I like to start the year off with hands-on place value activities, because place value is the foundation for number sense. My students usually come to me with a pretty good foundation, but I still like to focus on it for a bit to ensure their understanding for more challenging
Archives for March 2014
Error Analysis
I don't know about spring weather, but test prep season is here! Despite all of my good intentions to stay relaxed about testing, I can feel my shoulders tensing and the pressure building as the dates of our high stakes test get closer and closer. I KNOW that my students
Measuring Liquid Volume
Measuring liquid volume can be a lot of fun for students! It's easy to make this a hands-on learning opportunity. We know students need concrete experiences to develop conceptual understanding. Sometimes it's hard to find the time. I know that I have a tendency to want to skip
Organizing Math Manipulatives
I've always tried to use my time with my students as efficiently as possible. Any random moment of down time is usually when I see student misbehavior, and I feel like I'm losing out on valuable instruction time. I'm always looking for ways to streamline procedures to keep my day
Math Work Stations
Several years ago, I would have considered myself to be an anti-centers teacher. I liked the idea of them, but I could not make them work in my classroom. I tried really hard my first couple of years teaching, but they added so much work for me, and I wasn't confident that my