Schemata

To practice working with negative numbers I had my students write out a story to represent each problem.

Here is the example I did for the class:

10 + (-18)

I went to Chicago in the winter and it was 10 degrees outside. Then the temperature fell 18 degrees. Now it is -8 degrees outside.

Then the kids had to write their own example for 12 + (-3). (This is during the first week of school.)

A girl in the front row writes, “I had 12 kids. Then CPS took three of them. Now I have 9 kids.”