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The Math Learning Center Blog

Page 5 of 6

The Learning to Think Mathematically series, written by Dr. Jeff Frykholm, is now available free from The Math Learning Center. These insightful books provide families and educators with innovative resources and novel strategies to help young learners develop powerful mathematical insights and problem-solving strategies. The premise underlying the Learning to Think Mathematically series is that...
Collin Nelson
Last year we added Math and the Mind’s Eye to our collection of free resources. Math and the Mind’s Eye is a supplemental program based on visual models that can be taught in sequence or used as individual lessons. The 14 units that make up this program cover math concepts typically taught in middle school but extend into upper and lower grade levels as well. To round out our secondary offerings...
Collin Nelson
We’ve all had those conversations in which someone laments that math isn’t taught the same way it was “in the good ole days.” Our understanding of best practices in mathematics has changed, and change can be difficult for everyone. And it can be especially difficult to a parent who just worked a long day and is now trying to help their student with homework, using strategies they never learned in...
Looking for resources to educate parents? Bridges leaders Barb Blanke, Kimberly Kelly, and Jessica Djuric have compiled a wealth of slides, articles, books, and handouts that could be used for family gatherings, student-led conferences, back-to-school sessions and more. Visit their site, Effective Parent Education. For additional ideas, see Lori Bluemel and Pia Hansen’s posts about Family Math...
Cynthia Hockman-Chupp
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...
Marion Leonard
We’ve been talking with educators at conferences, in workshops, and online about how they use (and love) our apps. This feedback is critical to making sure our apps stay useful and relevant in your classroom. Earlier this summer we updated the Geoboard, Number Rack, and Number Pieces apps. Next on our to-do list was Number Line. The Number Line app has always been a great way for students to...
Collin Nelson
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...
The Math Learning Center is making updates to all of our free math apps. We’ve listened to your feedback, and we think you’re going to love the new features. So far, we’ve updated 3 of our 6 apps. Geoboard, Number Rack, and Number Pieces are all ready to download in the Ipad version. Web version updates will follow by April 1. Here’s a list of the new features: Geoboard Updated look and feel...
Jami Smith
Dr. Raj Shah explains why math is now taught differently than it was in the past and helps address misconceptions about "new math". Dr. Shah is the owner and founder of Math Plus Academy an academic enrichment program with two locations in Columbus, Ohio. Math Plus Academy offers class in math, robotics, programming and chess for kids from KG to 9th grade. Math Plus Academy is on a mission to show...
Jami Smith
The array model, used throughout Bridges, is the subject of “Arrays, Multiplication and Division” by Jennie Pennant from nrich.maths.org. The piece outlines how the array model supports development of a sense of multiplicative relationships and describes how to move students from building multiplication facts and tables to exploring division as the inverse operation of multiplication. The author...
Jami Smith