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Math

9 Easy Valentine’s Day Ideas for Upper Elementary

by BrainNinjasWP

Valentine's Day in upper elementary isn't quite the same as the little kids or the older ones. It's this weird time in a kid's life where they are too old to care about paper cards but also want to be included in getting paper cards. They are just starting to have crushes but the maturity level is all over the place. We've spent a lot of time watching our Valentine's Day ideas flop. Come read some of our students' approved Valentine's Day ideas.

Valentine’s Day in upper elementary isn’t quite the same as the little kids or the older ones. It’s this weird time in a kid’s life when they are too old to care about paper cards but also want to be included in getting paper cards. They are just starting to have crushes but their maturity level is all over the place. We’ve spent a lot of time watching our Valentine’s Day ideas flop. But not anymore!

Over the years, we’ve watched students in our Grade 4 and Grade 5 classes to see how they respond to different activities for Valentine’s Day and we’ve settled on focusing on friendship and kindness. Some of these activities can be done any time of year because they are not specific to Valentine’s Day. These are the best Valentine’s Day ideas that were approved by our students.

[Read more…] about 9 Easy Valentine’s Day Ideas for Upper Elementary

Filed Under: Classroom Tips Tagged With: Acts of Kindness, Art, Art Lessons, Be Kind, Holidays, Holidays and Seasonal, Kindness, Kindness Matters, Logic Puzzles, Math, Math Worksheets, Mathematics, Poetry, Poetry and Drama, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Ideas, Writing, Writing Activities, Writing Prompts

How to Help Your Students Master Decimal Operations

by BrainNinjasWP

We find that many students struggle with decimal operations because their understanding of decimal number sense has a few holes in it. Come learn some of the ways we support our grade four and grade five students before, during and after learning to add and subtract decimals. And come grab a free set of decimals place value task cards to get you started.

Some students have difficulty working with decimals. Others misunderstand how place value helps when working with decimals operations. And other students struggle with number operations in general. Read on to find out the ways we support the different math learners in our classroom before working with decimal operations.

[Read more…] about How to Help Your Students Master Decimal Operations

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons, Teaching Strategies Tagged With: decimal operations, decimals, digital task cards, interactive math notebooks, Interactive Notebooks, Math, Math Lessons, Math Worksheets, Mathematics, task cards, Teachers Pay Teachers

How to Teach Students to Analyze Errors in Math

by BrainNinjasWP

When students understand how they make mistakes while calculating math equations, they can begin to prevent making them. We teach our students to analyze errors in math. Come see how we use this strategy to help students deepen their math understanding and grab a free activity you can use in your upper elementary math class. We use this activity with our grade four and grade five math students and all of them benefit from it.

Over the years, we’ve had students that don’t want to correct their math errors. Why do students need to know how they made a mistake? For students, it helps them understand where they went wrong so they don’t repeat the errors. For teachers, it helps narrow down how to support or teach the student. But how do you teach students to analyze errors in math?

[Read more…] about How to Teach Students to Analyze Errors in Math

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons, Teaching Strategies Tagged With: error analysis, Growth Mindset, interactive math notebooks, Math, math error analysis, math errors, Math Worksheets, Mathematics, New Math

Mastering the Angles: Innovative Approaches to Teaching Geometry Concepts

by BrainNinjasWP

Are you looking for ways to teach geometry concepts in your upper elementary classroom? This is one of our favourite units. We teach 2D shapes, 3D objects and transformations with interactive math notebooks, task cards, Boom Cards and a huge project where we build an arcade. It's so much fun! Come see how we do this in our math class.

When we start talking about quadrilaterals, trapezoids, and parallel lines, many students get lost quickly. There are so many new and uncommon words introduced in our geometry concepts unit and it is especially difficult for English Language Learners. These are some of the ways we build an understanding of shape and space concepts in our classroom.

[Read more…] about Mastering the Angles: Innovative Approaches to Teaching Geometry Concepts

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons, Teaching Strategies Tagged With: 2D shapes, 3D objects, classroom fun, engaging lessons, geometry, interactive math notebooks, Makerspace, Math, Mathematics, objects, polygons, Project Based Learning, quadrilaterials, shape and space, shapes, task cards, transformations, types of lines

Math Worksheet Games Your Students Will Love

by BrainNinjasWP

There are lots of different ways to use a math worksheet to help students learn to collaborate, reinforce skills, and deepen their understanding. Check out these activities that you can set up and use in minutes with the worksheets you already have printed. Save your time with these engaging activities.

We rarely use worksheets because they don’t align with our teaching style. We tend to use a lot of project-based learning or inquiry process activities, but every so often we find that our students need a little extra practice with computation in math. That is when we bring out the worksheets.

However, we don’t often just hand them out and expect our students to fill them in. Here are some ways we use a math worksheet in a less-than-traditional way.

[Read more…] about Math Worksheet Games Your Students Will Love

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons, Teaching Strategies Tagged With: Collaboration, Differentiated Instruction, Differentiation, Math, Math Worksheets, Mathematics, Teaching Strategies, Worksheets

The Trouble With Task Cards and How to Fix It

by BrainNinjasWP

Do you think task cards are more work than they're worth? Maybe you're using them wrong? Or maybe you're using the wrong ones. Let us help you navigate the challenges and get you more bang for your time!

Do you need some convincing about how you can effectively use task cards in the classroom? Do you like the idea of task cards but don’t have the time to make them? All that printing, laminating and cutting can look like it’s not worth your time. Well, we have some solutions to get the most out of task cards for your students in the least amount of time for you. Keep on reading to find out how we use them and why we think they’re so valuable.

[Read more…] about The Trouble With Task Cards and How to Fix It

Filed Under: Classroom Tips, Teaching Strategies Tagged With: digital task cards, Math, Mathematics, task cards

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