Whenever our students encounter problems, it can be a tricky situation. On one hand, I get super excited about the idea of my students THINKING about everything they know to solve the problem. I love watching their brains work while they access that filing cabinet in their brain of math information and pull out the information to solve a challenging problem. On the other hand, that same process can become a brick wall when it becomes too overwhelming. Students can shut do

This month, I've been working with some fabulous kids in an online fraction class. They are doing a fantastic job learning virtually, but it has driven home some points that I thought would be good to reflect upon this week: Fractions are worthless if you don't have any meaning. We do what we can when with fraction pieces and strips. However, students have to have a foundational understanding of a whole and what it means to have part of a whole. As I've been recording ne

This week, I wanted to talk about an oldie but a goodie. When students are learning their math facts, we often jump straight to the...

Many people don't realize the complexities of teaching fractions until they try to help an 8 or 9-year-old student truly understand what...

Students begin learning about plane shapes in Kindergarten for a reason. Their understanding of plane shapes helps them with later concepts with solid figures. Think about it: They begin learning about the number of sides and angles for each plane shape. They learn how these plane shapes form solid shapes. Solid shapes can roll, stack or slide based on their properties. As students move into fifth and sixth grade, they use this foundation to learn about surface area and

You know I love reading picture books during my math lessons. I love finding a good book with great pictures that show students what math is all about. (You can check out some of my other favorites in my blog feed.) This week, I want to talk about a book that I have used with first graders-fifth graders: The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins. (This post does contain affiliate links.) This book brings alive the meaning of division by sharing chocolate cookies evenly among child

Many of you know I launched my Mental Math Within 100 co-op course this week! I'm so excited to begin working with 10 students two times...

Mental math is one of those areas that you either love or hate. You either grew up doing mental math and feel confident doing it or you...

Every time I sit down with a student to introduce a new concept, it goes one of two ways. Either the student begins to make conceptual understanding and progresses through the objective or we hit a wall and realize the student has more work to do. Both situations can cause problems. In the first scenario, I'm left wondering how far do I push the student. What if he/she masters the objective before everyone else? Do I enrich? Do I provide more problems? Do I continue to

I'm loving adding math literature to our daily read alouds. Today, I want to share the fabulous world of Greg Tang with you. If you...