Mental Math Strategies – Addition and Subtraction

The Unseen World of Non-Repeating, Non-Terminating Decimals Irrational numbers are one of the most fascinating concepts in mathematics. They are numbers that cannot be expressed as a simple fraction of two integers. Unlike rational numbers (which can be written as fractions like 1/2, 3/4, etc.), irrational numbers have infinite decimal …

Pi (π) is one of the most famous numbers in mathematics, appearing in formulas across geometry, physics, engineering, and even nature. But why does this seemingly simple ratio—approximately 3.14159—hold such immense importance, and where did it come from? The History of Pi The concept of pi has been known for …

A Fun, Low-Prep digital activity for Review, Practice, and critical thinking As teachers, we know that spiral review is key to helping students retain math skills over time and to finding the connections between concepts. The idea of Math Trivia came as a need for an engaging, low-prep resource that …

 Math curriculums today typically use one of two types of teaching methods: spiral or mastery. A spiral approach presents a new concept, provides practice on that concept, and then moves to another skill. Each skill is reviewed and revisited throughout math levels, always adding to prior learning. The Mastery Method is …

We have already discussed mental math strategies for addition and subtraction as well as mental math strategies for multiplication in previous posts. Today we will talk about division strategies that not only help students solve problems quickly but most importantly they help them gain a conceptual understanding of numbers and …

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 …

Halloween is a great time for some playful, fun math activities like games, puzzles, and more. Puzzles are a great way to add some excitement to math class and when you can turn them into math talks a lot of interesting discussions happen as the students make connections, see the …

Math talks are short activities (around 10-15 minutes) designed to provide opportunities for the students to make connections in mathematics and explain their thinking to their peers. There are questions/problems/pictures that encourage students to think of different strategies and realize that there is no one way to solve a problem. …

At mathcurious we love math puzzles and brain teasers. Anything that tickles the brain and improves mathematical thinking. Puzzles provoke creativity and show the students how different math concepts and combinations of them can be used to solve problems in unexpected ways. Are your students smarter than a chicken? Have them …

Since the multi-digit addition and subtraction and Multi-Digit Multiplication games were a great success in my classroom and from what I heard in yours as well, I have decided to create a few for long division as well. The idea of these games is to motivate the students to practice …

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 …

Multi-digit addition and subtraction practice is often tiring and boring for the students, however, the practice is necessary. Many of you have been asking for 2,3,4-digit addition games. The truth is that I haven’t shared any because concepts like multi-digit addition that need the students to take time and do …

The concept of area like the concept of perimeter is used constantly in everyday life so students will already have an intuitive understanding of it. We need to use and link that understanding to the math activities in the classroom. Hands on activities and word problems that connect to real-life …

Students start to learn about perimeter around grade 3, however, perimeter appears in all grades. Since the perimeter is the sum of all the sides of a 2d-shape, activities can take many forms, from measuring with crackers to algebraic expressions. Depending on the skill level of your students you can …

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 …

Below you will find a collection of free games. Most of the games have a print and google slides version and some of them have a web version as well. The links will take you to a post where you will find the instructions, the print files to download, and …

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 …

As per your request here are all the fraction games by Mathcurious. Most of the games are free and come with a google slides version as well. The task cards come with a free version. Introducing Fractions Multiplayer games – print and Digital (board games, memory game, and bingo cards) …

Grades 1-3 Using 100 grids to solve addition and subtraction problems is a great way for students to understand place value and regrouping. Placing/coloring tens and ones on a 100 (or more) grid helps them represent the first number and then add or subtract the second. They can see how …

Today I would like to share a fun multiplayer game that my youngest son and I created for students to practice place value and gain fluency with the 1-110 chart. It’s a fun way to practice place value, order of numbers, addition, subtraction, number patterns, and more. The game has …

By transforming any math activity into a “puzzle” you can instantly engage students and make a lesson so much more exciting. I often use puzzles to initiate number talks and to challenge my students. I love the Aha! moments they have once they solve a problem/puzzle. Why do students enjoy …

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 …

Since we will be working on division the last few days before the winter holidays I have prepared some holiday-themed division activity cards. The activities include problems of partitive and quotative division with and without remainder and some word problems. The idea is to move the objects or move shapes …

Activities on the 100 chart are a great way to build fluency with numbers in grades 1 and 2 and 3. Students can find patterns and relations, understand one more, one less, count by 2,3, and so on. Start with a 20 or 50 chart and gradually move on to …

Arrays are a great way to introduce multiplication in grade 1, 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 a …

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 …