This article reports on a study in which researchers asked children to "make up as story and a picture about marbles for this number sentence: 3 x 5 = 15." Students in this study came from pre - dominantly low- to average-income families living in three distinct geographical areas within the United States. A similar division task was…

As students progress from working with whole numbers to working with integers, they must wrestle with the big ideas of number values and order. Using objects to show positive quantities is easy, but no physical negative quantities exist. Therefore, when talking about integers, the author refers to number values instead of number quantities. The…

"What do you do with the remainder when you divide?" Mrs. Thompson asked her third-grade students. They replied with such comments as, "You can't share that, because they won't be equal!" and "It's not going to come out even because you can't do that!" These answers were consistent with third- and fourth-grade student performance in a pretest and…

Incorporating the use of children's literature when teaching mathematics to young children is a developmentally appropriate practice: "Literature … provides a means for children to encounter mathematical concepts and vocabulary in the context of something familiar, a story" (Fogelberg et al. 2008). Moreover, introducing culturally…

Mrs. Fisher's class was learning about arithmetic functions by pretending to operate real-world "function machines" (Reeves 2006). Functions are a unifying mathematics topic, and a great deal of emphasis is placed on understanding them in prekindergarten through grade 12 (Kilpatrick and Izsák 2008). In its Algebra Content Standard, the…

As young children make sense of mathematics, they begin to see with new eyes. What once was uncertain may now be determined. Objects become countable; fingers become tools; and numbers become more than just names. Educators revel in such developments--which mark significant progress toward more sophisticated understanding of number--and work…

This article explores prospective teachers' understandings of one million to gain insights into the development of adult understanding of large numbers. Themes in the prospective teachers' work included number associated with a quantity of objects, number as an abstraction, and additive and multiplicative approaches. The authors suggest that the…

Appropriate concrete and pictorial models allow students to construct meaning for rational numbers and operations with the numbers. To develop deep understanding of rational number, sixth through eighth graders must experience a variety of models (NCTM 2000). Since 1979, personnel from the Rational Number Project (RNP), a cooperative research and…

To build cognitive foundation for number, twenty-six low-performing, low-SES first graders did mathematical physical-knowledge activities, such as "bowling," during the first half of the year. As their arithmetic readiness developed, they tried more word problems and games. At the end of the year, these children did better in mental arithmetic and…

Discusses classroom practices that promote the understanding of number concepts in the primary grades. (Author/NB)

This article describes how children learn the basic addition and subtraction facts, why many have difficulty mastering these basic skills, and what teachers can do to prevent or overcome these learning difficulties.

Discusses the Tiles and Sides problem from the December 2000 issue. Indicates that this problem is accessible to students at different grade levels. Presents samples of student responses and their teachers' analysis. (KHR)

This investigation involves first assessing and then designing instruction to resolve student difficulties with addition facts. The ultimate goal was improving students' computational fluency.

Presents a classroom activity in which students build and learn to use their own abacuses. Describes the lesson that combines mathematics, art, and social studies. (KHR)

Examines methods and types of estimation. Characterizes fruitful in-class estimation tasks by exploring the validity and possible extensions of "marble jar" estimation. (KHR)