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Category: Mathematics -The Elementary Years

Beginning Fraction Work

Beginning Fraction Work

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I’ve said it before, but it’s important to say it again…understanding fractions begins with understanding the whole and the pieces that make it up.  The question below is a good way to get students to reflect on the idea that, with fractions, each piece names one equal part.  The CCSSM identifies each part as a ‘unit fraction’. Posing this question is a great opportunity to focus on the CCSSM Standards for Mathematical Practice, Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning…

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Cookie Fun Way to Teach Money, Arithmetic, and Geometry

Cookie Fun Way to Teach Money, Arithmetic, and Geometry

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Cookies in math class? Absolutely! This fun and engaging hands-on activity will get your students excited about doing math. Students will be designing their perfect cookie within the limits of a budget. They will be filling out order forms for cookies, candy and frosting then designing and drawing their final product. This fun activity seamlessly ties in important concepts in math, specifically, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with money, and attributes of geometric shapes. This lesson is divided into grades…

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Common Core Mathematics Standards Focus – Commutative Property of Addition

Common Core Mathematics Standards Focus – Commutative Property of Addition

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Making sense of and understanding mathematics is the foundation of the new Common Core State Standards in Mathematics.  It is not enough that kids can compute with numbers – they must understand why those computations work.  Enter Number Theory, the part of math that explores numbers and how they relate to each other.  At the heart of Number Theory are the properties of number.  One of the first ones students will encounter is the Commutative Property of Addition.  It states…

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Data Analysis and Problem-Solving in Second Grade

Data Analysis and Problem-Solving in Second Grade

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What a treat it was for me to work with two second graders yesterday in Mrs. Durbin’s class. Mrs. Durbin created a fun project for these two high math students to provide them with extra challenge. I’m there to help facilitate them while she teaches the rest of the class. When I arrived for my first session with them last week, they had already collected their data. Their chosen topic was sports equipment in the primary grades. They wanted to…

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How to Use Rectangular Arrays to Teach Multiplication, Factors, Primes, Composites, Squares

How to Use Rectangular Arrays to Teach Multiplication, Factors, Primes, Composites, Squares

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This is my teacherspayteachers.com first FREEBIE! I chose this particular activity to make as my freebie because the video version has gotten over 4,000 views on YouTube! I figure that means teachers are looking for creative ways to teach multiplication and number theory (properties of number). To get the 5-page pdf, click here. Here’s the video version: .