Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Nana's Chocolate Milk
How can you fix Nana's chocolate milk? Students work on this problem over time to develop a final product that demonstrates their mathematical thinking and solution.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Defend Your Ideas With a Journal
Third graders practice in representing their mathematical thinking in order to share it with others and assess their own understanding. This lesson engages them to work out a problem from a story read to them in more than one way.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Integrating Math and Literacy
This instructional activity provides the elementary teacher with an opportunity to integrate the concept of mathematics with reading literacy. Students use models to learn shapes, practice spelling the names and shapes, and learn to...
Illustrative Mathematics
Illustrative Mathematics: Reasoning About Multiplication
This is a good task to work with kids to try to explain their thinking clearly and precisely, although teachers should be willing to work with many different ways of explaining the relationship between the magnitude of the factors and...
Illustrative Mathematics
Illustrative Mathematics: Calculator Trouble
Even though learners can solve this problem by multiplying, it is unlikely they will. Here it is much easier to answer the question if you can think of multiplying a number by a factor as scaling the number. Aligns with 5.NF.B.5.
Illustrative Mathematics
Illustrative Mathematics: Bowling for Numbers
The purpose of this game is to help students think flexibly about numbers and operations and to record multiple operations using proper notation. Aligns with 5.OA.A.1.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments: Patterns, Functions, and Algebraic Reasoning
Students learn to use the calculator to generate recursive patterns. They explore the connection from patterns to functions and algebraic reasoning. Students examine the idea of a variable for an unknown quantity and express mathematical...
Illustrative Mathematics
Illustrative Mathematics: 4.nf How Many Tenths and Hundredths?
Finish the equations to make true statements. The student must really think to encode the quantity in positional notation. Aligns with 4.NF.C.5.
Other
Project Euler
A collection of challenging mathematical and computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve. The use of math skills will help students arrive at efficient methods, while the use of...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Exploring Sets Through Math Related Book Pairs
After reading two math-related books, students investigate their home and school environments to find examples of objects that come in sets and then create their own books on sets.
Other
Ontario Ministry of Education: Think Literacy: Mathematics Grades 7 9 [Pdf]
This excellent document looks at the literacy skills necessary at the middle school level for understanding printed Math materials such as textbooks. Many strategies are offered for teaching students the literacy skills they need.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: What if We Changed the Book? Problem Posing With Sixteen Cows
After reading a piece of math-related children's literature aloud, students pose and solve new problems by asking what-if questions about the events in the story.
Oswego City School District
Regents Exam Prep Center: Types of Sentences
What is "Logic"? What is a "Mathematical sentence"? This website provides definitions of both of these terms and defines examples of mathematical sentences ("open sentence" and "closed sentence") and provides examples of each. Use the...
ArtsNow
Arts Now Learning: Operations and Algebraic Thinking With Music [Pdf]
Counting the number of beats in a common folk song, the students will use composition and classroom instruments to discover different combinations for accompaniment.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Nctm: Figure This: Don't Fall In
Have you ever wondered why manhole covers are round? Believe it or not, there is a logical, mathematical reason. See if you can figure it out in this NCTM Math Challenge for Families activity. A one-page activity with suggested life...
ArtsNow
Arts Now Learning: Counting With Cups, and More! [Pdf]
Help students recognize and cultivate creative and critical thinking using various activities that connect math and music!
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Think Math
Think Math offers a collection of 43 KET-produced resources from Math at the Core: Middle School, including 17 Scale City videos and interactives about proportional reasoning, 14 Wild Fractions animations and games that feature visual...
Illustrative Mathematics
Illustrative Mathematics: 5.nf Fundraising
This task asks students to multiply rational numbers. Aligns with 5.NF.B.5.
Illustrative Mathematics
Illustrative Mathematics: 5.nf Grass Seedlings
For the sake of this commentary, let R be the height of Rual's seedlings (of course students do not need to use a letter to represent any number in this task). Student must compare the size of each of two products (112xR, and 34xR) to...
Illustrative Mathematics
Illustrative Mathematics: Words to Expressions 1
This problem allows students to see words that can describe the expression from part (c) of "5.OA Watch out for Parentheses." Additionally, the words (add, sum) and (product, multiply) are all strategically used so that the student can...
Other
Real Sociedad Matematica Espanola: Divulga Mat: Erase Una Vez Un Problema
Short stories written with the intention to entertain those who think that mathematics must be serious or who reject mathematics. These problem stories with an added dose of humor shows that letters and numbers are a bit at odds.
University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge: Nrich: Got It
Sharpen your logical thinking and see if you can figure out the strategy to get to the target number before the computer.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Math Maven's Mysteries: Mystery at the Third Strike Sports Store
Solve a mystery using your reasoning skills. At this site use all the clues and figure out the winner of the Third Strike Contest.
ArtsNow
Arts Now Learning: Self Portraits With the Touch of a Finger [Pdf]
In this lesson, students will explore self-portraiture by looking at classical portrait paintings, such as Diego Velazquez's La Infanta Margarita or Raphael's Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione. A close look at these works reveals...