Counting on Fingers (Number Sense Activity)

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

I love this math activity. It’s genius on so many levels! This would help students with addition and subtraction, but also to teach “the 9’s trick” with multiplication! It would be a great introductory/review activity at the beginning of the year, especially to have each student trace their own hands and make one of these themselves. (source)

I know many parents (and some teachers) don’t like it when kids use their fingers to count or do math. Many see it as a sign of weakness of lack of understanding. However, each time you allow a child to use their fingers (or a hundreds chart or multiplication chart, for that matter) to get the right answer, you’re providing them an opportunity to discover and work for the CORRECT answer. Eventually kids will learn their facts from repetition or they’ll get tired of being the only one without them memorized and they’ll fix the problem. After all, speed isn’t what’s important in math. YES, it definitely helps and it has clear advantages, but it’s not the end-all, be-all. There, I’m done with my soap box; I’ll put it away now. 🙂

Inquiry Lesson: Sieve of Eratosthenes (Prime Numbers)

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

A friend of mine uses this lesson to teach her students about prime numbers, and prime factorization. (Note the lesson plan’s author is also named Mindy!). I’ve tried it with 6th graders and it’s pretty clear cut. Each student gets to work with a different number, creating a good learning experience for all. Here’s the lesson: Math Inquiry Lesson

If you’re not familiar with the Sieve of Eratosthenes, here’s the Wikipedia article.

Civil Rights Timeline Worksheet for Kids

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

This month is Black History Month. I’ve put together a worksheet that goes over some of the main and significant events in American history relating to civil rights. It involves some reading comprehension and subtraction of dates to answer the 9 questions at the end. I recommend giving this to upper grades (5th or 6th grade).

Click here for the printable PDF: Civil Rights Movement Timeline Worksheet

Hundreds Chart Worksheet: 10 More Than/10 Less Than

Posted on February 1, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

I absolutely love this idea. I’ve done two other worksheets with this same idea (click here and click here to see them) and I’ve found it to be really successful. It’s super important to get kids familiar with the hundreds chart. Hopefully children will be so familiar with it that they can make their own hundreds chart on a piece of scratch paper during a test (since kids don’t get a printed hundreds chart on their standardized tests).Click here to see my third 10 more that/10 less than hundreds chart worksheet: hundreds chart- more than- less than OWL

10 More Than/10 Less Than Hundreds Chart Worksheet

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Here’s my second worksheet to help kids see number relationships on a hundreds chart. My first worksheet seemed to go well so I thought I’d make another one. Here’s the free printable PDF: hundreds chart- more than- less than JUMP ROPE

Hundreds Chart More Than/Less Than Worksheet

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Many of you have probably already seen this idea and it was mind-blowing! It’s such a good idea! Here’s a picture of it:

$Hundreds Chart Math Center$

I love how the math trend is teaching kids deeper number sense and relationships between numbers by giving them plenty of exposure to the patterns easily identified on a hundreds chart. I thought this idea would be great for a worksheet to extend the idea further. Hence, I give you my first (of many to come) hundreds chart more than/less than worksheets:

Click here for the free printable PDF: hundreds chart- more than- less than CAMPING

(Can you tell I could go for a camping trip sometime soon?! )

3D Shapes Review (Geometry)

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Here are some review pages (half sheet; so run off only half the number of students in your class and cut the sheets in half). These pages review names of 3D geometric shapes (cube, rectangular prism, sphere, etc.) as well as parts of 2- and 3D shapes (vertices, edges, etc.).

Click here for the free printable PDFs:
3D Shapes Review 1
3D Shapes Review 2

Identifying Parts of Shapes

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Need a quick review of angles, vertices, shape names, etc? Well, here’s a half sheet for you to give your students. It would be great for a math warm-up activity, since it isn’t very long.

Click here for the free math printable worksheet (PDF): Identifying Parts of Shapes