Create an ugly Christmas sweater

Believe it or not, we are already getting close to 100 days of school! Completing 100 days of school is exciting for many reasons, the most important of them being that it is a great opportunity (and an excuse) to play some more games, solve some more puzzles, do some …

Using Mental Math strategies means solving a math problem mentally using a conceptual understanding of the numbers. Teaching Mental math Strategies to students is very important as it develops their flexible thinking and boosts their confidence in math. Being able to use the multiplication properties to apply mental math strategies …

A game for comparing fractions was missing from our collection so here it is. This is a simple racing game that requires students to compare fractions and recognize equivalent ones. The students can use the fraction bars to compare the fractions (included) or other strategies such as Comparing both to …

“Fractions Operations! What a fun concept to teach.” said no teacher ever. Just kidding! I love teaching fractions operations. Once the students understand fractions conceptually and are fluent in the skills below fractions operations truly are a breeze. First things first, before starting with fractions operations the students should have …

Fractions operations are usually a challenging concept for students to grasp. The multiplication of fractions seems to be “easier” than adding and subtracting fractions since the algorithm is more straightforward in the sense that we do not need to find the LCM and turn the fractions into like ones. However, …

Students need a variety of activities to learn and experience numbers. Learning to count, identifying numbers, and understanding quantity are just the beginning. They need to be able to compare, and order numbers, skip count, find patterns, represent numbers, and more. Here are some ideas of games/activities that you can …

Adding and subtracting fractions, especially heterogeneous ones (with unlike denominators), is often a challenging concept for students since there is a lot of prerequisite knowledge involved like fluency with multiplication and division facts, LCM, equivalent fractions, and more. Before students start with adding and subtracting fractions they need to have …

Multi-digit multiplication is considered one of the most “challenging” concepts to teach students. The reason for this view is, in my opinion, the fact that understanding multi-digit multiplication requires students to have gained a deep understanding of place value, and the multiplication properties. As the digits increase the process of …

Base ten blocks, bead strings, 100 grids, place value discs, and more manipulatives provide hands-on ways to learn place value, number concepts, operations, measurement, and much more. Students use these manipulatives to physically represent numbers so they can develop a deeper understanding. Building number combinations with manipulatives help students understand …

Multiplication facts fluency is very important as it is the base for many concepts like multi-digit multiplication, equivalent fractions, division, and, much more. Multiplication facts practice deserves time and effort. Rushing into drills that promote meaningless memorization with endless repetition will not help in the long run. Allow students to …

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you are all well-rested and ready to get back to work. We all like to start the year with some fun activities like math art, games, and puzzles. In today’s post, we are introducing a New Year countdown game that will be fun to …

A strong conceptual understanding of division will help build students’ confidence and a strong foundation to base multi-digit division and division of decimals and fractions. The first step is to make sure that students understand what is division. Ask your students to explain what is division and find out what is …

Grades 2,3,4 Arrays are a great way to introduce multiplication in grade 2 and 3. Playing with arrays will help students model multiplication as repeated addition and understand the properties of multiplication. It is very important that we help students visualize and understand multiplication early on so that we build …