Memorizing basic multiplication facts has gotten a bad rep. “Drill and kill.” Teachers feel so much pressure to believe that teaching Common Core Standards means only teaching word problems and higher order thinking. We have to be careful to make sure our students have the basic knowledge they need to tackle those tough math challenges. […]
Archives for January 2015
Free Dividing Decimals Worksheets
Check out these FREE dividing decimals worksheets! Dividing decimals is challenging for 5th graders. Let’s check out a helpful strategy and some worksheets. When I was a fifth grade math teacher, dividing decimals was a challenge for my students. I taught the lesson that went with our curriculum and they were lost. So, I made […]
Friends of Ten
As I’ve attended trainings focusing on Common Core Math it has become evident that kids are expected to know sums that equal ten. As kids are expected to explain their thinking, examples continually show kids saying things like, “To add 64 plus 8, I added six more to 64 to make 70 and then knew […]
Multiplying Multi-Digit Numbers: 3 Strategies
Multiplying multi-digit numbers can be a challenge for 5th graders. But, these three strategies help students make sense of it. Most of us learned a short cut in school to help us multiply multi digit numbers known as the standard algorithm or traditional algorithm. One thing we as teachers need to be careful of is […]