This is a follow-up post to my first day math problem from last year.

I’ve only posted once in a while over the past few years, but I’m very glad I spent the time last year to write about how my first day math problem went. After re-reading my post from last year, I was able to rapidly load the problem and how it went back into my memory, and I decided to make some of the changes I had written about.

Here’s the updated version of the problem, which adds scaffolding and will hopefully keep groups moving along who aren’t as comfortable with this type of open-ended exploration.

And here’s the checklist I’m going to use to keep myself organized as I walk around and monitor each group’s progress. (This idea comes from 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions by by Margaret S. Smith and  Mary Kay Stein.)

Feel free to pass along any feedback or take this a step further!

Resources:

• Interesting Numbers Problem Set (.pdf) 
• Group Monitoring Checklist (.docx)