August 2006: Back to School Issue
Featured Topic: Active Participation Strategies
Active Participation: Math is not a spectator sport, it's been said. Teachers who regularly incorporate active participation strategies are better able to assess student proficiency, identify and correct misunderstandings and target instruction to individual student's needs.
- See Instructional Strategies for strategies that require active student participation in learning.
- See Number Line-Up for directions for the activity pictured at right and for additional place value activities and resources.
Math Templates:The use of whiteboards and templates in sheet protectors allow students to quickly respond to questions, work out problems, etc. Teachers who use these assessment tools are able to easily assess student understanding throughout the lesson. Check out these Mathwire.com resources for some new routines to add to your repertoire of effective strategies.
- See Active Participation Using Math Templates for suggested strategies and resources.
- See Template Library for math templates in PDF format that are designed to be placed in sheet protectors so that students can use dry erase markers to record answers.
Morning Math Routines
Daily Math Routines: these routines help students see how math is used in everyday life. Students build strong number sense while developing proficiency with counting and calendar routines.
- See Morning Math Routines for descriptions of the daily math routines commonly used in K-2 classrooms and to download charts for some of the routines.
- See Morning Math Routines: Photo Gallery for photos of how different teachers organize these routines in their classrooms.
Math Games
Games to Practice Basic Facts: there are many math games designed to provide student practice of basic facts in lieu of math worksheets. The best games encourage students to master the facts so that they can win points more quickly or identify the best possible move to accumulate the most points.
Game Day: Consider adding a "game day" each week to encourage independent pair or small group game practice of basic facts. Students can easily cycle through 3-4 center games in an hour math period. Using this Game Day center approach provides small group instructional time for the teacher to meet with students for reteaching or enrichment. Students simply cycle to the teacher for 1-2 center activities, as needed.
Mathwire.com Game Resources: The Mathwire.com game resources pages contain many original games with directions, game boards and recording sheets in PDF format teachers can download to use with students. Place the recording sheets in sheet protectors and store in the math game center for the most efficient use.
- See Math Games for the Mathwire.com Games Resources page with links to games by NCTM standards: Number Sense & Numerical Operations Games, Geometry & Measurement Games, Patterns & Algebra Games, Data Analysis & Probability Games, Discrete Math & Logic Games, Jeopardy Games and Links to Math Game Sites.
- See Number Sense Games for directions and game board for Contig (pictured at left) which encourages students to develop number sense as they add, subtract, multiply and/or divide the numbers of the dice roll to create an expression for a vacant number on the gameboard.
- See Data and Probability Games for directions for the M&M Game (pictured above) which combines addition facts with probabiity to create the winning strategy.
Who Has? Games: These card deck games are designed to be used with the whole class to provide quick practice of math basic facts. After the initial introduction, students can complete the activity in 2-5 minutes. Timing the Who Has? activity and recording the daily times encourages the class to master the facts to improve their performance.
- See Who Has? Activities for classroom management strategies as well as several different decks (multiplication, place value, base ten, more or less, etc.) that are formatted to print on 2x4 inch labels teachers can affix to index cards to easily create class decks.
Fall Math Activities
These activities incorporate seasonal themes while developing mathematical concepts. Look for activities that involve pumpkins, scarecrows, spiders, Halloween and Thanksgiving on these seasonal pages. Literature connections, math mats and activity sheets are included for teachers to download for classroom use.
- See Fall into Math! for pictures and descriptions of suggested fall math activities on this Fall 2005 web page. Resources include Measurement Man, Pumpkin Activities, Symmetric Faces, Jack-o-Lantern Coordinate Graphing Activity, Pictures of Student Work, Pumpkin Problem Solving and Links to Additional Fall Math Activities on the Internet.
- Coming in September 2006: Fall 2006 Math Activities for more ways to incorporate fall themes into math activities. The resources include Fall Math Activities, Spider Math Games, Bat Math, Fall Glyphs, Fall Coordinate Graphing Activities, Fall Problem Solving.
Recent Additions to Mathwire.com
Check the New on Mathwire.com webpage to see what's new on the site this month.
Check the Recent Additions to Mathwire.com webpage to see the most recent additions to the site this month.
Enter your email address below to receive notifications when new content is added to Mathwire.
Featured Technology Links: Virtual Manipulatives
Consider using these sites during instruction if you have an interactive whiteboard or a large display monitor. These sites specifically target using technology to strengthen student understanding of important mathematical concepts.
- See
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for online library of virtual math manipulatives.
- See NCTM's e-Example Activities that incorporate technology to help students develop proficiency with important mathematical skills and concepts.
- See more Links to Math Topics on the Internet.
Browse Other Activities on Mathwire.com
Visit this page for links to activities organized by math topics.
Browse Math Topics on Mathwire.comYou can click on the file icon to the left or access this link at the top right of any page on the website.
Mathwire Archives:
See Mathwire Archives for past issues of What's New on Mathwire.com and for past month's featured articles.
About Mathwire.com
Mathwire.com is designed to provide activities and appropriate worksheets for teachers to use in their classrooms. All activities and worksheets support the constructivist approach to learning mathematics and the NCTM Standards.
Activities: The activities on this site were developed by Terry Kawas and the teachers in districts where she has worked as a math consultant and coach or with students she has taught in college math-methods courses. The activities are classroom-tested by teachers and appropriate modifications have been made to reflect this field-testing. These activities are posted online in an effort to share quality activities and routines within the mathematics community.
Terms of Use: Teachers are welcome to download any of the activities for free use in their classrooms. No activities may be copied for use on other websites or included in commercial products without permission in writing from Terry Kawas, webmaster. Contact Terry Kawas