math. . . .

Little kids in kindergarten and first grade, in a very poor school district in south Texas, have learned to add ten-digit numbers, ten rows deep, and to subtract as well. By second grade, they are ready for fractions. Their methods are very exciting, both for the methodology itself and for the strong mathematical base on which it is built.

The full day’s activities will include breakfast, lunch at a restaurant, and three two-hour sessions. All participants will leave with a class set of FRACTION CAKES [pie-sized circles cut into halves, thirds, fourths, ..., sixteenths] to be ready for immediate implementation. A separate mailing will go to all on the Math Teachers Committee’s mailing list. Those not on the mailing list should send in the tear-off found on p. 5 and can register for the workshop using the stub to be found in The New York Teacher. New Teacher Workshop credit will be granted to those who attend.