Introducing kids to multiplication and division can be difficult. All kids have known is counting and addition, so helping them make the transition from counting one by one to then adding fluently to then multiplying fluently takes time and patience and lots of practice. There are so many ways to do this, but today I want to focus on multiplication and division with LEGO bricks. Most kids LOVE building with these tiny blocks, and so they find it Keep Reading...
How to Teach Addition & Subtraction with LEGO Bricks
My kids are obsessed with LEGO. They love to build pre-made kits, they love to create their own designs, they love the movies...you get the idea. But as a math teacher, I love LEGO too, because they are such a great hands on visual for teaching math! In today's post, I want to share some simple ways to practice LEGO addition & subtraction. The ideas are easy and don't require much prep, so go grab your LEGO bricks and we'll get Keep Reading...
30+ of the Best LEGO Math Activities for All Ages
Looking for a new approach to a certain math concept? Or a helpful and hands on visual to help your kids make sense of numbers and operations? Using LEGO bricks to learn math may be just the thing! This HUGE, growing collection of LEGO math activities and resources will help you teach virtually any concept with LEGO. *Please Note: This post contains affiliate links which help support the work of this site. Read our full disclosure Keep Reading...
Number Sense Activities with Visual Dot Cards {Grades PreK-1}
Time and time again, research shows that students who struggle with math in middle school or high school were the same kids who lacked number sense in the early grades. So it is essential that we help develop and strengthen kids' number sense in Kindergarten and First Grade, to help set them up for future math success. There are several different strategies you can focus on to help kids make sense of numbers and think flexibly, but one of the Keep Reading...
Finding & Filling the Math Gaps
The difficulty in math is not that some people get it and some people don't (there's no such thing as a math person). It's not that there's so much to memorize (you can't understand math by memorizing). It's that math is relentlessly sequential. New math concepts and skills build on previously learned concepts. And while you may be able to get by ok for a while with gaps in your math learning, eventually you're going to hit a wall. And it will be Keep Reading...
How to REALLY Help Kids Solve Math Word Problems
Recently, I was working on multiplying and dividing by 2 with one of my kids. A constant refrain was, "What does multiply mean?" or "But remember, what does that division sign represent?" As they started to grapple with these concepts and play with manipulatives and pictures and equations, I tried to make sure we always came back to the why. But why are you counting by 2's to get the answer? And why are we splitting our set into groups of 2? Keep Reading...
How to Teach Fractions {With Free Game Ideas}
One of the biggest fears homeschooling parents have when it comes to teaching their children math is...fractions. Fear not. Follow these steps for how to teach fractions and you will be on your way to a tear free fraction journey. Warning! No matter how old your student is, don't skip one of the steps. *Please Note: This post contains affiliate links which help support the work of this site. Read our full disclosure here.* This is a Keep Reading...
Division Debate: Do Kids Need Long Division?
Teaching long division. Can you imagine anything more painful in homeschooling? The child staring at the problem with tears in their eyes thinking, "I will never understand this." And there's the mom who has explained for what feels like the 100th time thinking, "Why can't they get this?!" What if I told you that you don't have to teach long division? In fact, I don't teach it to my children and I never worried about it in the classroom. If Keep Reading...
Deepening Fraction Sense with Fractions Area Models
As we continue our series on developing fraction sense, hopefully by now you are feeling a little more confident and equipped. Learning about fractions doesn't have to be scary, and it doesn't have to mean hours of pencil and paper computations. Instead, the focus should be on deep understanding, using concrete, visual models. Today, I want to share a powerful visual, which students can use to compare, add, subtract, multiply and divide Keep Reading...
Developing Fraction Sense Using Benchmark Fractions
In the early years, a child's math education should focus on developing number sense. In other words, helping them to understand numbers in lots of different ways, and to be fluid in how they use numbers and work with numbers to solve problems. As kids progress through school, they begin to be introduced to fractions. And since fractions are in fact numbers, we want kids to be as fluent and comfortable using and manipulating fractions as they are Keep Reading...
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