Jigsaw puzzles are great educational tools. Not only are they fun but they can help develop your child’s reasoning and problem-solving skills. And, of course, there’s nothing like the sense of satisfaction kids feel when they place that final piece into their puzzle. In addition to using commercial puzzles, it’s a lot of fun to have your child make her own jigsaw puzzle. Use one of her drawings or coloring books pages or even an enlarged photo and glue it…
Here’s a great way to give students practice adding coins. Use the date as their target number and then have them come up with all the different combinations using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. To turn this into a problem-solving activity, ask them to prove that they found all the combinations. A good way for students to learn how to organize their work is to have them use a table. At first, most kids fill in the table haphzardly which…
Just finished a unit and want your students to review what they learned? Getting ready for the chapter test? Just want to have fun? Jeopardy is a great way to review and reinforce what students have been learning. This photo shows some of the categories I use in the primary grades. The ones at the bottom show additional categories. Pretty much anything you’ve been learning can work. The students in my classroom are already set up in groups of 4-5….
Kids who have a strong number sense can compose and decompose numbers, make reasonable estimates, and use numbers in flexible ways. Here’s a great example. (Aligns to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics: Mathematical Practices – Look for and make use of structures.)
Why give students the definitions? Why not give them enough information so that they can create the definitions on their own? The Common Core state Standards in Mathematics along with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards emphasize allowing students to be actively involved in creating their learning. Through this, they will learn to: -reason abstractly and quantitatively -construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others -attend to precision -look for and make use of structure Besides, the…