Many elementary schools across the nation are scaling back or cutting arts curriculum altogether. This article presents classroom teachers with an activity for integrating art with mathematics. Through a three-phase exploration of reasoning with shapes and their attributes, students will get to know a classmate better, work with defining and…

Presents activities for students to explore mathematical literature. Argues that through books, students come to view mathematics as a meaningful and valuable tool for solving problems. Highlights books that present an authentic and real context for using mathematics and literature to support open-ended exploration of mathematics in real life.…

Describes a one-week lesson in which gummy-bears candy was used to illustrate sampling procedures and to generate discussion and questions. Reports data results and students' reactions to problems of representation after holding an election. (MKR)

Presents a position statement on interdisciplinary learning and guiding principles for preK-4 curricula endorsed by the NCTM Board of Directors. Guiding principles include using meaningful connections among disciplines, fostering collaborative learning environments, developing democratic citizenship, providing a variety of social contexts,…

Describes a school math program instituted as a result of the efforts of a parent-student-teacher math coalition to update mathematics instruction. The goal was to encourage thinking that uses imagination while exploring mathematics. Program includes Family Math Night, a semiweekly newsletter containing math activities, mathematics speakers in the…

Presents ideas and activities designed to integrate poetry into the third-grade mathematics curriculum. Topics discussed include estimating, formulating and solving, comparing, and extending. Lists 11 poems that can be used. (10 references) (MKR)

Presents criteria for designing craft activities that foster meaningful use of mathematical thinking and problem solving. (MKR)

Describes how a children's book on counting was used in integrated mathematics-literature lessons in first-grade classrooms and how students created their own texts. (11 references) (MKR)

Discusses the use of children's literature to combine social studies and mathematics to study patchwork quilts. (MKR)

Presents four examples of multicultural literature which can be used to link stories and data-collecting activities to help students communicate in mathematics. Includes an appendix with additional topics for graphing exercises and a six-item annotated bibliography. (23 references) (MKR)

Demonstrates the use of "Jumping the Broom," a children's book, to integrate mathematics and social studies. Discusses the use of problem solving, finding patterns, and making conjectures by studying the quilt pattern used in the story. (MKR)