In our schools we have a range of students. Some of them come with IEPs or 504 plans. Then, there are students who don’t have individual plans and aren’t in any special programs, but we know that they have a similar need for additional support. At the same time, there are the students who don’t really struggle or need a lot of extra support. When there’s such a wide range of student abilities entering our math classrooms, what can we do in our 50-65 minutes together that meets the needs of all students? How do we differentiate our math instruction to give all students a path to success in our classroom?
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Back to School Math Activities
Back to School season is always an exciting time of the year. New students, new classes, and a whole new school year stretching out before you can be exhilarating, and maybe a little overwhelming. In this post you’ll find easy-to-use back to school activities to help you start off on the right foot in your math classroom.
[Read more…] about Back to School Math ActivitiesHow to Teach Math with Interactive Notebooks
I’ve used interactive notebooks in my middle school math classroom for years. When you teach the same topics year after year, you tend to add new things. As I reflected on all of my experiences with interactive notebooks, I realized that there are 5 components that are staples in my interactive math notebook. Each of these 5 components serves a different purpose and they all are very supportive of learning. I can’t imagine my math interactive notebooks without all five of these pieces.
So what does a math unit in an interactive notebook entail? Today I’ll share with you more about each of these components and how they work together to make a comprehensive unit in my students’ notebooks.
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10 Ways to Help Students Get Dot Plots, Histograms & Box Plots
Have you taught your 6th graders mean, median, mode and range? Are you ready to move onto applying those skills to new statistics topics? Then you’ve come to the right place. In this article we’ll dive into different activities and resources to use when teaching dot plots, histograms, and box plots!
[Read more…] about 10 Ways to Help Students Get Dot Plots, Histograms & Box Plots12 Mean, Median, Mode & Range Activities that Rock
Mean, median, mode, and range are so much fun to teach! I love these standards because there’s a wide variety of activities and hands-on practice for students. I think I’ve officially turned into my overly excited math teachers I thought were so odd in middle and high school!
[Read more…] about 12 Mean, Median, Mode & Range Activities that Rock9 Volume of Prisms Activities Your Students Will Love
Teaching how to find the volume of prisms can be downright fun! This geometry topic lends itself so naturally to hands-on activities, and I KNOW you know how important hands-on activities are for students! When teaching 6th grade geometry, I always incorporate real life situations for my class. This helps keep students engaged and take ownership in their learning.
[Read more…] about 9 Volume of Prisms Activities Your Students Will Love10 Sure-fire Ways to Practice Area of Triangles & Quadrilaterals
I love teaching geometry and I hope you feel the same way! There are so many great hands-on activities that you can use with your students. I’ve found that students respond really well to geometry standards because they can easily see how these skills are applicable in the real world. That’s definitely true when teaching about finding the area of triangles & quadrilaterals.
[Read more…] about 10 Sure-fire Ways to Practice Area of Triangles & Quadrilaterals10 Engaging Exponents & Expressions Activities
I used to teach 5th grade and a student once said to me, “I’m nervous for 6th grade math. They do algebra!!” This student wasn’t confident with his own math skills and didn’t realize that he’d come in contact with algebra before. I think this a common concern for math students, especially those who struggle.
It’s good to remember that when we teach students how to write and evaluate expressions that include exponents, there’s a lot going on for them and students can get overwhelmed.
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