Place the Point
Click here for an activity that helps students understand the placement of the decimal point in division.
Category Archives: Grade 5
Frac-tangles
Click here for a great activity that promotes understanding of fractions, ratio, equivalence, and proportion.
Understanding the Equal Sign
Researchers have found that students in the United States often view the equal sign as a “do something” signal. What …
Borrowing vs. Decomposing
Here’s a great example of how language can affect conceptual understanding. The following is from a third grade teacher in China, quoted in Liping …
Common Core Math: From Standards to Instruction
Click here to see the slides from a great ASCD webinar that explain how to design units of instruction by examining …
Estimation
Want to help your students improve their sense of magnitude and estimation skills in real life contexts? Check out this …
Variables, Expressions, and Equations
Here’s a sample activity that provides a context students love – candy! – and helps them understand how to define …
Instructional Strategies that Support the Mathematical Practices
Click here to watch a great video on skip counting. Notice the following: 1. The teacher’s use of think, pause, …
Primes and Composites, Factorization, GCF and LCM
In order to reason successfully with fractions, students need to understand the relationships between numbers and their factors and multiples. …
Modeling word problems with Thinking Blocks
Thinking Blocks is a website designed to help students solve math word problems accurately and efficiently using models. The models provide …
The Math SPOT 