Decimal Place Value

August is already here! Lazy mornings of summer holidays are just flying by and a new school year is starting soon. I will miss the summer fun, but I am more than ready to start another thrilling academic year with new goals, new challenges, and a hope to make this the best school year ever!

While thinking of upper elementary math, the first topic that comes to my mind is a refresher on the number place value system. These young minds already know the whole number place value, but it’s good to refresh the same and introduce the decimal place value too.

The origin of the Arabic number system that we use today can be traced back to the Hindu Scholars in India. This system was adopted and modified by Middle Eastern Scholars and later introduced in Europe. Without going into too much history, let's look at the place value system.

The set of 10 symbols namely 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 represent the numbers.

In the place value system, the position of the number defines the value of the number.

For example, if I write the number 786 then:

• 6 in 786 means 6 ones or 6
• 8 in 786 means 8 tens or 80
• 7 in 786 means 7 hundreds or 700

Now for decimals, the place value system extends to the right of ones place to represent the fractions.

For example, if I write the number 786.432 then:

• 4 in 786.432 means 4 tenths or 0.4
• 3 in 786.432 means 3 hundredths or .03
• 2 in 786.432 means 2 thousandths or .002

Check out what’s included in my Decimal Place Value Worksheets and Task Card bundle pack to learn and practice the concept of Place Value for decimals: tenths, hundredths, and thousandths.

Worksheets:

1. Identifying decimals
2. Standard, Expanded and Word Form
3. Decimals on Number Line
4. Comparing decimals
5. Relate Decimals and Fractions
6. Review Sheet

A total of 18 worksheets.

Task Cards:

Task-cards to practice the concept of place-value for decimals: tenths, hundredths, and thousandths.

A total of 24 cards along with recording and answer key.

You can grab this Decimal Place Value resource from my store HERE.

Happy to be back in action!

Shimps

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

Fractions

The fractions topic begins with teaching how to partition shapes into equal parts. We generally start with halves and fourth and then move to thirds, fifths, sixth and so on. At this stage, kids are also introduced to the concept of numerator and denominator. Before this, they were only working with the whole numbers, and now they are presented with rational numbers.  Quite confusing for them…..hmm, not really.

Children are visual learners, they learn the best by seeing it. Teaching fraction involves drawing pictures and hand on activities. So, try to incorporate a lot of visuals to make the fraction concept more thorough.

Pizza is the most commonly used manipulative to explain the idea of fractions. Students can easily correlate the part of a whole concept with a pizza and its slice. This serves as a real-life example to develop mental images of fraction model as a part of a circle.

My favorite read aloud book on this topic is Gator Pie by Louise Mathews. Kids enjoy making predictions as the story is being read.

This is a cute story about two gators, Alvin and Alice, who find a pie and decide to share it equally with each other. Just as they are about to eat it, two more gators emerge from the forest. Then they must divide the pie among four of them. Then, more and more alligators arrive, and they must share the pie among 100 gators! Finally, Alvin and Alice sneak away with the pie.

This is a classic book and may be out of print now.  Check if this happens to be in your school or local library or you may get a used one here on Amazon.

My Fractions packet includes:

1. Fractions Vocabulary Word Cards
2. Equal and Unequal Parts cut and paste fraction activity
3. Color the shapes with Equal and Unequal Parts
4. Color the shapes with 2/3/4 Equal Parts
5. Fractions: Worksheet on writing fraction
6. Fractions: Halves, Thirds and Fourths
7. Understanding Fractions: Halves
8. Understanding Fractions: Thirds
9. Understanding Fractions: Fourths
10. Write the Fractions - Worksheet
11. Fraction wall - cut and paste activity
12. Fraction wall poster
13. Spin and color the fractions activity
14. 24 Fractions flash cards

You can grab this fractions resource from my store HERE.

Happy Teaching!

This post was originally published on February 16, 2017

Shimps

Counting Coins – Money Games

I love incorporating games into my math units. It makes learning more fun and engaging.
Here is the newest addition to my Money unit: Counting Coins – Money Games.

These Money games will make  students identify, compare and add the value of coins. Include them in your math center and give your students a variety of options to practice their money skills.

There are 3 different sets of cards bundled in this packet.

Coins War Game: 

This is same as traditional card game “War”. Instead of comparing numbers, players count the value of coins on their cards and the player with the largest amount of money wins the hand.

This set has 52 cards showing the Penny,  Nickel, Dime and Quarter with values upto $1.
Playing instructions are included.

Long Division

Long Division is a step by step method for dividing the multi-digit numbers. It involves 4 basic steps: Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring Down, and then repeating the process.

Students often have difficulty in following the long division steps. A funny Acronym to remember these steps is:

Dirty Monkeys Smell Bad!

Long Division Steps Poster

Here is my Long Division pack to learn and practice long division with easy to follow grid assisted worksheets.

 


This pack includes worksheets for 2, 3, and 4 digit dividends with single digit divisors. A total of 30 worksheets covering different types of problems with remainders and no remainders kind.

Acronym poster and answer key is included.

Happy Teaching!

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

Divisibility Rules

Divisible: When one number can be divided by another number without leaving a remainder. 

For example, 6 is divisible by 3. 

Divisibility rules of whole numbers help us to quickly determine if a number can be divided by 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, and 10 without doing a long division. These rules have a wide range of applications in mathematics like finding factors, determining prime versus composite numbers and simplifying fractions etc. 

Knowing the divisibility rules will prepare students to work with larger numbers. You may introduce the concept in grade 4 and as a refresher for 5th graders. 

Use these worksheets and a ready reference poster to have students familiarize and practice the divisibility rules. Included are 11 worksheets and 2 posters (both in Colored and Black & White versions) for dividing by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10.

You may also print the poster as 2 copies per page and have students stick in their notebooks for quick reference.

You can buy this Divisibility Rules pack from HERE.

Thanks

Shimps

Odd and Even numbers

Even numbers: Even numbers are the numbers that are divisible by 2. For example, 8 can be divided by 2, so 8 is an even number.

Odd numbers: Odd numbers are the numbers that are not divisible by 2. For example, 9 cannot be divided by 2, so 9 is an odd number.

This definition works well with the kids who are familiar with multiplication and division. As this concept is introduced to first graders or second graders where a majority of kids are not familiar with Multiplication and Division, so we should teach this in a different way.

Even numbers: A number is even if it can be divided into groups of 2 and have no leftovers. For example, 8 can be divided into 4 groups of 2 and there is no leftover, so 8 is an even number.

Odd numbers: A number is odd if it can be divided into groups of 2 and have 1 leftover. For example, when dividing 9 into groups of 2 we can make 4 groups of 2 and there is still 1 leftover, so 9 is an odd number.

• An even number ends in 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8.
• An odd number ends in 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9.

For example, 239 is an odd number as it has 9 at ones place. Similarly, 238 is even number as it has 8 at ones place.

Have a look at my Odd and Even numbers packet, which includes the no prep worksheets and activities to learn and reinforce the concept of Odd and Even numbers.

Here is the list of resources included in this even and odd numbers packet:

1. Cut and paste activities.
2. Even and Odd coloring activity.
3. Ice cream scoop activity.
4. Making a paper chain - craft activity.
5. Fun worksheets.

You can buy this Even and Odd numbers worksheets pack from HERE.

Literature to go with this topic:

Even Steven and Odd Todd by Kathryn Cristaldi.

This is a funny book about two cousins Steven and Todd. Even Steven likes everything even and Odd Todd likes everything odd. A great read for first and second graders. Check this out on Amazon HERE.

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

Telling Time to the Hour and Half Hour

There’s so much to learn in telling time! Mastering this clock reading skill requires a lot of practice and motivation. The common core curriculum introduces telling time in Grade 1, but many schools gives an early start from kindergarten itself.

Grade 1: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.B.3
Tell and write time in hours and half-hours using analog and digital clocks.

Before teaching kids how to read a clock, have them get familiarized with the types of clocks (Digital and Analog Clock) and the parts of an Analog clock. You may use telling time posters and a hands-on activity like one included in my Telling Time pack.

Clock Poster: 

Get the Digital and Analog Clock Poster for FREE from HERE.
Do follow my blog for more freebies like these!

Clock making activity: 

(Included in Telling Time pack)

Make your own Analog Clock

This telling time bundle includes:

• Worksheets for Time to the Hour
• Worksheets for Time to the Half Hour
• Worksheets for Time to the Hour and Half Hour (Mixed work sheets)
• Coloring Activities
• Cut and Paste Activities
• Make a Clock Activity
• Task Cards

The task cards are also included in this bundle pack. You can also purchase these separately from HERE.

For additional practice, I have also bought this wonderful clock educational toy - Telly The Teaching Time Clock. Check this out on Amazon. Alternatively, you can also get this Big Time Student Clock learning resource.

Happy Teaching!

Shimps

Money

Kids are always fascinated by coins! They acquire a basic understanding of money before being exposed to it in Kindergarten or Grade 1. This is a valuable life skill and contribute towards a future financial success.

Kids enjoy learning about money and are always motivated. Typically, the topic starts with identifying coins and gradually moves over to counting money.

My money packet focuses on:

1. Learning different types of coins, one at a time.
2. Identifying the Names and Value of Coins (Penny, Nickel, Dime and Quarter).
3. Count and find the value of same type of coins (Skip Count).
4. Sorting of coins based on their value.
5. Count and find the value of diverse set of coins. 

You can buy this Money Packet from HERE.

As a prerequisite, the money topic requires a good knowledge of number sense.

Money Song and Rhyme

This is one of my favorite rhyme to go with Money unit.

Penny, penny, easily spent –

Copper brown and worth one cent.

Nickel, Nickel, thick and fat.

It’s worth 5 cents – I know that.

Dime, dime, little and thin.

I remember – you’re worth 10.

Quarter, quarter, big and bold.

It’s worth 25 – I am told!

Money Posters - FREE

Here are some visuals to brighten up your math wall. These 4 money posters show a Penny, Nickel, Dime, and Quarter. Download these for FREE from HERE!

Free Coin Posters - U.S. Coins

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.