In this back-to-school blog series, we're going to go through the different types of conservation milestones that we want kids to hit, as well as how we will know they have the early foundations of numeracy in place before we start building number sense.

Each step in the developmental journey to confidence in problem solving is important so that we help our littles arrive in the proper way instead of trying to force application of word problem skills too soon. To help students in this step, we’ve created the My Math Word Problem Journal, which is developmentally appropriate for kindergarten students at the end of the first semester or the beginning of the second semester. Every journal page takes students through this entire process, so by the end of 75 days, it should be ingrained in their brains! This will help our Kindergarten littles as they head into 1st grade, where they’ll continue to build on higher levels of understanding. 

Watch the videos, get the free downloads, and read more here: 

As students master the first two developmental stages, we can move them into the next stage which is acting out story problems using CPA. This has nothing to do with the person who does your taxes, but everything to do with getting kids to express their knowledge of mathematics concretely, pictorially, and abstractly. Story mats are an excellent way to help children solve problems with different types of real-world scenarios. 

Get a sample of the story mats, watch the video tutorials, and read the rest here: https://sis4teachers.org/2020/04/math-in-the-real-world-with-littles-word-problem-story-mats/

The next step in building a foundation for problem solving with littles is to use what we call quantitative pictures - pictures with lots of things to count! Find out how to use quantitative pictures and ask different types of questions (from beginning to challenging) to help students think about numbers. Quantitative pictures aren't just for little either! See how you can use them beyond early childhood by applying any math concept!

Read the blog, see the videos, and get the downloads: https://sis4teachers.org/2020/04/math-in-the-real-world-with-littles-quantitative-pictures/

Mathematical Practice 2 states that children should be able to “Reason abstractly and quantitatively.” What does that even mean?? It means that students need to apply mathematics into real world scenarios, or word problems. However, word problems can be intimidating for teachers and students alike. See how we can start building the foundation for story problems for our littles by creating opportunities for intentional math-focused conversations about things that happen in our daily routines.

Read the blog, see the videos, and get the downloads here: https://sis4teachers.org/2020/04/math-in-the-real-world-with-littles-creating-a-math-friendly-home/

Journey through the process of learning to subtract fractions, from the beginning of developing conceptual understanding through common denominators, uncommon denominators, and mixed numbers. Meet Springling, the fanciest of the Math Mights who helps students work with an open number line to find the distance between two numbers, and learn why it's not actually borrowing - it's renaming!

Read the blog post and watch the videos: https://sis4teachers.org/2020/03/subtracting-fractions/

Learn how to establish a conceptual understanding of addition fractions - both with common and uncommon denominators. Shannon explains how to simplify or reduce improper fractions (or fractions larger than one), and how to add fractions in a way that will help students truly understand the why before the how of a memorized procedure.

Watch the videos and learn more here:

Fractions don't have to be scary! By establishing (or re-establishing!) what division is REALLY all about, you can help students transition easily into dividing fractions. This week, Shannon uses pattern blocks to walk you through the process of teaching students how to divide with fractions, beginning with dividing a whole number by a fraction and then naturally progressing to dividing two fractions.

Watch the videos and read the post here: https://sis4teachers.org/2020/03/working-with-fractions-dividing-fractions/