Part of figuring out how to help kids grow up comfortable with math, is to understand what math is. If you ask a group of first graders to describe math, the responses are very similar. Math is adding and taking away. Older elementary students will add multiplying and dividing. When prodded to include more, there are often long pauses followed by kids giving the same answer but in a different way. Rarely does anyone describe math as shapes or patterns…
Kids who have strong number sense understand what numbers are, how they relate to each other, and the affects that different operations have on them. These kids can easily compose and decompose numbers and are able to make reasonable estimates making computation much easier. In other words, kids with strong number sense are comfortable with numbers. And when kids are comfortable with numbers, math becomes much easier. The good news is, helping our children develop a strong sense of numbers…
See how simple objects like tiles, stickers, rubber stamps, dice, and graph paper help teach students important concepts in number theory: factors, primes, composites, and square numbers…not to mention the great reinforcement of multiplication facts. Grades 2 – 5 To get the pdf version, click here. If you do any of these activities with your kids/students, let me know how it goes!
WooHoo! Free Money! Okay, so technically there’s a little work involved. But the kind of money we’re talking about here is definitely worth the effort. The PTAs Take Your Family to School Week is sponsored by the AXA Foundation and includes 45 $1000 grants. One of them could be yours if you take action before October 28, 2011 by completing the short application. Of course, we’re going to want you to use that money to purchase our Nifty Numbers Family…
The first in a series of elementary math videos: .