One of the perks of being a math instructional coach is that you get to visit classrooms on a daily basis. On one of those visits, I observed this 1st-grade number of the day routine using ten frames. The daily routine begins by showing the number of the day (which is...
As a young girl, I briefly took gymnastics lessons. Anybody else? I have to admit that I was not very flexible—I couldn’t do a smooth backward roll to save my life! That said, one of my favorite Olympic events is the gymnastics competition. Every four years,...
As we begin to introduce multi-digit multiplication, the tendency is to dive right into the standard algorithm. While the standard algorithm is an efficient strategy, it is very procedural and many kiddos mimic the steps without understanding the process. A great...
Composing and decomposing numbers is critical learning for Kindergarteners and 1st Graders. This is something that needs to be practiced all year long as students master the combinations first for 5, then 6, then 7, etc. And, of course, they won’t all progress...
Working with large numbers really needn’t be difficult for students. It’s all about patterns! You can read more about that here. Once students understand the structure of our number system, it just takes practice reading, writing, and comparing...
Oh, how I love easy games that are engaging for the kiddos and require low prep time! Especially when those games develop critical skills, like composing and decomposing numbers and making combinations for ten. This post contains affiliate links, which simply means...
