K - 5 Math Teaching Resources

A friend of mine recently shared with me the website, K - 5 Math Teaching Resources and I think everyone must know about this.  It has a wealth of information, ideas, and good thinking about the Common Core.  It's a collection of games and hands on activities aligned to the Common Core.  It's organized by grade level and the best part is it's all FREE!  You can easily find number activities for a specific grade level.  Geometry and Measurement are organized by grade bands.

Recording mathematical thinking is essential and problem solving is at the heart of the mathematical practices in the Common Core.  I loved how this website describes and recommends using math journals.  She has an e-book to support rich problem solving my friend also recommended.  I've done math journals over the years and yet I'm wondering why I never thought to print the problem to be added on a label that would just stick on the current page of work.  Thanks to K-5 Math Teaching Resources I can put away my gluestick and papercutter.  I just purchased my own copy after viewing a sample and thinking about having problem solving at the forefront of my math workshop.  Another great page to find for your own grade level is Math Journal Gallery.  I found it interesting to see how organized K students can be and how their work grew over time.  To enrich our writing we must understand the vocabulary and using a word wall mathematically is a great idea.  However, we need ideas to keep any word wall fresh and creating ways to interact with it.  This site has some wonderful suggestions for keeping a math word wall purposeful within any classroom.

One last you MUST look at is the description and examples for using a rekenrek to develop number sense and allow students a tool to show mathematical thinking.  I've been looking at rekenreks for quite some time but can't seem to find the money to purchase some.  Now I have a way to make individual student versions! Super YEA!  I'm not on pinterest but have thought this would be a diy math manipulative idea everyone should be able to see and find and pin.  Budgets are being cut and diy projects are more important than ever.  It reminds me when I spray painted lima beans so I had two sided colored counters.  

There are many more ideas and I hope you will add these to your list of resources.  We have to look for things like these that are being developed and added to over time.  Enjoy!