Teaching Math: Grades 4-6

Lesson 1

Meet Your Math Students

Whether you're a new math teacher or an old pro, this course will help you get your students excited about math! To get started, you need to know what kind of learners you have in class. Visual, auditory, and tactile-kinesthetic students are all going to process your lessons differently. The trick is learning teaching strategies to get everyone up to speed, so that's what this first lesson will talk about.

Talk the Talk

In this lesson, you'll find out how to teach your students to talk the talk as they walk the walk in your math classroom. You'll discover five keys to effective vocabulary instruction and how to start using them.

Have a Little Number Sense

Ever wonder if your students have any number sense? It's sometimes tricky for children to understand how 1 relates to 100 or how 100 relates to 1,000. But they won't be confused much longer if you try the smart tips for number play that you'll go over in this lesson.

Multiply the Fun

Is multiplication mastery becoming a bore for your students? In this lesson, you'll learn how to multiply the fun in your classroom with models, facts beyond the tables, and real world applications.

Scale the Divide

In this lesson, you'll step into division, evaluating strategies for teaching the long and short of it. From the grocery store to the baseball game, you'll discover ways to connect division to life outside the classroom. This lesson is packed with a creative punch!

Halve the Work With Fractions

Are you ready to halve the work with fractions in your classroom? In this lesson, you'll look at a variety of manipulatives and models that bring fractions to life. You'll learn how to tell the difference between proper, improper, and mixed numbers so that you can teach them like a pro.

Ready, Set, Solve!

Ready, set, solve! This lesson will show you how to get your young math detectives thinking with some innovative problem-solving strategies. The best part is that you get to bring the whole world into your four walls.

Hop a Plane With Geometry

This lesson is about hopping a plane with geometry! You'll learn how to make geometry hands-on and practical within the space of one lesson. As an added bonus, you'll learn how to get your students thinking into the future with some geometric career connections.

Get in Groups

You may have already tried cooperative group work in your math classroom, but get ready to polish your approach with some tips on integrating group work to maximize student learning. Whether you want to use pairs, clusters, or teams, ask your students to pull together for some fun math lessons.

Read and Write About Math

It might seem a little funny to break out the composition books in the math classroom, but don't be surprised that when your students read, write, and talk about math, they're learning multiplies. By getting kids to write, you not only get a sneak peek into their minds, but you can help them embrace the multidisciplinary world around them.

Test It Out

Most students see assessments as red pens and big x marks, but it doesn't have to be that way. In this lesson, you'll learn the keys of effective performance and traditional assessments that will help you understand how well you're teaching and how well your students are learning.

Plan Family Math Night

Are you always looking for ways to involve students' families in math? From assigning the right homework to designing Family Math Nights that'll have the whole school talking, you can take the math classroom to students' homes and bring their families to school with the smart strategies you'll discover in this lesson.