Here is a great program to increase math fact retention. Complete with daily worksheets and audio tracks! Continue Reading →
How to Improve Mental Math Skills
Category Archives: Arithmetic
Is Zero Positive or Negative?
Is zero positive? Is it negative? Often confused and misunderstood, here is Zero, explained. Continue Reading →
Multiplication Tricks Roundup
Multiplication tricks are useful when learning the math facts. Here is a list of various sites with lots of tips, tricks and poems to help! Continue Reading →
Two Reasons to Memorize Math Facts
Some people believe that math facts shouldn’t be memorized. Here are two reasons they should. Continue Reading →
How to Teach Division in the Sandbox
Seeing division helps a great deal with understanding division. Especially when it comes to remainders. This video offers a tangible way to do this. Continue Reading →
Using Toys as Curriculum Tools to Teach Arithmetic
Cups that are “built to scale” stop being just toys and start being the ideal curriculum tool to teach math and arithmetic! Continue Reading →
LCM and GCF – And Something Really Cool
In a previous post, we learned that you don’t have to use a LCM (least common multiple) to find a common denominator to add fractions. In another post, we learned that you can use primes instead of the GCF (greatest common factor) to reduce fractions. And now I’m going to demonstrate that finding the LCM… Continue Reading →
Adding Fractions: Why Avoiding Common Denominators Works
I wrote this post showing that adding fractions can be done using the algebraic definition of addition of rationals: MathHeadInc (via twitter) has requested a video showing why this works. I aim to please. Here is the video showing why adding fractions using a common denominator is the same as the definition of addition of… Continue Reading →
Teaching Math without Rules: Addition of Positive and Negative Numbers
I’ve discovered many ways of teaching math through the years and the most interesting one was the addition of numbers with opposite signs. I learned this from a teacher who said that he never understood the rules – so he made up his own method. He “breaks” the bigger number into two pieces so it… Continue Reading →
Quick Addition Tip – Adding 5 to Larger Digits
For some reason I have trouble adding 5 to the larger digits (like 7, 8 and 9). I noticed at some point that the last digit of that addition is the same as if you subtracted 5 from that number. Like this: 7 + 5 = 12 7 – 5 = 2 and 8 +… Continue Reading →