Winter Holidays-Christmas activities/games

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 …

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 …

Learning time is often confusing for students as the concept of time is still abstract for many of them as it doesn’t connect to the other concepts of measurement. The students cannot see, touch, or weigh time. It is hard to visualize and compare time. Time does not use the …

Teaching time and specifically teaching how to read the analog clock and elapsed time is often a challenge for parents and teachers. The reason is that the concept of time is still abstract for many students as it doesn’t connect to the other concepts of measurement. The students cannot see, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Both educators and parents agree that fractions and their operations are one of the most difficult concepts for students to grasp. What makes fractions so challenging for students? The introduction of the concept of fractions comes with a new vocabulary, new rules, new symbols, and a new concept of values between zero …