This study examines the solutions of 34 kindergarten children as they create equal groups from n bottle caps, where n was equal to 8, 9, 22, and 23. For each n, children were asked to find as many different solutions as possible. The number of solutions they found, i.e., children's fluency, as well as the strategies used to create equal groups,…

Being able to find the correct answer to a math problem does not always indicate solid mathematics mastery. A student who knows how to apply the basic algorithms can correctly solve problems without understanding the relationships between numbers or why the algorithms work. The Common Core standards require that students actually understand…

Today, the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSI 2010) expect students in as early as eighth grade to be knowledgeable about irrational numbers. Yet a common tendency in classrooms and on standardized tests is to avoid rational and irrational solutions to problems in favor of integer solutions, which are easier for students to…

Motivating middle school students to learn can be challenging. One proven method for doing so is through an integrated curriculum. Educational philosophers and curriculum theorists have long noted the benefits of an integrated curriculum, which recognizes that the subject areas within the curriculum are connected to one another and to the real…

Teachers and researchers have known for decades that the use of storybooks can have a positive impact on students' experiences with mathematics. This article describes how first graders in an urban public school actively engage with mathematics by using the story "Bean Thirteen" as a context for developing number sense. This…

This article describes how teachers address issues and tensions that students meet in learning division of fractions. First, students must make sense of division of fractions on their own by working individually and in small groups, using concrete or pictorial representations, inventing their own processes, and presenting and justifying their…

Subtraction has two meanings and each meaning leads to the different strategies. The meaning of "taking away something" suggests a direct subtraction, while the meaning of "determining the difference between two numbers" is more likely to be modeled as indirect addition. Many prior researches found that the second meaning and…

Empty food containers can be used to have students devise mathematical problems. Sample questions that might be asked about two food boxes are included. (MNS)

Problems are discussed in which addition facts are presented using words instead of numbers. The letters are then replaced by numbers that will make the addition problems correct. (MP)

How can a chain with 63 links be cut in 3 places so that you could hand a person any number of links from 1 to 63? Considers variations on the problem and derives a general formula. (TO)

This document is a collection of over 200 classroom-ready activities which cover the five strands--Number, Space, Measurement, Chance and Data, and Problem Solving--outlined in Mathematics: A Curriculum Profile for Australian Schools. Each activity is a separate photocopy master, the front for the students to use and the back an assessment page…

Two activities are presented. The first involves geometric concepts using the alphabet, while the second is a game to provide practice in finding factors of composite numbers. (MNS)

Topics covered include alternate methods for finding LCM and GCF, imaginative word problems, and a primes-breakdown method of factoring quadratics. (MP)

A calculator activity, described as a bingo game, emphasizes speedy calculations as well as problem solving. (JT)