We are well into week three and things in our classroom and working well. If you missed the start of this journey, check out our previous articles on The Educator’s Room. Being a mentor teacher is a letting go of yourself so someone else can learn. I am finding ways to keep myself busy during […]
Mathematics
Posted inClassroom Management, Elementary School, Instruction & Curriculum, Mathematics
Elementary Math: One Approach to Differentiation
When I was an elementary student, many years ago, I was a quick learner. I remember sitting in the classroom and looking for ways to challenge myself. I was often reading/working ahead or helping others around me. I was thrilled when I made it into junior high and was able to take upper level math classes. Here, […]
Posted inInstructional Strategies, Mathematics, Special Education
Using Food to Teach Fractions: Math You Can Eat
Like most students I teach, my students all got taught multiplying fractions the classic way. You multiply the numerator by the numerator and the denominator by the denominator. You either learn the method or you don’t (just like any other procedural method you learn in math). Many kids take to concrete methods of learning better […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Mathematics
Accessible Math for Elementary Students AND their Parents
I saw a post on Facebook this week about “Common Core Math.” The idea of the post was if you add 4 apples and 5 oranges you will get an orange haired monkey. Sigh! There is not a perfect curriculum and I don’t believe we will ever know the motivation behind the standards, but they are […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Mathematics, Opinion, School Improvement
The Importance of Solidifying Basic Math Facts
Each Friday, I run my class through timed math facts tests. I give my kids five minutes to get through 100 facts. I assess my first through sixth graders on addition and subtraction; my third through sixth grade on all the facts of multiplication and division and my first and second graders on each set […]
Posted inElementary School, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Mathematics
Getting Your Hands On Math: Multiplication
I watched my three year-old, Monkey, coloring with colored pencils this morning. He was testing out the white pencil even though it was on white paper. I knew what was going to happen and I had to resist the urge to tell him not to do it. But I bit my tongue and watched him […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Mathematics
Addition and Subtraction of Fractions
For many topics in mathematics teaching the concept before the algorithm can lead to deeper learning. Teaching addition and subtraction of fractions with different denominators is one such topic. Using pattern blocks for this topic gives students a visual representation that they can translate to the algorithm for this topic. You may want to review […]
Posted inElementary School, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Mathematics, Uncategorized
Introducing Equivalent Fractions
Teaching equivalent fractions is often a difficult task. In this article I am going to show several methods that should make this task a bit easier. I previously posted an article for using patterns blocks to teach parts of a whole. In order to provide some consistency with that article the first method I will […]