We’ve been teaching math facts backwards. The second-grade standards ask students to know from memory all sums of two single-digit numbers. On paper, that looks like one hundred individual facts. It’s absolutely no wonder at all that so many students feel overwhelmed and discouraged. And it’s also no wonder that
Math facts are one of those skills that ripple out into almost everything else students do in the math classroom. When a student does not know basic facts, every task feels like walking through quicksand. For example, adding 23 plus 15 using mental strategies becomes an arduous task if a
A few weeks ago, I went to a conference where it felt like every presenter started their session the same way. They would say something like, “Pretend you don’t know how to solve this,” and then walk us through manipulatives, models, or routines that would help a student who truly
I sat in on a session at AMTNYS (Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State) a few weeks back that was all about using hands-on tools to teach fractions to middle schoolers. I went in expecting to learn about advanced models or next-level strategies that would show where fifth
In math we can support our students to understand concepts but, at the end of the day, they need to practice those skills over and over to become fluent and confident mathematicians. This collection of board games gives your students the repeated practice they need while remaining engaged in board
If you’ve been following along with our Word Problem Bootcamp, we’ve already looked at two big challenges. In Week 1, we talked about comprehension, when students don’t truly understand what’s happening in the story. In Week 2, we talked about connection, when students understand the story but can’t yet connect
We don’t have to be sitting in a math classroom to improve our students’ number sense and math skills! There are tons of board games that help improve math skills. These games can give your students math skills a big BOOST while your kids don’t even realize they are learning.
Some students can read a word problem, understand every part of the story, and even tell you what’s happening in their own words but when it’s time to find the math, they’re completely stuck. They aren’t confused by the words; they’re confused by how those words connect to operations. This
You’ve seen it a hundred times. You hand your students a word problem that should be totally within reach. They read it. They stare. They pluck out numbers and start adding them together. They aren’t sure what they are doing but they sure are “doing something”! It’s not that they
Halloween week has a special kind of energy in the classroom. You can feel the excitement building and sometimes it feels like keeping everyone focused is half the battle! I pulled together my favorite Halloween math activities, perfect for this high energy week, all in one place. Each one brings