Over the past 5 years, the author has visited scores of Montessori classrooms, most of them in the United States and Canada, and has observed many commonalities among them. For example, in almost every classroom, children freely chose their activities and engaged hands-on with material objects. They took care of the environment, wiping up their…

Early childhood educators use several learning centers in a classroom to target growth in different developmental areas, but as a preschool teacher, the author was always impressed by how children addressed multiple areas of development at the sensory table. Understanding that sensory experiences were important for preschoolers, the author wanted…

The purpose of this paper is to share the results of a fourteen-week study that focused on the effects of teaching mathematics instruction with the implementation of manipulatives in an elementary classroom. Students that fill our classrooms deserve the opportunity to use manipulatives to help them grasp all the different concepts that are taught…

This article describes the positive impact of Montessori manipulative materials on four seventh grade students who qualified for academic intervention services because of previous low state test scores in mathematics. This mathematics technique for teaching multi-digit multiplication uses a placemat-sized quilt with different color-coded squares…

In this article, the author describes his categorization of practical mathematical tasks using drama, body maths, and a host of outlandish props. He categorizes the lessons under three headings--demonstration, teamwork, and creative display--partly as a means of furthering the invention of more activities within each classification. His…

Changes in DNA base-repair may serve as an indicator of the time elapsed since divergence from a common ancestor. DNA sequences can now be analyzed. The simulation presented in this article allows students to observe the accumulation of changes in a randomly mutating sequence of playing cards. The cards are analogous to DNA nucleotide or protein…

Many secrets can be told by the physical surroundings of library media centers. Whether the center is kid-friendly is one of the first obvious tell-tale signs. When a library center has Arthur & D.W., Clifford, Pooh & Eeyore, shells, special rocks, etc. hidden by the circulation center or in the back in boxes, it's time to revolt. The movie Free…

This article presents an investigation carried out with a group of able mathematics students who were studying at a level 1 year in advance of their peers. The purpose was to investigate the extension of usual three peg Towers of Hanoi to four pegs and attempt to find a rule that could be used to predict the minimum number of moves required to…

In the simple one-dimensional random walk setup, a path is described as follows. Toss a coin. If the result is head, score +1 and move one step forward; otherwise score -1 and move one step backward. One is interested to know the position after a given number of steps. In this paper, once again a coin-tossing experiment is carried out. But this…

Best-selling author Marcia L. Tate brings her trademark "dendrite-growing" teaching strategies to this practitioner-friendly collection of brain-compatible methods for engaging K-12 students in social studies. Included are 20 proven strategies and more than 200 grade-leveled activities for applying them. Teachers will find concrete ways to…

Many of us can remember back to a time in America when all that teachers expected us to do with our hands in the classroom was to fold them. But now that the power and effectiveness of hands-on instruction has been proven in a wide range of subject areas--particularly math--those days are over. Whether using traditional activities, such as…

The NCTM calls for the use of rich tasks that encourage students to apply their own reasoning to problem situations. When students work through algebraic generalization tasks, their reasoning often elicits a variety of strategies (Lannin 2003; Stacey 1989; Swafford and Langrall 2000). Challenges for teachers include facilitating student awareness…

Students explore the Pythagorean theorem and an extension using jelly beans to measure areas. Deductive thinking and algebraic notation help establish connections. (Contains 8 figures.)

While block play is essential for both boys' and girls' social, cognitive, language, and motor development, girls do not engage in block play as frequently as boys. This situation can be attributed to the socialization process--children learn societal expectations for behavior and materials for both boys and girls--lack of experience for girls…

The authors examined the impact of manipulative-based instruction on 2 independent cohorts of preservice elementary teachers. In Study 1, 50 participants engaged in problem solving with operations on whole numbers and fractions using concrete and representational manipulatives over 5 classes. Pre- to posttest performance on a mathematics survey…