Beginning as early as 1st grade, students should have experience solving addition and subtraction problems with the unknown in any position. Traditionally, we have tended to focus on result unknown... The post Solving Problems with the Unknown in any position appeared first on Math Coach's Corner ..read more

A Frayer Model is a graphical organizer used to define and understand a concept by examining its definition, characteristics, examples, and non-examples. Frayer Models are typically used for vocabulary. but... The post Using a Frayer Model for Math appeared first on Math Coach's Corner ..read more

Making 100 is nearly as important a skill as making 10, and the two skills are clearly related. This Difference from 100 math game will have your students composing 100 in no time! This post contains affiliate links, which simply means that when you use my link and purchase a product, I receive a small commission. There is no additional cost to you, and I only link to books and products that I personally use and recommend. Think, for example, of finding the difference between 53 and 100. Mentally, you probably look at the ones place, see a 3 and know that you need 7 to make a 10, so in trying ..read more

Are you looking for a fun end-of-year project? Or a creative way for students to reflect on a math unit? Enter the dodecahedron! *This post contains affiliate links, which simply means that when you use my link and purchase a product, I receive a small commission. There is no additional cost to you, and I only link to books and products that I personally use and recommend. A dodecahedron is a 12-sided geometric ball. There’s a little bit of cutting and pasting involved with this craftivity, but the result is a true keepsake. Copy two sheets of the pattern for each student on white cardst ..read more

In the landscape of early childhood education, the significance of learning number combinations through 10 in kindergarten cannot be overstated. While it might seem like just one of many skills taught in kindergarten, this foundational step plays a crucial role in setting students up to develop fluency in addition and subtraction as they progress. Let’s explore why mastering these combinations is an essential cornerstone in a child’s mathematical journey. Be sure to check out the links throughout this post for more information and access to numerous free downloads. the role of number combinati ..read more

I recently presented at NCTM‘s regional conference in Seattle. The theme of the conference was Everyone Belongs Here. Here’s more on that from their website: The conference will explore instructional practices that create safe learning spaces where students’ voices, thoughts, and ideas are heard; their math identities thrive; and they are secure in knowing they are valued, they matter, and they belong. For many, the math classroom does not feel like a welcoming place. When we teach with a one-size-fits-all approach and  focus solely on memorizing procedures, students inevitably fal ..read more

Are you looking for an engaging way for your students to practice their multiplication facts? Well, of course you are! Check out this engaging multiplication fact practice game! Math Lines, from ABCya, takes a different approach to multiplication facts. This super engaging game allows players to choose a target number to multiply to. For example, players can practice all the ways to multiply to 12. There are three, increasingly more difficult levels of play. This link will take you to ABCya and Multiplication Math Lines. There’s also an addition version, which you can check out here.   T ..read more

They sometimes say that math is the science of patterns, and maybe nowhere is that more apparent than in our place value system. Unfortunately, we often teach place value at a very surface level and we don’t give students enough opportunities to explore those patterns. One way to build understanding is by modeling place value relationships. This post contains affiliate links, which simply means that when you use my link and purchase a product, I receive a small commission. There is no additional cost to you, and I only link to books and products that I personally use and recommend. What do the ..read more

Math practice should be engaging for students, and what could be more engaging than connecting math to a charming children’s book? And while we want math to be engaging, let’s not forget that the goal is still to teach math skills, so it also has to be purposeful. In Kindergarten, one of the most critical skills is learning all of the combinations for the numbers up through ten. It’s the foundation of addition/subtraction fact fluency. And the combinations for the number ten are especially important, because of the importance of ten in our number system. This post contains affiliate links, whi ..read more

To truly understand place value, students need to not only identify the place, or position, a digit is sitting in (e.g., the 4 is in the tens place or there are 4 tens), but they also need to understand the value of that digit (e.g., the value of the 4 in the tens place is 40). We need to make sure that we are asking students a variety of questions and having them use multiple place value models so we can uncover their true understanding of place value. This post contains affiliate links, which simply means that when you use my link and purchase a product, I receive a small commission. Th ..read more