Common Core Math Websites

I thought I would share some of my favorite Common Core Math websites and how I use them.  I teach math grades 4-6 in one room at the same time, so access to easy differentiated practice is awesome.  My students work on lessons through our curriculum, but I supplement with a lot of websites and paper practice.

IXL

IXL is amazing for practice from pre-K to Algebra.  The students can click on the exact links they need.  It works really well because it tells students what they did wrong, and they can find exactly what they need. I also can send specific links to students via edmodo. The only downside is that I cannot assign links to kids. They just added grammar for grades 2-4 as well.  They are supposed to be adding the grammar for grade 5 in January.

Sumdog

Sumdog is a great website that is common core aligned with math practice up to grades 6.  They can play games, so it makes spiral review fun.  Sometimes my students act like they don't like Sumdog as much anymore, but it seems like it would be more fun as a game.  They have grammar practice as well.

Prodigy

Jen Runde mentioned this website on Facebook last night.  I checked it out.  I couldn't figure it out after like 5 minutes, so I gave up but it seems like it could be a more involved game instead of just small games.

Scootpad

I love Scootpad because for the $5 a month subscription you can assign specific skills to specific students.  I am going to use Scootpad as more of an assessment and IXL as more practice.  I love that Scootpad is one of the few with reading practice by standard as well!

Xtramath

Xtramath is great for math fact practice, and it is free.

BuzzMath

Buzzmath is a website for Common Core practice for grades 6-8.  They have missions and little tutorials.  My grade 6 math class likes this website. It is all led by a little mad scientist.

What are your favorite common core math websites?

Why Math Facts Matter

This past year was one my most challenging years as a teacher thus far; it was also one of the strongest growth opportunities I have had as an educator.  I taught a self-contained class for the first time.  I have previously always had several classes of students and focused on 1 or 2 subjects. This year my class was made up of students in grades 4 and 5, who spanned a variety of age levels and ability levels.

At the beginning of the year, Math was my biggest challenge. Our school uses a lot of technology, so that students have opportunities to work at different paces and levels. In Math, I had Gifted students who were extremely advanced and other students who were not ready for 4th grade Math because they still struggled with 2nd and 3rd grade concepts. We spent a lot (and I mean a lot) of time working on building fluency at basic, foundational Math concepts.  From working with many students even in Middle School Math, I have found that for most students who struggle with Math it comes down to not being able to fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide.  Often when students struggle with fractions or Algebra, it comes down to these concepts.

During the last week of the school year, I was contacted by a publisher to review an ebook.  Compass Publishing asked me to review Laura Candler's book Mastering Math Facts.

I was thrilled with the opportunity.  On a side note, I love Laura Candler!  I discovered her website when I first found out I had to teach using Reading and Writing Workshop at another school.  Her website became my foundation for teaching in a workshop model.  I discovered the world of education blogs through her email Newsletter.  Without Laura Candler, I probably never would have started a teaching blog.

Anyway, this next year we are also adding a Grades 2/3 class.  I was excited to review Laura's book for ideas to help build math fact fluency in my 4th and 5th graders, but primarily for ideas on how to implement it in our 2nd and 3rd grade class. I do believe it is important for students to memorize their facts because it needs to be part of their subconscious.  However, it is vital they also grasp the conceptual ideas behind all four operations and how they work together. Laura does a great job with the lessons and activities in the book of helping students gain a conceptual understanding of math facts. She has a lot of hands-on activities, which is great for all students but especially for your kinesthetic learners.  I look forward to sharing more ways I implement her ideas in my own classroom when school starts.

I first printed the book out and put it all in a binder.

 

She has a great section at the front of the book that matches the activities to the specific Common Core Standard they correlate to.



I look forward to trying some of her hands on activities that help students make connections between operations like this egg carton activity.  I like that she gives you detailed instructions for the lessons.  I have taught Language Arts more than Math, so I do not have a huge mental list yet of hands-on lesson ideas for Math.  I think the hands-on activities will be great for the kids who are still struggling with their math facts.  For my Gifted kids who mastered their facts long before they came to me will probably still want to do the activities just because they are fun and more interactive.



She also has some great handouts that really help you visualize the operations.



You can get Laura's book Mastering Math Facts as an ebook at her TpT store or in print at her website. You also can get a copy at her publisher's website. Laura also is having a webinar for her book on Tuesday, July 16 at 8:00pm EST. You can read about the webinar at Corkboard Connections.  I would attend, but I will be at the Vegas blogger meet-up.  I do intend to watch the archive though.  If you have not attended one of Laura's webinars, you should.  They are always worth the time.

How do you help your students master their math facts?

Sumdog Math and...English!

I am joining up with Technology Tailgate's Techie Tuesday.

Have you ever used Sumdog?  It is amazing.  My students love it.  It allows them to do a spiral review of their Common Core Math skills in a fun, interactive way.  They get to play games against each other,  students across the world, and the computer.  I like it because we are doing spiral review, but I do not have to copy worksheets just for review (or grade it).  You can sign up and use Sumdog for free.  If you get a more premium membership, you get access to more reports and stuff.

Now, they have created Sumdog English.  We tried it out today.  They were very excited to practice their Language Arts skills as well.  If you sign up by the end of February, the cost is 75% off!  You can read more about Sumdog English here. Sumdog is one of the best resources for reinforcing the Common Core skills I have seen that is highly engaging.

Source: blog.sumdog.com via April on Pinterest

Sumdog Math Games and Read Write Think Online Interactive Graphic Organizers

The new technology resources we tried today:

Sumdog

I had seen lots of bloggers recommending Sumdog. I wanted to try it out.  I created an account awhile ago, but had not implemented it in my classroom yet.  My students love it!  They are begging to play at lunch and at recess.

With so many levels of Math, I like that I can differentiate this for my students.  After you add your students, class, and add a challenge.  Within the challenge, you can edit the skills by student.  I have some students working on 4th grade skills, some on 5th grade, and some on 6th grade.  They loved being able to earn coins, change their avatar, and play against each other.  They all want to be the top of the leader board.

Essay Organizer

I love Read Write Think.  Here is a link to all of their interactive graphic organizers.  There are 59 of them.  We tried two of them today.  Since we have computers, I am trying to find resources that they can use that help us achieve things we need to accomplish.  We are writing informative essays about the Olympic biographies we read.  We had tried organizing our 5 paragraph essays on paper with a graphic organizer I made. Some of my students understood it and some were not making much progress. I decided to try Read Write Think's Essay organizer.

Oh my gosh.  It made a world of difference for some.  The depth of clicking through the process seemed to help them a lot with the thought process.  Interactive made a huge difference for some of them. After they make the organizer, they can save it and even email it directly to the teacher.  So after they emailed it to me, I printed it out for them.

Story Cube

We read the first story from the 7 Habits for Happy Kids about being proactive.  Sammy the Squirrel has to learn how he can be proactive to take care of his own boredom.  We made the Story Cube for Sammy the Squirrel reviewing the character, setting, problem, resolution, theme, and favorite part of the story.

I made them answer in complete sentences.  They saved the story cubes and emailed them to me from the website.  I printed them out, and they made the cubes. One activity worked on story plot skills, understanding theme, web skills, writing in complete sentences, and the motor skills to actually cut, glue, and make the cube.

Overall, we had a great day!  How do you use Read Write Think?  Any other interactive graphic organizers you love?  Do you have any great suggestions for building online quizzes for short answer questions besides Google Docs?

Reviews of Common Core Math TpT Resources from Grades 2 through 6

The last two days have been the first good Monday and Tuesday we have had.  Usually, the week gets better by Wednesday.  It is amazing what a difference routine and the teacher feeling organized can make on how the day flows.  The first year at a new school is always a little rough in the beginning, but we are getting it figured out a day at a time and a week at a time.

Just a quick post today to share some Math resources I have found.  I am huge fan of Teachers Pay Teachers, and I have spent a ton of money already supporting teachers like myself and finding fabulous resources for my students.  I teach grades 4 and 5, but I have one student doing 6th grade Math and several others who were struggling with 4th grade Math.  So, essentially I have purchased Common Core Math Resources from grades 2 to Middle School. I am reviewing them for you below, and please don't add the dollar value of all this up.  I would rather not know what I have spent just on Math this year.

Some of my absolute favorite resources for Common Core from TpT are as follows:

Grades 2-3:

Jamie Rector's Quick Math Assessments for Grades 2-3: 
Honestly, these are one of my favorite Math resources I have purchased on TpT.  They are really well done.  She has put together lots of practice pages for the standards, and they are done in a visually appealing way.  They can be used as independent practice, a teaching tool, homework, or as an assessment.  There are lots of other great products for Common Core, but they are used mainly as assessments and not as versatile as this product.  I wish she would make grades 4 and 5, or I might have to make something similar for grades 4 and 5 myself because I love these!

Kimberly Santana's Grade 2 Common Core Assessment Pack: 
These also are great practice and put together very well and can be used multiple ways. I love the way she labeled the standards on each page, so you know what they tie to.

Katie Jones' 3rd Grade Math Assessments:
I like that these are concise.  I actually want to use these as reviews or warmups for my 4th graders.

Grade 4-5:

Ashleigh's Grade 4 Math Assessments:
These also are concise assessments that really are well thought out.  They are versatile and could be used the same way as teaching tools, independent practice, warm-ups, homework, or assessments.

Ginger's Common Core Math Vocabulary Cards for Grades 4 & 5:
These are super cute and fabulous resource!  I looked at a lot of the math vocabulary packs, and this is the only one wanted to spend the money on.  They are visually appealing and really well done.

Runde's Interactive Math Journal:
I haven't used this as much as I would like yet, but it is amazing!  There is a reason it has been the number one seller.  Absolutely, this is one of the best investments you could make.

Miss Nannini's Math Assessments for Grades 4 & 5:
These are very well done.  They are definitely more formal assessments and really make the students demonstate a thorough understanding of the standards.

Jennifer Findley's Grade 5 Math Assessments:
I like that these are still actual assessments, but a little shorter (about 6 questions).  These would make great little check-in quizzes.

Middle School Math:

I bought Lindsey Perro's Middle School Workstations and Beyond the Worksheet: Middle School Math Activities.  Her stuff for middle school math is inspiring.  It is so well executed and presented in a fun way.  It makes math practice a lot more fun and interesting. 

Tomorrow I am going to share some non-TpT Math Resources I have found. If you have specific questions about any of the products above, I can try and answer. I hope your math workshop is more sorted out than mine.  I am working on a week at a time.

 Don't forget to check out all my giveaways going on.  They are finishing up this week.  Enter for Starbucks and Cheesecake, an Erin Condren giftcard, prizes from 10 bloggers, and prizes from 12 bloggers.

Math binder covers for common core math resources - freebie

Congratulations to Jodi for winning 3 items from my TpT store.  I will be emailing you in the morning.

I am going to keep this quick tonight.  I already should have gone to bed.  I am teaching multiple levels of math this year, and in the past I have primarily tought ELA and Social Studies.  I definitely needed more math resources.  So I started purchasing lots of stuff on TpT.  Some pictures below show some of what I purchased. Basically, I found lots of common core related assessments and activities for grades 4 and 5 and middle school math.

I printed it all out, stopped and bought more ink, and printed some more.  (So I went to Walmart for the teacher basics - you know: water, Toilet paper, computer paper, and ink).  Then I had to organize it all in binders.  I started with the 4th grade assessments and put them in all in sheet protectors.  I prefer to organize this way.  However, it was taking too long. 

So for the fifth grade stuff I put the title pages of the sections in sheet protectors and hole punched the activities and assessments to put behind each title page.

 
I decided as I continue to gather more math resources, I want to organize them in binders by grade level with sections for each of the standard domains.  Then, I can put the various activities and assessments from lots of resources in each domain's section.  I made some binder covers/dividers and spine labels to organize my own stuff.  I thought I would share them with you.  Click here to download.

I would love some feedback if you end up using them.  How is your mission organization going?  I have been putting new materials in binders, but I still need to organize all my old stuff from the file crates to binders.