SamizdatMath

Here’s the problem with teaching any kind of technique in mathematics: once you have kids practice it, they discard all the other techniques they know, even if the ones they discard are faster, more efficient and more accurate. Such is the case with teaching “stacking” of addition problems. Sure, it’s a great skill to have, but is it always necessary? I say this: based on some statistic I ran, between 70 - 80% of all addition problems with two addends don’t need to be stacked. Yet we act as if

79 89 99 119? 129? Take 2: 134 124 114 84? 74? Do your students struggle to count by 10s across 100? If they're doing mental math, then they probably will at one time or another. So why not help them practice this so they don't say things like "75, 85, 95, uh, uh, 105?" This is a "three-fer" - you get the group game "roller coaster" where a group of students compete cooperatively to count up and down by tens between a bottom and top number. For example, the first students says 78, the next one

I know you've been holding your breaths for something to come out of the SamizdatMath laboratories, and here it is: The Fishy Addend Game! This is a "gameified" version of this activity, and I think it really rocks, for many, many reasons! a) It get players thinking "beyond the algorithm" - to fill up their tanks, they have to estimate, round off and strategize! B) It is adaptable to many levels of players: using the templates, you can make versions that are as challenging or as supported as

There is no cutesy kids or animals in this activity; it focuses on the math without distraction. This is an activity where children practicing using the "count up" and "count down" activity to make change from whole dollar amounts ($1, $2, $3, and in denominations up to $20.) It is designed to replicate the "real life" experience of giving change when the buyer has a non-whole dollar total. It also gives students practice in making change using coins, or combinations of bills and coins. The goa

I KNOW this is going to come up on every search of the novel "The Outsiders," but don't blame me - it was Peggy Kaye who came up with this simple and easy division partitioning game where pairs of kids draw between 10 and 25 Xs on a piece of paper, then throw out anywhere from 1 to 5 fingers, add them (the fingers) together and use that as a divisor to partition the Xs into groups by circling them. The player with the fewest "outsiders" is declared the winner. Easy peasy, fun game, right? WRONG!

This is a collection of hands on activities where students fill an outline of a rod with smaller rods to determine the length of a unit fraction. It develops the idea of the "flexible unit" by using different rods as the "unit" and then having students try to find rods that are 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 etc. of that unit. They then record their solutions by tracing the correct rod and shading it in. There is also an activity where they also find common fractions once they find the unit fraction. For example

I don't know if you're a fan of Saturday Night Live, but I remember watching this commercial back in the 1990s and thinking, "You know, that would be a really good math activity." But I never got around to it. Fast forward 25 years and I"m at the ATM and I see a screen that shows that I can now choose exactly which bills I want for my withdrawal. OMG! It's time to make this activity "live!" So I went home, made this activity and tried it out on my second graders. Okay, there were a bit cocky at

This is a set of 48 different coin puzzles: 24 of them show a piggy bank, and the student adds up the total and records it. The other 24 show a piggy bank with a coin missing, and the total amount in the piggy bank; the student has to figure out the missing coin. Those are "missing addend" problems in that the student knows the partially filled amount and the total and has to find the missing piece. This is formatted both as individual "task cards" and worksheets - I'd prefer you use them as ta

This is the same as "Squito" Addition Subtraction but the game uses multiplication and division instead. I invented this game quite by accident: it combines Boggle© with numbers but with a twist: you have a choice of numbers, but the goal is to make an equation that is "as true as possible." Instead of taking a set of cards and then swapping them out until you get an actual equation, students move around a set of numbers to optimize their solution. For example, if you have the digits 7, 3, 0, 8

I invented this game quite by accident: it combines Boggle© with numbers but with a twist: you have a choice of numbers, but the goal is to make an equation that is "as true as possible." Instead of taking a set of cards and then swapping them out until you get an actual equation, students move around a set of numbers to optimize their solution. For example, if you have the digits 1, 2, 4, 4, 6 and 9, and are making a 2 digit + 2 digit = 2 digit equation, what's the closest you can get to a "tru

This is a set of activities that focus on helping first and second graders memorize the doubles from 1 - 10, with special focus on the "hard doubles" of 7, 8 and 9. There are two different games, and 20 different puzzles involving "number searches" where students find a number and its double nearby. Students also practice writing doubling and halving equations. There is also a set of "locate and calculate" assessments where students locate a doubling equation and then record it.

This is a collection of 34 different hexagonal subtraction/additional/logic puzzle cards (hence, the title above) which uses 5 rows containing clues that have to be figured out by moving around the puzzle in different directions. Very simply, each pair of hexagons add up to the hexagon above that connects them. However, in many cases you can't add the two hexagons together, because there is missing information that won't show up until you solve other parts of the puzzle. It's great because not o

This is a detailed description of a "strategy" game anybody who can count up to 100 can play with their class and win each and every time. The rules will take about 45 seconds to describe, and within 3 minutes you will be able to keep an entire class occupied by the question, 'why does he/she/they keep on winning this game?" If you follow the instructions described in this activity, it should easily keep a class engaged, puzzled and frustrated for at least 45 minutes, usually longer. Your class

Your students like zombies, they LOVE math and now they're going to LOVE LOVE LOVE arrays! In this game, a horde of zombies have escaped and are running all over the place!!!!! Your students take an array card that tells them how many boxes have to be in the array, and they draw a "cage" around the zombies to quarantine them from the living folk. They record the size of the array and the number of squares inside, and the number of zombies caught. When there are no more zombies to catch, each per

This is a game that helps students practice factoring numbers into pairs. The setup is easy: 6 "fish" are taken from the deck and put between the two (or more) players. Each student takes 6 digit cards from the pile (the 0s, 1s and 2s should be removed if playing the "regular" game.) Students "catch" a fish by using two factors from their hand that make that number. For example, if you want to catch the fish labeled "24," you'll need the 3 and 8 or 4 and 6 card. Students take turns removing fish

This is in a similar format to Beginner Division with Remainder Mystery Booklets, but the problems are trickier because they use larger numbers. This is a collection of 10 different "Carrot Power" four-step problem booklets. Just cut and assemble with a single staple, use over and over again because students answer the questions on a separate answer sheet. Each problem uses different clues, 2 - 3 of which have to do with division and remainders. For example, one of the clues would be "when the

This is a collection of 10 different "Carrot Power" four-step problem booklets. Just cut and assemble with a single staple, use over and over again because students answer the questions on a separate answer sheet. Each problem uses different clues, 2 - 3 of which have to do with division and remainders. For example, one of the clues would be "when the number is divided by 3, the remainder is 2." Students answer each clue independently, which together narrow down to a single solution. These are

Okay, phrens, you're teaching your students how to round numbers and this is what you are NOT going to do: "Students, today we're going to learn how round numbers to the nearest hundreds. To round a number to the hundreds, start by placing your finger on the number furthest to the left (places finger on number) and then look over to the right and then sing this song, "If it's less than 4 or smaller, round it down; if it's 5 or greater, then go right up!" (If you'll pardon the pun.) Then give yo

Howdy Phrens! This is a set of phecking great activities that your 2nd - 4th graders are going to love! The first is a game called "Take 2, Make 4" which involves taking 2 digit cards and making a 2 digit number and then adding or subtracting 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 to make a new number, where a chip is placed on that spot. The second phecking game is called "99," where students select a digit and use it as ones or tens to decide how many spaces to move on the hundreds chart. Except my hundreds ch

Subtraction is a much more complex operation to understand, because it can be used to solve problems involving three different situations. Whereas addition is the joining of two or more quantities, subtraction could be removal, comparison or finding a missing piece. This is a single lesson where students learn about the three types of subtraction problems: removal (also known as "take away"), comparison ("the difference") and "find a missing piece (also known as "missing addend.") There are two