Looking for an easy way to provide visual, hands on math tools for your kids without spending a fortune? This FREE set of printable math manipulatives is just what you need. As we gear up for possibly the strangest, hardest back to school season any of us have ever seen, there are unique needs for teachers and students. As I discussed things with a teacher friend, I asked how I could help her prepare and meet the needs of students and one Keep Reading...
{FREE} Mental Math Challenge for Kids: Exercise Your Brain!
Looking for a unique and fun mental math challenge for your kids to build number sense? This activity is easy to differentiate with multiple levels and the open ended design. How fluent are your kids with math facts and computation skills? Do you want something fun and engaging, yet challenging for their mind when schools are closed? It's important to keep up mental math skills like adding, subtracting and multiplication or they will be Keep Reading...
{FREE} Number Talk Planning Pages
I believe one of the best routines you can include in your math classroom are number talks. Number talks give kids a chance to think deeply about math operations, come up with their own strategies and justify their thinking. These are all important parts of the math learning process. And so with just 10-15 minutes a day, you can see tremendous growth over time! So I hope this set of number talk planning pages enables you to incorporate this Keep Reading...
5 Reasons Number Talks Should be a Regular Part of Your Math Routine
If you are a classroom teacher at any grade level, I encourage you to make number talks a regular part of your daily math routine. If you're not sure what this means or what a number talk looks like, I've got you covered. In this article, I will share a basic overview of number talks, why they are so important and how you can get started. *Please Note: This post contains affiliate links which support the work of this site. Read our full Keep Reading...
{FREE} Creative Math Writing Prompt: The Day the __ Quit!
Remember that time you wrote a fun and creative essay in math class? No? Yeah, me neither. But why shouldn't we include engaging creative writing in math? There are so many benefits to encouraging kids to write in math class. So allowing them to be creative while using math vocabulary and thinking openly about the subject seems like a no brainer to me. So when I read about this idea as an example of writing in math class in Linda Dacey's book, I Keep Reading...
Number Bonds with Apple Slices {FREE Printables!}
Understanding how to compose and decompose numbers is a very important skill in the early grades. This means understanding how to break numbers apart or combine numbers in different ways. For example, 3 and 4 make 7, but 2 and 5 also make seven. A great introduction and visual for kids is to create rainbows to show different combinations. But I also love the visual of number bonds. So this simple apple math lesson combines a fun, hands on tool Keep Reading...
Adding & Subtracting Decimals Partner Challenge {FREE!}
I we wrap up our series on adding & subtracting decimals, I'm excited to share not only a free practice activity with you, but also one of my favorite classroom teaching strategies, called a Pair-Share-Check. This adding & subtracting decimals partner activity is specifically designed to help kids practice in multiple ways and then to think about what strategies are the most useful to them. So I hope this proves to be a useful tactic in 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...
The Great Debate: The Role of Calculators in Math Education
The great debate over calculator use in the math classroom, particularly in elementary school, will probably never be resolved. There are those who say there is no place for calculators in the classroom, whether elementary or high school. Then there are those who say that “mental math” is no longer necessary. That we live in an age of technology and memorizing multiplication facts or working math out with pencil and paper has become obsolete and Keep Reading...
How to Use Doodle Notes to Explore Absolute Value
As student attention spans get shorter and shorter, teaching for long-term retention becomes more challenging. Students groan at the thought of taking notes and listening to a lecture, and yet in math class, it is inevitable that there will be some direct instruction each time we introduce a new concept. Today I want to introduce you to a new method of note taking, and provide a free sample to explore absolute value with your Keep Reading...
