Math Misconceptions

Howdy, peeps!

I have a confession to make... I was not a great math student... At all.
Math was awful for me. A painful subject that I was forced to take for what felt like 87 years....
I think that's why I LOVE teaching it.
I don't EVEREVEREVER want my students to feel like I did. I try to give them a REASON we do the maths. STEPS for the maths. And I try to make my students PROBLEM SOLVERS and MISTAKE FINDERS.

That's when my "Math Misconceptions" pack was born! I wanted to find a way for students to not only solve a problem and find the correct answer, but to also identify common mistakes that are made.

So far I've made three sets: Place Value, Addition and Subtraction with Whole Numbers and Multiplication. I have plans to make more but.... there are also like 20 other ideas floating around in my head. So... yeah. Stay tuned?

Each misconception pack includes 5 math problems. Each problem is solved by 2-3 people - "He", "She" and sometimes "Pup". Each of the characters solve the problem a different way, but only one is right. Students identify the correct person and justify why they're correct. THEN, they identify where the incorrect person/people messed up. It's AWESOME to see my students catch the common mistakes! The discussion these problems stir up is AWESOME. My students can be reluctant to talk about how they solve math problems... but once I got these baby out I couldn't get them to zip it!

Anyway, here are some pics of my students using the Multiplication Misconceptions. Guys, they LOVED it. They BEGGED to do another... I tried to stay calm, "We'll do another tomorrow, guys" but inside I was JUMPING for JOY!

SO IMPRESSED by my hard working kiddos!!

Do you address the incorrect answers along with the correct answers? I'd love to hear about how you deal with math misconceptions in your classroom!