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Some students struggle with the concept of volume, but we’ve been doing this long enough that we can help. Generally, students mix up volume with capacity or don’t completely understand how to calculate the volume of different shapes. Come learn some of our tried and true activities that we use to help students understand volume.
[Read more…] about The Cubic Quest: How to Teach Volume
Teaching students how to calculate capacity using metric units is an essential skill in mathematics and in life. If you’ve ever tried to put your leftovers in the wrong container, you know it’s important to be able to use referents and measure containers properly. Finding resources that measure capacity in metric units can also be a challenge for teachers in Canada, but we have you covered. Learning about capacity is more than just using formulas. Come learn some of the ways we teach this measurement concept in our upper elementary classroom.
[Read more…] about Five Amazing Capacity Quests to Enliven Your Classroom
When people ask, “When will I ever use this?” perimeter is often an example of a real-world skill that people need. Understanding how to measure it is important for construction, landscaping, sewing, and painting.
Students usually start off understanding perimeter when we measure with non-standard units. But, as soon as we start adding formulas or other measurements, like area, students begin to struggle. Check out the ways we help build a strong foundation for measuring perimeter with our upper elementary students.
[Read more…] about Love Math and Explore Perimeter With Your Young Mathematicians
Triangles are fundamental shapes in your geometry lessons. Understanding their properties lays a strong foundation for further mathematical learning. Students need to understand measurements of side lengths and angles to classify triangles. Come learn some of the ways to teach classifying triangles in your upper elementary classroom.
[Read more…] about Ways to Teach Classifying Triangles
With so many things to do in math class each day, it’s almost impossible to help our students build fluency in math facts because there simply isn’t enough time. Timed drills have been proven to be unsuccessful for the majority of students because rather than testing mathematical knowledge, they test how fast a student thinks or writes. So, we were looking for a way to help students practice their math fact fluency without time constraints. That’s how we came up with our math fact fluency graphs.
[Read more…] about How to Build Math Fact Fluency in Your Classroom
Are you using geometry books in your math classes? Why not? Even simple books can help students visualize concepts. Even books that might be considered “baby books” can be used in your upper elementary math. There is more than one way to use a book. Come read how we do it.
[Read more…] about How to Unfold Geometry: Books to Shape Your Unit
When we hear that we have to do algebra activities, the fear is real. Algebra is this haunting reminder of high school. When I was becoming a teacher, I didn’t want my negative experiences with math to influence how I taught it or, more importantly, how my students learned it.
In university, I was put in a “special” math class designed for education students who needed to refine their math skills. Truthfully, it was for us creatives who didn’t take enough math during high school and university. At first, I was scared of the class, but as the class progressed, I realized how lucky I was to be there. Not only did I get over my fear of math, I learned how to break down math concepts in so many different ways that I could teach it to any student. Come learn some of the ways to break down introductory algebra with these algebra activities.
[Read more…] about How to Demystify Math With These 7 Algebra Activities
Fractions can be a struggle for many students, but it really comes down to understanding them visually. Before we ever teach students the numerals or symbols, we try to show them the meaning of fractions visually in a variety of ways so they can truly understand parts, sets, and wholes. If you’ve ever struggled to teach fractions to your students, this is probably the post for you. Come try these fraction strategies that work for a wide range of learners.
[Read more…] about 7 Ways to Upgrade Your Fraction Strategies
Measurement is one of those math strands that requires lots of hands-on activities and practice. While students can learn about the different measurements and units through learning about them, it essentially takes a lot of practice measuring to really understand how all the measurements work together.
We have found that a combination of book learning and reference materials supports students while they use units to measure different items. Read on to learn about some of the different measurement activities we use to help students master the metric system (and other units of measurement).
[Read more…] about Amazing Measurement Activities to Stretch Math
Teaching students to tell time is a necessary and difficult challenge, but time lessons are a life skill.
Some people argue that reading analog clocks is a skill that is slowly disappearing. Perhaps one day, digital clocks will completely take over, but for now, they are still around, causing grief for teachers and students around the world during time lessons in math class.
Come learn some of the activities we use to help our students learn to read the time with these time lessons that will save you time.
[Read more…] about How to Teach Students to Tell Time
Differentiated instruction is expected of most classroom teachers these days. Long gone are the times when one worksheet could be given to every member of the class and they would all work on that page until every question was done correctly. Since the pandemic began, the once manageable (pause for laughter here) learning gaps between students have gotten even worse. So what is a teacher to do when there are such vast differences in skill levels during math class? How do you differentiate math lessons?
[Read more…] about How to Differentiate Math Lessons
Adding candy to any lesson will always engage students, but why not get some math out of it in the process? We have found our students are very motivated by food. For many of them, it is a treat they don’t get often. Just add candy to sweeten up your math lesson.
There are lots of different ways to incorporate candy into your math lessons, so we’ve gathered up a list of ideas. Once you get started, you’ll see the possibilities for yourself.
[Read more…] about How to Add Candy to Your Math Lessons
