Area and Perimeter

Two weeks back I wrapped up my Area and Perimeter unit. Around this time of the year, many schools are working on their Geometry and Measurement topics too!

Area and Perimeter is an interesting topic for kids. I love it when they can relate to the real-world situations like putting a fence around the garden or laying grass in it.

This packet is already available in my store but I'm a little behind on updating it on my blog. I have been a busy bee of late 😊.

The topic begins with introducing Area and Perimeter. You may start with either of the two, but I prefer introducing Perimeter first and then Area. Later, I mix it up for them to practice.

Perimeter:

Perimeter is the distance Around outside of a figure.

Area:
Area is the number of square units needed to Cover the region inside the figure.

Check out what’s included in my beginner’s worksheets and activities pack to learn and practice the concept of Area and Perimeter.

1. Measuring Perimeter
2. Measuring Area
3. Area Estimation
4. Area using Distributive Property
5. Perimeter Word Problems
6. Area Word Problems
7. Area and Perimeter Review
8. School Carnival activity for real-world application
9. Town Planning activity for a project

You can grab this area and perimeter resource from my store HERE.

Happy Teaching!

Shimps

STAAR Math Grade 3 Practice Test

STAAR is almost here. Relieve the feeling of stress by having your students do a round of practice with this full-length 3rd Grade Math STAAR Practice Test. This mock test is aligned to the current TEKS and includes a total of 46 questions.

Student answer document/Bubble sheet and the Answer Key is also included. You can grab this practice test from HERE.

As the STAAR testing is a new experience for the 3rd graders, it is always helpful to administer a dry run for them to know what to expect in the real exam setting.

Best of luck to the little ROCK STAARS!

This post was originally written on 30th April 2017 

Shimps

Rounding of numbers to the nearest 10 and 100

Hi Everyone,

Today, I am going to share some of my work on the topic Rounding to the nearest 10 and 100. Typically rounding is introduced in Grade 3. The supporting common core standard is: 

Math 3.NBT.A.1: Use place value understanding to round whole numbers to the nearest 10 or 100. 

Rounding of a number means replacing it by another number that is approximately of equal value but making it simpler. This is an important skill for students to build on their number sense. For some students, performing rounding of numbers can be quite confusing. My motive was to make something simple, interactive and yet effective to help the little learners understand the concept of rounding.

I am a big fan of Anchor Charts which are created during the instruction of topic. These goes a long way in reinforcing the unit and students can reference it back too!

Rounding Anchor Charts:

Rounding Anchor Chart

Rounding Anchor Chart

Fact Fluency

Fact fluency refers to the ability to recall the four basic operations of math with ease and accuracy. A good grasp of these facts helps students to move up to more complex mathematical concepts like multi-digit addition, multi-digit subtraction, long division, and fractions.  

Studies have shown that students who have good command over basic facts find mathematics more interesting than others. The basic math facts are also included in the common core curriculum for grades 1, 2, and 3.  

Grade 1: Demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10.

Grade 2: Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies.

Grade 3: Fluently multiply and divide within 100.

Many teachers include basic math facts as a part of the daily morning work at school and also send those to practice at home. By the end of the school year, students develop their facts with automaticity.

As students have recently learned the basic operations, they need a ton of practice to master the fluency of these operations. I always like to have a lot of fact fluency worksheets and plan to use these over extended duration.

Here are some of my fact fluency packets.

1. Addition and Subtraction Fact Fluency - within 10
2. Addition and Subtraction Fact Fluency - within 20
3. Multiplication Fluency - Facts up to 12

Addition and Subtraction Fact Fluency - within 10

Both the addend are up to 10.

 

Addition and Subtraction Fact Fluency - within 20

 

Multiplication Fluency - Facts up to 12

A total of 35 Multiplication Facts Fluency worksheets for practicing the timed multiplication facts. Each worksheet includes a total of 60 questions in groups of 10.

Happy Teaching!

Shimps

Equivalent Fractions

While teaching equivalent fractions, the very first question that I always ask my students is: What does equivalent means? The answer comes “Equal”.

Yes, Equivalent means Equal in Value or Amount.

Two or more fractions are said to be Equivalent if they represent the same part of a whole.

Example:

These two models are of the same size and both shows the equal shaded parts of a whole. So,
\begin{equation}\frac{1}{3}\textrm{  is equivalent to  }\frac{2}{6}\end{equation}
Another way of showing equivalent fractions is using the number line. Lets look at the same example:

These two red dots are on the same point on the number line and represents the equivalent fraction.
\begin{equation}\frac{1}{3}\textrm{  is equivalent to  }\frac{2}{6}\end{equation}

Finding Equivalent fractions

Every fraction has many equivalent fractions. You can find these by using multiplication or division.

Multiplication: Multiply the numerator and denominator by the same number. For example:

\begin{equation}\frac{1}{3} \times \frac{2}{2}=\frac{2}{6}\end{equation}

\begin{equation}\frac{1}{3}\textrm{  is equivalent to  }\frac{2}{6}\end{equation}

Division: Divide the numerator and denominator by the same number. For example:

\begin{equation}\frac{5}{10} \div \frac{5}{5}=\frac{1}{2}\end{equation}

\begin{equation}\frac{5}{10}\textrm{  is equivalent to  }\frac{1}{2}\end{equation}
Here is my Equivalent Fractions worksheet and activity pack to introduce, reinforce and practice the concept. This packet is designed primarily for third graders, but can also be used as a review for fourth graders.

This includes the following worksheets and activities on equivalent fractions:

1. Use the fraction area models to complete the number sentence.
2. Use the number line to find the equivalent fractions
3. Find the equivalent fractions without the use of models
4. Equivalent Fractions Ice cream scoop activity
5. Cut and paste activity
6. Make Equivalent Fractions Paper Chain
7. Equivalent Fractions Mystery Pictures

A total of 15 worksheets and activities plus the answer key.

Happy Teaching!

Shimps

Division Facts

Division is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the other being addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Once kids are fluent in multiplication facts, teaching division becomes easy. My today’s post is on introducing the concept of division to the young learners.

Introducing Division

Division is a sharing operation, where objects are shared equally into a number of groups.

Hands on Activity: Give 9 pennies or counters and 3 bowls to each child and tell them to put equal pennies/counters in each bowl.

If the result is as shown in picture, tell them - This is what the division is.

Multiplication and Division relationship (Multiplication and Division Fact Family)

Multiplication and Division has inverse relationship just like addition and subtraction.

Example:

Multiplication Equation:  4 x 5 = 20

The two division equations will be:

20 ÷ 5 = 4 

20 ÷ 4 = 5

Similarly, we can derive multiplication equations from division equation.
35 ÷ 5 = 7

The two multiplication equations will be:
7 x 5 = 35
5 x 7 = 35

Understanding the multiplication and division relationship is very important in solving the division problems.

Division Vocabulary

Dividend: A number to be divided by another number.
Divisor: A number by which another number is divided.
Quotient: The result of division.

This division vocabulary poster is also included in my division packet.

You can use this division booklet to teach division facts up to 12 without a remainder. Worksheets covering the above concepts are included in this packet.

This division packet can be purchased from HERE

Happy Teaching!

Shimps

Properties of Multiplication

In continuation of my posts on the Multiplication topic, today I will be sharing my work on Properties of Multiplication. As per common core standards a 3rd grader is expected to know about these multiplication properties which includes Associative property, Commutative property, Distributive property, Identity property, and Zero property. 

This week when I was teaching this topic, I had my kiddo first use the blocks to visualize and see these multiplication properties in action. I am a big fan of these place value blocks and it always comes handy. I bought mine from Lakeshore, but these are now available at Amazon for less 😊. You can get these at Amazon: Place Value Blocks. 

Later, I gave her the worksheets (HERE) to reinforce her understanding of Properties of Multiplication. 

Associative Property of multiplication states that you can change the grouping of the factors the product will be the same.

Example: (5 x 2) x 3 = 30

                 5 x (2 x 3) = 30

Commutative Property of multiplication states that you can multiply the factors in any order, the product stays the same.

Example: 4 x 2 = 2 x 4

Commutative Property of Multiplication

Multiplication Activities

Hands-on activities are very important in teaching math concepts. Research have shown that students presented with an opportunity to use manipulatives are more interested in mathematics. Today, I am sharing some fun hands-on ways to teach multiplication. Hope you can use and implement some of these ideas in your classroom.

Multiplication as Equal Groups

Multiplication as Equal Group Activity Box

I bought these pipe cleaners from a Dollar Store. It is super easy to make the hoops with pipe cleaners. Just make a circle and twist at the ends. Ta-da your hoops are ready! For counters, I have used decorative stones which I bought from Michaels (during summer clearance 😊).  You may as well use Buttons, Pom-Poms, M&Ms, Paper Clips, Lego blocks etc.

Multiplication Facts

Wow! What an amazing feeling that my blog is live. Happy  Happy Happy! Special thanks to my husband, you are amazing!

Now moving on to my next post, the question was what should I blog next? During this time of year in many classrooms, kids are learning Multiplication, so this became an obvious choice. Multiplication is a very important concept in Mathematics and just one post will not do justice to this topic, nor to my readers. 😊

Different strategies on multiplication are taught in the classroom; like equal group, repeated addition, Arrays, and Number line. Along with teaching these strategies, memorizing and automacy of multiplication facts is extremely important.

Multiplication is typically introduced in Grade 3, and covers a major part of the curriculum. In the first part of my multiplication post series, I am including Multiplication facts 0 to 12. 

I have structured my worksheets to build a foundation on this topic and help students on their journey of learning multiplication facts.