The Math Learning Center Blog

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...

The Number Pieces app is an excellent tool for teaching and learning place value. Here are a few activities that you can use with kids in grades 1–2. These activities explore base ten concepts and models within 1,000 that will help lay the foundation for learning double-digit computation. Activity 1: Ask the child to show a certain number using the base ten pieces. For example, 3 tens, 7 ones, and...

MLC collaborated with the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators ( AMTE ) to establish a scholarship fund for elementary math specialists. "There is a growing consensus regarding the importance of math specialist at the elementary level" said Rick Ludeman, MLC President. "We were inspired to create this scholarship fund by a column on the topic written by J. Michael Shaughnessy during his...

Math and the Mind’s Eye has helped shape the career of Suzanne Hossler , a middle school mathematics teacher for the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada. As Suzanne tells the story, “During my student teaching in 1989 I was privileged to watch a fourth grade classroom using MLC materials. I was so fascinated with the materials, how the students responded, and the depth of...