SamizdatMath

This is a set of lesson plans with an awesome set of 10 different "Mystery Number" activities. Seriously, do you want a FECKING GOOD way to transform what appears to be a really boring lesson ("Here's how you round off two digit numbers, kiddies!') into a lesson that includes reasoning, hypothesis testing, problem solving AND collaboration! Ten different booklets: a "Sample" to demonstrate to your students, plus 9 more for them to work on individually or collaboratively. AND there's a FECKING

Did you know that the ninths fractions can easily be converted by taking the numerator and turning it into a repeating decimal? For example, 4/9 = .444... and 8/9 = .888....? Did you know that the 11ths fractions cycle through the 9 times tables through the numerator? 5/11 = .4545.... and 7/11 = .6363.... These are great patterns to know because it can save your students hours of tedious calculations when converting fractions to decimals. Since patterns are the "language of mathematics" then s

This is an activity I’ve done with my 5th, 6th and 7th graders to help them understand the importance of “thinking” before rounding off a number. You know, some of us (not you, of course) teach rounding as a “rule” and our students blindly go off rounding numbers without thinking about the implication of doing so. These two activities are designed to impress upon your students that when they round off a number, they should do it with a certain amount of forethought, because if they blindly follo

This is a short activity with specific instructions that deals with the misconception that the decimal point is the "center" of the base ten system. The reality is that the decimal point has two functions, one of which is to act as a "pointer" to the ones place, which is the actual divider of the place value chart. This goes a long way towards explaining to your students why there is no "opposite" of the ones place: it is the actual center from which the decimals and whole numbers originate. Th

These are highly unusual puzzles that are a great way to practice place value while stimulating your students' abilities in deductive reasoning. Each puzzle is set up as an "acrostic" that has to be filled in vertically and horizontally. The "beginner" puzzles are simple to solve, but they are valuable in that they help students to stop thinking of assembling place value by "order" (such as ".8 + .04 = .84," instead of alternating ".04 + .8 = .84") There are 20 different puzzles that use ones a

These are highly unusual puzzles that are a great way to practice place value while stimulating your students' abilities in deductive reasoning. Each puzzle is set up as an "acrostic" that has to be filled in vertically and horizontally. The "beginner" puzzles are simple to solve, but they are valuable in that they help students to stop thinking of assembling place value by "order" (such as "80 + 4 = 84," instead of alternating "4 + 80 = 84") There are 20 different puzzles that use ones and tens

Three different "EZ-CUT" and paste activities with fractions, decimals and percents. Activity 1: Students cut out proper fractions and match them to equivalent terminating and non-terminating decimals. Some decimals are rounded to the nearest thousandth, others use a vinculum or ellipse to show that it repeats. Activity 2: Students cut out proper and improper fractions and match to equivalent decimals, both terminating and non-terminating. Students round off to the nearest thousandth when nec

Comparing Numbers, Pre-K, Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade Take a number tile from a bag: is it a moose or a squirrel? This activity is a fun and lively way for your kids to practice comparing numbers and classifying them as larger (moose) or smaller (squirrel.) The fun never stops: you can start with just placing the tile on the activity sheet in the correct column, or your students can use the moose/squirrel stamps provided to cut and paste the animal into the correct column. A third

Take a number tile from a bag: is it a moose or a squirrel? This activity is a fun and lively way for your kids to practice comparing numbers and classifying them as larger (moose) or smaller (squirrel.) The fun never stops: you can start with just placing the tile on the activity sheet in the correct column, or your students can use the moose/squirrel stamps provided to cut and paste the animal into the correct column. A third variation asks students to state how far the numbers is from the co

How much Cash is in that Stash? If you've ever struggled with finding a fun and effective way to teach the distributive property of multiplication over addition and subtraction, this is the activity for you. Using the example of a suitcase full of dollar bills, students will learn how to effectively count the cash in groups by dividing up the cash into smaller rectangular arrays, whose products can be combined to find a solution. This activity includes a sample problem, specific teaching instru

I designed this for the first grade teachers at the schools where I work: they wanted something some kind of "morning warmup" for their kids which would be based on a "daily number." So, I took the name of "Our Daily Bread" bakery that used to be in my neighborhood (their slogan was "prepare to meet your baker"), and made it "our daily number" and then put in the different ways you could write the number. I made two different versions which you can mix and match. One is aligned to the "Go Math!