Classroom subject areas
Celebrate the Day of the Dead in your classroom this year. The celebration, popular in Mexico and in some parts of the U.S., falls on October 31 and November 1st and 2nd, and is related to our Halloween. The focus of the holiday is the celebration of the lives… Continue reading
Many of us get hazy when numbers get big. I once heard the number 300 terabytes tossed out, and had a hard time envisioning it. An engineer calculated it down to a comprehensible level for me: you’d need 300 terabytes of data space for 15,360 power users, about 62,000… Continue reading
The stock market is an important part of American economic life, and affords lots of teachable moments. It’s a terrific long-term study, which makes it good for the beginning of the school year, and for encouraging responsibility and consistent work habits. It can also be exciting, as you watch “your”… Continue reading
We love Google Earth for math lessons! Shapes For young children studying basic shapes, it is very fun to go to Google earth, put in an address, fly way down close, and look for shapes. Now click on the Polygon tool in the top tool bar and outline the shapes… Continue reading
Problem-solving in math can focus on real life math problems, but it can be fun to focus on unreal life math problems, too. Continue reading
Get your class excited about math and aware of the season by using Halloween candy for math manipulatives. Here are some ideas: You can use them for counting. Have students simply count them, or set them into groups using easily recognizable patterns like the dots on dice to help… Continue reading
Math is an essential 21st century skill, but we’ll have to make changes in how we teach it, and maybe even in how we think about it. Continue reading
Petunia, by Roger Duvoisin, was published in 1950, but it’s still in print and children still love it. Petunia is a goose who picks up a book. “He who owns books and loves them,” Petunia has recently overheard, “is wise.” Petunia takes this literally, deciding that ownership of the… Continue reading
The Little Red Hen is a familiar story, and one that all kids ought to know. In the story, the Little Red Hen plants wheat, harvests it, and bakes bread to feed her family. At every stage, she asks for help, saying “Who will help me plant the wheat?” and so on.… Continue reading
