To this day, I still can’t believe how much work goes into planning just one day of elementary math lessons. I spent my entire first year teaching strategizing ways that I could reduce my prep work in math and enjoy teaching it all at the same time.

With all of the different representations students are expected to know, I always felt like I was rushing through the math standards and just skimming the surface so that I could cover everything I needed to by the end of the school year. The system that was in place with textbooks, worksheets, and math centers just wasn’t working for me or my students. I was determined to find a better way to teach elementary math.

Your first year teaching, or starting in a new grade level, is always challenging because you are learning the content, planning how to teach the content, and adjusting lessons as you go based on how your students perform. You learn a lot during that first year, and each subsequent year you get better at teaching that grade because you are able to anticipate common student misconceptions.

Early on in my teaching career, I didn’t quite understand the importance of teaching elementary math vocabulary to my 2nd and 3rd graders. I knew they wouldn’t be standing around at the playground discussing addends and minuends, and I thought if these terms were not going to be used in everyday life, how important can they really be?

Yes it’s true that to some extent students need to know academic vocabulary to be able to answer test questions (“What is the sum?”, for example), but it does go beyond that. Teaching students vocabulary words when introducing new concepts in math can really help them understand the content better because you are able to explain things more clearly.

There are many good strategies for teaching rounding and estimation in 3rd grade math. One of the most common rounding strategies is the roller coaster method, where students look at the digit in the one's place and round down or up according to the rule. 

While this method does work, using number lines instead can really help students grasp the true concept of rounding instead of just memorizing rules.

An important component of second grade math is having a strong understanding of addition and subtraction word problems. I taught both second and third grade and witnessed the huge jump students take from one grade level to the next. 

Third graders are expected to solve many multi-step problems using all four operations, whereas second graders rarely see multi-step problems. The key to student success is giving them one problem solving strategy that they can apply to all problem types.

In this blog post, I’m sharing three types of word problems you can teach students that will provide them with a solid foundation for third grade.

I couldn't believe it when I found out I had to teach second grade multiplication and division. I remember first learning these concepts in third grade and all we did was memorize facts and take timed quizzes. Now students are expected to learn multiplication and division at a younger age using many different representations and strategies. 

Several weeks into my first year teaching, my math coach came to me and said she found a vacant classroom upstairs that had been locked and inside were hundreds of math manipulatives and resources. She told me to grab as much as I wanted to keep in my classroom. At first I was thrilled, but then I realized I had no idea what to grab or how to use them in my lessons. Classic first year panic!

Throughout the rest of my first year and subsequent years teaching, I learned the importance of using these concrete models to teach students new concepts. In this blog post I’ll be sharing three manipulatives to help you teach second grade multiplication and division.

As teachers we are usually told to give a quick quiz at the end of the week, and plan our small groups for the following week based on that data. Early on I tried that approach and it just didn’t work. I had to move so quickly through each standard that students just continually fell behind. It also caused me to have to plan multiple lessons on several different topics at one time, instead of just planning one lesson. It was inefficient and too much work!

There is also no need to make exit tickets or demonstrations of learning. It’s just one more thing you have to create for each lesson and it takes up instructional time. By eliminating this step you can jump right into your first small group as soon as the whole group lesson is over.

But we still need a way to identify students who need help. I did this by incorporating fill in the blank style checks for understanding during my whole group lessons and students would respond on their mini whiteboards using expo markers. I could then quickly see who was understanding the content, and who was struggling.

Teaching second grade measurement activities can be challenging, especially when there is a lack of classroom resources.

I’ve been there. Sometimes I had a surplus of rulers and yardsticks, and other times I had to get creative with how I was going to share a limited number of resources amongst my students.

In this blog post I’ll be covering:

• Second grade measurement activities that require no tools

• Second grade measurement problem types 

• One resource every classroom should have when teaching measurement 

So if you are scrambling to find ways to teach measurement with a limited number of supplies, you’ve come to the right place! Let’s jump right in. 

When I first learned that I had to teach second graders multiplication, I was a bit terrified. It seems like such a complex skill for young students, but in reality the foundations for multiplication are quite simple. 

Having taught both second and third grade math, I understand the importance of building a solid foundation in second grade so students can master multiplication in third grade. In this blog post I’ll show you how to teach multiplication to second graders using:

• Skip Counting

• Arrays

• Equal Groups

• Repeated Addition

This is the exact order that I used to introduce my second graders to multiplication, and it worked incredibly well! Let’s jump right in.