Journal Friday

This past Friday we worked so hard on our math journals!  Somehow just having glue and scissors out makes it more fun. We wrote about lots and lots of number sense vocabulary.  When we were finished writing, we did a word sort with math clue words.  There are so many viewpoints on the value of clue words in math problem-solving.  Words like "sum, altogether, how many more" are always in controversy even within my own school.  It's not that people think it's wrong to teach them as "clues," some believe it's a valuable tool.  I am certain I've had great success focusing on the words for a period of time and having the kids get to know them.  However, if I fail to teach them how to think, dissect word problems, and understand the questions, then learning clue words just makes little math robots who only search for clue words and don't understand what they are doing!  I think you have to teach them how to think and use the clues to their advantage! The vocabulary we just journaled on Friday and a clue word sort is free here (free for my blog readers!)
                                  

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 I would love to hear about how you use clue words and how you think they should be taught.