Yesterday I posted Running A Summer STEM Camp. This is Part 2 of that post and covers days 2-4 of camp! We did a “no tech” STEM camp meaning it was old fashioned hands on projects and challenges, no robots ...
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This week I had the pleasure of running a summer STEM camp! I wanted to share some of the things we did and that I learned in order to benefit anyone planning their own camp or wanting to do this ...
What is the key to reducing math test anxiety? At Stress Free Math For Kids, our mission is to eliminate math anxiety in kids, parents, teachers, and tutors. However, we know that state tests can bring out the worst of ...
Want to celebrate February 29 with some Leap Day or Leap Year Math? I’ve got you covered with the best FREE resources from all over the Internet. Thanks to Kumon for this graphic on the mathematical way to determine a ...
Are you looking for free New Years Math Activities to come back from holiday break and blast off the new school semester? I’ve got you covered with my favorites from all over the Internet. As usual, I don’t just share ...
Looking for some free Thanksgiving math resources that practice solid computational and thinking skills in a fun and engaging way? Here are the ones I will be using. I have some for every grade pre K- 8th! Greg Tang Thanksgiving ...
Math Fact Lab is my absolute favorite website for fact practice. I love it for three main reasons: it is strategy based and uses a variety of visual representations it teaches division facts right alongside the related multiplication facts and ...
This fall I was asked to teach a STEM enrichment class at a homeschool hybrid academy. This school has academic classes on a university model system, meaning the students meet with their teachers two days a week and homeschool with ...
Not only do I allow elementary students to have their stuffed animals in math tutoring, but I encourage it if the child asks. I occasionally even have a real animal participating 🙂 I ask the child about the animal and ...
Are you a teacher looking for a one page printable list of free summer math activities to send home with your students? A parent looking for easy ways to keep your child learning this summer? Maybe you are both! I ...
For tutoring middle school math, my favorite book is Everything You Need to Ace Math in One Big Fat Notebook. I also recommend this book for homeschool parents or any parents who want to help with homework, especially those who ...
What is the secret to motivating math students in the classroom? Recently I wrote a post called Why Do Kids Hate Math? exploring some of the reasons kids have bad attitudes toward math and giving resources for parents, tutors, and ...
What is math therapy? I first heard the term from Kirk of Kirk’s Tutoring. Kirk began his multisensory math tutoring business after leaving the classroom to homeschool his sons. We started talking on Instagram one day after realizing we had ...
Why do kids hate math? I have said for a long time that no kids actually hate math, but many kids think they do. It is my job to show them that they don’t actually hate math, they just hate ...
Using games for math intervention is one of the best ways to motivate students and help them make fast progress. Intervention students typically lack confidence in their math skills, and see themselves as “bad at math.” They have had bad ...
Here is a list of math learning centers, with some information about each. Art of Problem Solving Academy The Art of Problem Solving academies teach my favorite math curriculums for gifted students, Beast Academy and AoPS. According to the Art ...
Let’s learn about mathematicians in Women’s History Month this March! Math and science have historically been male dominated fields. According to The STEM Gap, “Women make up only 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and men vastly ...
Are you looking for FREE, fun and engaging themed math for Groundhog Day? Here are a few ideas. For All Ages -Go outside to measure shadows using sidewalk chalk and measuring tape. See instructions from Education World here (this lesson ...
What do kids hate to hear in math class? Today I started teaching two homeschool coop math classes. One group was 5th/6th grade and the other group was 7th/8th grade. While these are homeschoolers they have varied background experiences and ...
It’s October and that means it’s Spooky Math Time! Every October 1 I start putting together ways to use my students’ excitement about “Spooky Season” to develop their math skills. When I used to be director of a math learning ...
The workshop I was most excited to attend at CAMT this summer was Building Thinking Classrooms with Peter Liljedahl. Liljedahl, for anyone who doesn’t know, is a mathematics professor and researcher who studies how students learn math. According to his ...
I have tried to pick a favorite speaker from my three days at CAMT last week, and can only get it down to my top 3. However, if you were to ask me the most FUN I had at any ...
While I have whole lists on this site of website resources for teachers, parents, and kids, there are also things you may not have thought to ask Google to do in your math classroom….. Ask for practice problems– For instance, ...
My passion for teaching math began with my training as a dyslexia specialist, where I learned the current brain research on teaching reading and wondered how the current brain research on math would be similar or different. When I learned ...
Math literacy using technology encourages student creativity and application of learning. I recently attended the Texas Computer Education Association’s technology education conference. While attending a session on student created literacy stations, I began to realize how many of the suggestions ...
While I designed this website to have many resources parents can use, here are some fantastic free math resources specifically for parents. Bedtime Math– Bedtime math can be just as much a fun part of your family’s nightly routine as ...
When I got to see Ron Clark teach math, it was like meeting a celebrity for me. I don’t remember how I first heard of Ron Clark, but I read his first book The Essential 55 when it came out ...
Here are my favorite math picture books for teaching about money. For my other book lists see: Math Picture Books: Place Value & Operations Math Picture Books: Geometry & Measurement Picture Books About Mathematicians Concept and History of Money One ...
One of my main goals as a math teacher is to show kids how math isn’t just a “school subject.” It is instead something that is an integral part of daily life. One great way to show the real world ...
Here are a few of my favorite math picture books / readalouds for place value, numbers, & operations. Most of my posts on teaching specific topics include relevant books but some teachers/parents have asked for recommended books to be listed ...
If you are looking for intervention help in teaching addition facts, I highly recommend Addition Facts That Stick. While I have developed a lot of strategies for multiplication fact fluency , I haven’t seen as many for addition fluency. However, ...
During the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are many free Christmas math activities that will capture your children’s attention! I have listed my favorite Christmas themed activities for all grade levels pre K- elementary. Many are appropriate for multi ...
If you are looking for free Halloween math activities for elementary school students , here are the best I can find! (There are also a few for preschool and middle school.) Please also see my other post specifically for Pumpkin ...
Free summer math camps pdf available! I just had a request from a member for suggestions for running summer math camp, so I put together a guide to what has worked for me in the past. It includes ideas for ...
If you are an elementary or middle school math teacher looking for professional development, here are some conferences and workshops I recommend! In person math teacher PD conferences and workshops Building Thinking Classrooms Summer Conference YouCubed Professional Development at Stanford ...
What better day for fun Star Wars themed math than May the Fourth? Use these ideas to incorporate Star Wars into your elementary and middle school instruction. Free Printable Math Puzzles Download free printable Star Wars themed math puzzles at ...
Need activities for teaching math on special days? From holidays to fun themes, we’ve got you covered! Super Bowl Math President’s Day Valentine’s Day Dr. Seuss Week Pi Day March Madness St. Patrick’s Day Easter Using Baseball to Teach Math ...
Are you looking for free resources and ideas to incorporate the Super Bowl into your math instruction? Here are some of the best I’ve found. Updated 1/24/24 to fix links! Measurement and Graphing Activities Use geometry and spatial skills to fold ...
My claim as a math teacher has been that I can find a way for any child to love math. Games, art projects, STEM– there is always some way a child already uses math for fun. However, I met a ...
There are so many engaging Thanksgiving STEM projects to use with your students or children, building their math, logical thinking, collaborative and creative skills while having a lot of hands on fun! Here are a few of my favorites. Also ...
Photo by Sebastien Lapointe on Unsplash October is the perfect time to create some excitement by incorporating pumpkins into your math instruction. You’d be surprised by how many concepts you can practice using Pumpkin Math! I have used these ideas ...
Are you a classroom teacher of any grade K-12 looking to get your school year off to a great start? Here are some of my favorite free instructional resources for math for the first week of school. Math Activities, Games, ...
Classroom teachers, homeschool teachers, tutors, parents – Get ready, get set, go! Beginning of the School Year Math for the First Week of School Amy Porter Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash Are you a classroom teacher of any grade ...
Math picture books teach geometry & measurement in a fun, engaging and memorable way. They can introduce new concepts, interest students and engage them in thinking about their learning. They encourage mathematical discussion. And of course it is always great ...
If you are a tutor, intervention teacher, or parent looking for a way to individually assess an individual child’s math skills, here are some free elementary math placement tests you can use. Before I go into the lists, I need ...
When I first started this site I envisioned it as a place for tutors, small group teachers, and homeschool parents. However, what I found is a lot of classroom teachers were also looking for ways to differentiate their math instruction. ...
Food is always a fun motivator for students- here are some no prep STEM challenges you can do! All links are to free directions and recording sheets. Gumdrop Structure Challenge Challenge students to use 10 gumdrops and 20 toothpicks to ...
STEM can mean many different things. Sometimes when teachers or parents think of STEM they think of coding, robots, iPads, and lots of expensive technology. However, some of my students’ favorite activities of the year, the ones they learned the ...
As the school year comes to an end, many teachers and tutors are looking for fun and engaging, but still educational, projects that reinforce math skills. Here are some open ended creative math project options for the end of the ...
No matter what age or grade you teach there are meaningful and engaging hands on ways to incorporate Easter fun into your math instruction! Jellybean Math Use jellybeans to sort and graph, make patterns or explore beginning probability. For preK ...
Earth Day occurs every year on April 22. There are many engaging and educational ways to incorporate this theme into your math instruction no matter what grade you teach. All listed activities are FREE. Earth Day Math Activities for Elementary ...
This has always been one of my favorite cartoons. As I wrote in my first article, it is really sad to me when very young kids have already got it in their heads that they are “bad at math.” Part ...
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash The first question teachers, tutors and homeschool parents should ask when planning an instructional program is, “what is most important for my student/child to learn?” While there are definitely key foundational concepts and skills ...
Have some St Patricks Day themed fun in your math class while still having high level learning with the following activities. I have read through every idea here and only linked activities that are free and high quality. All of ...
March 14 is Pi Day and a classic day for celebrating math, with great pi day activities available even for elementary school. The first Pi Day was celebrated in 1988 in San Francisco, California in order to draw attention to ...
Here are some fun and engaging ways to incorporate March Madness into your math instruction. Class Tournament I have seen two ways to do this. In one, students compete individually against a new partner every day or two and advance ...
When I think of the best math literature, The Greedy Triangle is at the top of the list. This book is one of those rare books that combines a humorous and engaging story and solid math instruction. I use it to introduce ...
No matter what grade you teach or what math concept you are working on, you can incorporate the Dr. Seuss theme into your math instruction to celebrate his birthday and Read Across America week! Here are some ideas specific to ...
Presidents’ Day is the perfect day for math activities including money math, graphing, and more. See my post Math Picture Books About Money for book ideas! Money Math For Primary Grades Coin Sort– sort pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters and practice identifying ...