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Category: Mathematics -The Elementary Years

Cookie Fun Way to Teach Money, Arithmetic, and Geometry

Cookie Fun Way to Teach Money, Arithmetic, and Geometry

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

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

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

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: .

Fractions: Understanding the Whole

Fractions: Understanding the Whole

Getting students to understand fractions begins with an understanding of the ‘whole’. Take a look at the three designs in the photo. Begin with the question, “What do you notice?” Students will say obvious things like, “There is one hexagon and two trapezoids in the first design”, or “The center design is the largest.” Accept and encourage all these responses as they will help students build confidence. If no-one offers the idea that each design is half red, prompt them…

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