There are fundamental questions that teachers should ask themselves and their students as they prepare lessons on calculating area. Area measurement is commonly used in everyday life (perhaps to carpet a room or organize a space) and plays a foundational role in mathematics from multiplication all way up to calculus. Despite the usefulness of area…

The teacher displayed counting cards that included both dots and numerals in order from one to five, as she counted them with her students. She then turned the cards facedown, keeping them in order, and began an identify-a-hidden-card activity with the class. This class was engaged in the third of three card activities that develop number sense…

Mathematical modeling is an important and accessible process for elementary school students because it allows them to use mathematics to engage with the world and consider if and when to use it to help them reason about a situation. It fosters productive struggle and twenty-first-century skills that will aid them throughout their lifetime.

A second-grade class visits Saint John's Food Pantry each year and spends the morning learning about the needs of the community. Then students pitch in and help the staff for a few hours. When the children return to school, they create signs advertising a canned food drive, and they place collection boxes at various locations around the school.…

In many prekindergarten classes, children begin the day by singing a song as part of their opening routine. In reflecting on opening routines in public prekindergarten classrooms across Michigan, the authors have been struck by how often small changes in teachers' routines or materials could enrich the mathematical engagement of children. The goal…

A single fact-focused number-string discussion is unlikely to result in all students adopting more flexible and efficient fact strategies; however, these authors have found that repeated engagement in such discussions over time does promote student reasoning about relationships, which in turn leads to increased fact fluency. By cultivating a…

The students in Ms. Moscoso's second-grade class gather on the rug after recess, ready for one of their favorite math warm-ups: Choral Counting. Counting is an important part of doing mathematics throughout the school; students count collections (Schwerdtfeger and Chan 2007) and solve problems using a variety of strategies, many of which are…

When asked to determine the number of tens in twenty-five, most second graders who have had instruction on place value can quickly provide the correct answer of two. However, when asked to show how the numeral 2 is represented in a set of twenty-five objects, many children struggle to draw a connection between the digit 2 and twenty objects in the…

In this article, the authors illustrate how the practice of number strings--used regularly in a classroom community--can simultaneously support computational fluency and building conceptual understanding. Specifically, the authors will demonstrate how a lesson about multi-digit addition (CCSSM 2NBT.B.5) can simultaneously serve as an invitation to…

Without a doubt, fractions prove to be a stumbling block for many children. Researchers have suggested a variety of explanations for why this is the case. The introduction of symbolization and operations before the development of conceptual understanding of fractions, a lack of understanding of the role of the numerator and denominator, and an…

A first-grade teacher has students use their hands and fingers to engage in and develop understanding of counting, to combine groups to facilitate counting by fives and tens, and to describe their findings using words and equations.

Several detours prompted me to find time in an overcrowded school day to incorporate important, powerful, daily, whole-class application of fact strategies. A few years ago, I embarked on a journey with my second graders, a journey through the strategies for mental computation of addition and subtraction facts. The focus of that journey was to…

Using Cuisenaire Rods, metric measurement, and mapping, students worked collaboratively to calculate, keep records, build, and problem solve with use of decimal fractions as a key element.

Billions of dollars are spent each year in efforts to prevent and treat diseases caused by unhealthy eating habits. Promoting awareness among young children regarding the importance of achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is crucial for preparing them to sustain healthy lives as adults. This article aims to highlight ways to help students…

A team of teachers from the same New York City public school met to discuss and compare the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) to their current math curriculum. The group consisted of four kindergarten teachers, a representative from the first-grade teaching team, and the school's math coach. During the first meeting, the…