Are you looking for great resources to help you plan and deliver math instruction at the elementary level? Boy, do I have the sites for you! Sit back, relax, and take this guided tour of some great places to start planning for next year. Turn up the volume on your computer so you don’t miss the audio portion many of these sites contain. Are you ready? LET’S GO!
Why don’t we start with terms. Vocabulary can be a big problem for both students and teachers. Let’s look at a great site for math vocab. This site is has resources for grades K-6. Select your grade level and check out a few terms. Don’t forget to click the speaker when you see it!
Harcourt Multimedia Math Glossary
http://www.harcourtschool.com/glossary/math2/index_temp.html
While we’re looking at resources from textbook publishers, let’s visit the Houghton Mifflin site. Select your grade level and check out all the resources available to you. You will find background information, reproducible vocabulary cards, teaching tools, leveled practice materials, resources for math investigations and math at home, connections to Weekly Reader magazine, and more! DON’T MISS the Teaching Models. The overview section provides background on the topic, while the actual model is available for your kids.
Houghton Mifflin Math
http://www.eduplace.com/math/mw/
Here’s one more site from a textbook company. Take a look at the Math Advantage site by Harcourt. Click on your grade level and then click on the Parent and Teacher View link. This will take you to a page of online learning activities (dare I say games?) with annotations describing each one.
Harcourt School Publishers – The Learning Site
http://www.harcourtschool.com/menus/l_math.html
Let’s move on to manipulatives. You’ve used them in the classroom, now try them online. Here are a few sites with interfaces that allow kids to work with familiar materials like base-10 blocks, pattern blocks, tangrams, and more. These are sites that require some experimentation and patience. You need to learn HOW to use them before you plan lessons for students. Some have instructions and help menus for teachers, while others do not. Take a look at these and see what think.
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html
NCTM Illuminations Tool (searchable index)
http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivitySearch.aspx
Educational JAVA Programs in Math
http://www.arcytech.org/java/
Harcourt Brace E-Lab Sample Activities (activities begin at grade 3)
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/elab2004/index_2004.html
For those of you teaching early grades, math centers can be an efficient way to allow students to explore mathematical concepts. Here are some terrific sites with a wealth of ideas and reproducibles for math instruction that is more self-directed.
CanTeach Math: A List of Ideas for Math Centres
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/mathcentres.html
Math Tub Fun
http://www.marcias-lesson-links.com/MathTubs.html
Math Tubs (Hubbard’s Cupboard)
http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/math_tubs.html
Math Tubs (Ms. Powell)
http://www.mspowell.com/otherwebpages/centerpics6.htm
Mrs. Meacham’s Math Tubs
http://www.jmeacham.com/math/math.tubs.htm
Graphing every day is a great way to get kids thinking mathematically. Here are some great resources for expanding your use of graphs in the classroom.
Graphs Galore
http://blog.richmond.edu/openwidelookinside/archives/160
Are you looking for a good book to use during your math lesson? Here are some great sites to help you find titles that work for different topics in math. Start your search with one of these searchable databases of children’s books. Enter a keyword and see what comes up. (Be careful entering keywords in the first database, as you are limited to 10 characters!)
Children’s Picture Book Database
http://www.lib.muohio.edu/pictbks/
Database of Award Winning Children’s Literature
http://www.dawcl.com/search.asp
Connections: Connecting Books to the Virginia SOLs
http://itweb.fcps.edu/connections/index.cfm
You can also find a wealth of ideas for integrating children’s literature into math at these sites.
Connecting Math and Children’s Literature
http://blog.richmond.edu/openwidelookinside/archives/20
Thematic Book Lists for Math
http://blog.richmond.edu/openwidelookinside/math-book-lists
Do you want a ready-made lesson plan to go with your book selection? Visit this site to find just that! You can select books by grade level or mathematical strand.
S.M.A.R.T. Books
http://www.k-state.edu/smartbooks/index.html
Scholastic has some terrific sites for both kids and teachers. Let’s start with the sites for students. Explore some of these great resources for your class!
Max’s Math Adventures (K-2)
http://teacher.scholastic.com/max/
Math Maven’s Mysteries (3-5)
http://teacher.scholastic.com/maven/
Now that you’ve seen some stuff for the kids, take a look at what Scholastic has for teachers!
Teacher Tools (FREE flash card factory, rubric maker, calendar, home page builder, and more!)
http://teacher.scholastic.com/tools/
Lesson Plan Database (searchable)
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/lessonplans.jsp
Here are some additional sites that offer searchable databases or extensive lists of math lesson plans.
PBS TeacherSource: Math
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/math/
NCTM Illuminations Lesson Plans
http://illuminations.nctm.org/Lessons.aspx
UEN Resources: K-2 Core Lesson Plans (Scroll to find math lessons.)
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/LPview.cgi?core=1209
UEN Resources: 3-6 Math Lesson Plans
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/LPview.cgi?core=2
So, your lessons are planned and you have all your resources ready. How are you going to assess student learning? Here are some sites with ideas for evaluating student work, developing rubrics, and more.
Math Performance Assessment Tasks
http://www.esd112.org/smerc/mpat_detail.cfm
Balance Assessment in Mathematics
http://balancedassessment.concord.org/
K-5 Mathematics Assessment
http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/resources/math/assessment.html
For those of you looking for resources to differentiate instruction, or for those of you working with students exhibiting forms of dyscalculia, here are some sites you may find helpful.
Meeting the Needs of Gifted Students: Differentiating Mathematics and Science Instruction
http://www.nwrel.org/msec/images/resources/justgood/12.99.pdf
Mathematics and Science Instruction for Students With Learning Disabilities
http://www.nwrel.org/msec/images/resources/justgood/09.99.pdf
Teaching Mathematics and Science to English Language Learners
http://www.nwrel.org/msec/images/resources/justgood/11.99.pdf
Math Graphic Organizers for Students with Disabilities
http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/mathgraphicorganizers.asp
MathVIDS
http://fcit.usf.edu/mathvids/
Dyscalculia.com
http://www.dyscalculia.org/
LD Online: Math
http://www.ldonline.org/indepth/math
TeachingLD: Teaching How-to’s: Math
http://www.dldcec.org/teaching_how-tos/math/default.htm
The Resource Room – Math
http://www.resourceroom.net/math/index.asp
Are you interested in making a home-school connection? Here are some resources to involve parents.
Early Childhood: Where Learning Begins – Mathematics
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EarlyMath/title.html
Engaging Families in Mathematics and Science Education
http://www.nwrel.org/msec/images/resources/justgood/06.98.pdf
Helping Your Child Learn Math
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Math/index.html
Math @ Home
http://educ.queensu.ca/~fmc/
Math Activities to Do With Your Children
http://www.learner.org/catalog/resources/activities/content/mact01.html
Top Ten Ways to Help Your Kids Do Well in Math
http://school.familyeducation.com/math/parenting/38812.html?yf_kids
By now you should realize that there are so many resources on the web for math, that I can’t possibly include them all here. I hope this tour helped you find some resources you can use and excited you about the possibilities of using online resources for both planning and delivering instruction.