"The real-world connection and use of manipulatives, games, and items from home will hook 21st-century learners. I spend a considerable amount of time searching for appropriate lesson ideas. No more! This collection of lessons—across all math standards—provides more than enough resources to enhance my teaching."
—Rachel Hull, Fifth-Grade Teacher
George Washington Elementary School, Eleanor, WV
"This well-organized resource enriches any math curriculum with easy-to-follow and abundant ′out of your seat′ activities to engage a variety of learners. The best components are quick formative assessments within each activity that provide an immediate perspective on each child′s understanding and progress."
—Jennifer Harper, Fourth-Grade Teacher
Cavendish Town Elementary School, Proctorsville, VT
Imaginative mathematics activities that maximize the brain′s learning potential!
Demonstrating instructional principles discussed in David A. Sousa′s bestseller, How the Brain Learns Mathematics, this resource provides brain-friendly, ready-to-use mathematics lessons for Grades 4-5. Teachers will find step-by-step guidance and all the necessary reproducibles for mathematics instruction that involves group work, reflection, movement, and visualization. Through activities such as Scuba Division, Party Planners, Sunken Treasure, and Parachute Drop, intermediate learners will enjoy developing skills connected with multiplication and division, fractions and decimals, geometry and measurement, algebra, data analysis, and more.
Aligned with NCTM standards and focal points, the instructional strategies enhance motivation and content retention, address individual intelligences, and:
- Promote writing as an important learning tool
- Use concrete models to make concepts meaningful
- Connect mathematical ideas to the real world
- Incorporate graphic organizers to help students organize their thinking
- Teach creative problem solving
Deepen and revitalize instruction using Sousa′s proven brain-compatible approach for helping every student develop self-confidence in mathematics!
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Links to Focal Points and Standards
About the Author
1. Multiplication and Division
The Mystery of the Mixed-Up Party Lists
Meet the Fact Family
Guess-timate Estimates
Point and Play
200 Catch Game
Blocks of Division
Words of Division
Divisibility Dash
Scuba Division
Show the Order
2. Fractions and Decimals
Fraction Friends
Fun With Fractions
Decimal Days
Put the Dot on the Spot
Dollars and Sense
A Portrait of Parts
Grocery Bill Math
Party Planners
Fraction Cooking
Calling All Construction Workers
3. Geometry and Measurement
Detective Angle
Tricky Triangles
Silly Symmetry
Trouble at the Tangram Zoo
Magic Carpets for Sale
Geo Puppet
A Hole in the Roof
From Farm to Factory
Wrapping Up Math
4. Algebra
Simply, Simplify
Weigh to Go!
What′s the Score?
Sunken Treasure
5. Data Analysis
Terrific T′s
Our Favorite Things
Book Bonanza
Too Many Ants!
Survey Study
Fast Food Comparisons
Parachute Drop
Plot the Treasure
Animal Olympics
Journal Page
Answer Key
Resources
