The Math Learning Center Blog

Bridges has a new feature! The Weekly Wonder can be found on the Bridges Educator Site. The initial Weekly Wonder demonstrates how technology — the Number Rack app — can unlock the mathematical power of three little beads. Bridges sessions are often structured so that the teacher acts as the facilitator and the students essentially teach themselves and others; this is how I presented the Weekly...

Although there are no specific lessons in Bridges that address the 100th day of school, it is a big day in kindergarten. After all, during Number Corner we’ve been counting the days of school every day since the first one! Students have been adding chain links and stickers to ten-frames, figuring out how many more days to the next 10, and problem solving “How many more days until we are halfway to...

Children need lots of practice, with various activities in different settings, to develop a strong sense of number. My kindergartners love an activity I call Estimation Bag. I place a small plastic container inside a canvas bag, and a student adds a single type of object: paperclips, pennies, barrettes, etc. We start with 10 or fewer and increase the quantity to between 10 and 20 after a month or...

Bridges students learn more than one way to solve multi-digit multiplication expressions. This enables them to select the strategy that is most efficient for any given problem. In addition to the standard algorithm that many of us were taught, fifth graders also investigate: Area model & four partial products Doubling & halving Ratio table Using quarters Over strategy While my students use the new...