Tim Yoder

A group of 117 English men, women, and children landed on Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina in August of 1587. Under the leadership of Gov. John White, houses were built, and what was intended to be a permanent colony was established. The first English child born on American soil, Virginia Dare, was born to John White’s daughter and son-in-law shortly after their arrival. After it became obvious that the colonists were unprepared for life in the New World, John White

How to Keep Score in Bowling – A Real-life Application of Following Directions and Addition Skills Back in the “old days”, people who bowled at the bowling alley were given a paper score sheet, and it was up to them to keep score to determine the winner of the game. Today the scoring is all done by computer, and if one can read the numbers on a monitor, one can determine who won the game. Most young people today do not have a clue about how to keep score in bowling. This resource is designed t

The sky went dark the morning of May 19, 1780, in New England. The darkness traveled quickly from the West and did not go away until the following day. At the time and in years following the event, many theories have been offered to explain the darkness. After receiving an overview of the situation, students working in groups form a hypothesis giving their explanation of the mysterious event. The students then receive three sets of clues, one set at a time, to help them solve the mystery.

Every math teacher knows that basic math fact fluency is critical to student success in any math procedure involving computation. The goal I have for my students is that they know the basic math facts on sight as well as they know the letters of the alphabet. After students have had ample time to practice the facts, I give an assessment to determine which students have mastered them. Those students who are not yet up to speed then begin participating in my weekly math fact plan. This plan

BUZZ is a fast-paced mental math activity that requires every student in your class to listen carefully, to concentrate for an extended time, and to apply previously-learned math concepts. The game basically involves the members of your class counting from 1 to 50 or 1 to 100, depending on the grade level and the level of difficulty. Before each round begins, you will identify the BUZZ number for that round. The BUZZ number could be a multiple of a given number, a perfect square, a prime numbe

Combining math and science is a natural. With all the excitement surrounding the 2024 total solar eclipse, it only makes sense to extend our math knowledge and skills to the numbers involved with the incredible show that is about to take place in the sky. This resource contains a Bank of Math Problems for the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. It includes 90 math problems (and answers) that involve the following skills: - Identifying the least and greatest values - Ordering numbers from least to g

This resource is not just for the Christmas holidays. We have math class all year long. As a take-off on the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, “The Twelve Days of Math Class” recounts all the gifts received by a student from his or her math teacher… “On the twelfth day of math class, my teacher gave to me: 12 calculators, 11 plastic rulers, 10 sets of markers, 9 mini whiteboards, 8 pink erasers, 7 sharpened pencils, 6 packs of paper, 5 binder rings, 4 number cubes, 3 red pens, 2 paper clips

This resource involves testing the following 21 items for magnetism: aluminum cube, bolt, brass nut, cobalt pieces, 2014 dime, fishing sinker, gold ring, lodestone, meteorite, nickel cube, 2000 dollar coin, 1943 penny, 1972 penny, 2019 penny, 1964 quarter, silver bar, solder, stainless steel spoon, steel slug, steel wool, and a zinc strip. All the items have one or more types of metal in them, and the goal is to determine what metals are magnetic. There are two components of this resource: a vid

Homophones can be tricky, even for professional sign-makers and creators of messages on a restaurant or school marquee. This resource includes three slide shows, each of which has 20 pictures of signs containing homophones. Half of the signs are spelled correctly, and half of them have the wrong spelling of a homophone on them. The student’s first task for each sign is to identify the homophones. The next task is to determine if each homophone is spelled correctly, and if it is not, to come u

Basic Math Fact Fluency with Mixed Combinations – Level Two with Three Operations Every math teacher knows that basic math fact fluency is critical to student success in any math procedure involving computation. The goal I have for my students is that they know the basic math facts as well as they know the letters of the alphabet. To keep my students sharp, we regularly solve oral mixed combinations mentally. A mixed combination involves performing the basic operations on a set of given number

Basic Math Fact Fluency with Mixed Combinations – Level One with Four Operations Every math teacher knows that basic math fact fluency is critical to student success in any math procedure involving computation. The goal I have for my students is that they know the basic math facts as well as they know the letters of the alphabet. To keep my students sharp, we regularly solve oral mixed combinations mentally. A mixed combination involves performing the basic operations on a set of given numbers

Basic Math Fact Fluency with Mixed Combinations – Level Two with Four Operations Every math teacher knows that basic math fact fluency is critical to student success in any math procedure involving computation. The goal I have for my students is that they know the basic math facts as well as they know the letters of the alphabet. To keep my students sharp, we regularly solve oral mixed combinations mentally. A mixed combination involves performing the basic operations on a set of given numbers

This resource contains a bank of math problems designed to compare the two teams playing in the 2025 Super Bowl – the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. It includes 120 math problems (and answers) that involve the following skills: - Subtracting to find how much greater than or less than - Adding to find the total - Multiplication of whole numbers - Division of whole numbers - Finding ratios - Percents - Finding the mean - Rounding to the nearest tenth - Rounding to the nearest hund

Using brain teasers and lateral thinking problems is an excellent way to engage your students’ attention immediately at the beginning of class. Students thrive on these types of questions because they are puzzling, challenging, and fun. I learned this strategy early in my 43-year teaching career, and in this resource I am sharing 230 tried-and-true questions that I gathered over those years. That’s one for every day of school, plus 50 more to replace those that won’t work for you or to use as ne

Basic Math Fact Fluency with Mixed Combinations – Level Two with Two Operations Every math teacher knows that basic math fact fluency is critical to student success in any math procedure involving computation. The goal I have for my students is that they know the basic math facts as well as they know the letters of the alphabet. To keep my students sharp, we regularly solve oral mixed combinations mentally. A mixed combination involves performing the basic operations on a set of given numbers.

Basic Math Fact Fluency with Mixed Combinations – Level One with Five Operations Every math teacher knows that basic math fact fluency is critical to student success in any math procedure involving computation. The goal I have for my students is that they know the basic math facts as well as they know the letters of the alphabet. To keep my students sharp, we regularly solve oral mixed combinations mentally. A mixed combination involves performing the basic operations on a set of given numbers

This resource includes FOUR math center activities, each of which allows two or three students to practice customary measurement conversions in a Concentration/Memory Game format. There are four sets of cards dealing with the following measurements: length and area, weight and temperature, capacity, and time. Each set includes 16 cards consisting of eight matching pairs. Examples: 1 foot = 12 inches, 1 pound = 16 ounces, 1 gallon = 4 quarts, and 1 hour = 60 seconds, etc. Concentration/Memo

Basic Math Fact Fluency with Mixed Combinations – Level One with Three Operations Every math teacher knows that basic math fact fluency is critical to student success in any math procedure involving computation. The goal I have for my students is that they know the basic math facts as well as they know the letters of the alphabet. To keep my students sharp, we regularly solve oral mixed combinations mentally. A mixed combination involves performing the basic operations on a set of given number

This resource addresses everything your students need to know about quadrant I on the coordinate plane. It includes: - a slideshow that teaches everything about graphing in quadrant I - a worksheet that involves identifying the two coordinates of animals located in quadrant I, plus the ANSWER KEY - a worksheet that addresses two skills: identifying the two coordinates of points in quadrant I and plotting points in quadrant I given their two coordinates, plus the ANSWER KEY - a slideshow that t

This resource consists of 48 digital addition magic squares on EASEL. There is no teacher prep or printing involved. To solve a magic square, students drag an addend to each empty box so that the sum of every row, column, and diagonal is equal to the given magic sum. The 48 magic squares are distributed among 18 different activities. 3 of the activities include four 3x3 magic squares. 3 of the activities include four 4x4 magic squares. 6 of the activities include two 5x5 magic squares. 6 of the