I’ve been making arguments for some time about the power of a play-based approach to teaching and earning mathematics in elementary school. There are a lot of signs pointing to the value of this approach. The power of play and its [...]
Today’s blog post comes from Hannah Whitaker. Hannah taught elementary math across a broad range of pedagogies in New York City and in Denver and served as a mentor and model teacher for innovation schools in Denver. She currently [...]
If you know the Choral Counting Opener, this simple web-app makes it easy to get an advanced look at what patterns might emerge. You can try starting at different numbers, counting by positive or negative integers, decimals, or fractions. [...]
I invented a small game off the cuff last night. I needed a super quick game to play with my 6.5-year-old before bedtime, so I went with “whoever picks the lowest number wins.” I refined it today. I’m sure versions of [...]
We’ve been involved in a wonderful partnership with our local elementary school. This puts us, occasionally, in the classroom of our own first grader (quite the treat!) as well [...]
We concocted these experimental rules some years back, in an effort to give people a way to play Prime Climb with younger players. The goal was to give kids a way to get started when they could add but not yet multiply. Recently, [...]
My son (6 yo) was eating his breakfast before school today, and started asking me questions about math. It started by asking about groups of 1 – is 4 groups of one 4? Is 8 groups of one 8? I was trying to get everything done to get [...]
I’ve been helping Early Family Math update their website, and keep happening on materials that I’ve co-created with them, but haven’t thought about in a [...]
As part of a joint effort with earlyfamilymath.org to create a fun activity for high school kids to teach to pre-K through 2nd graders at math nights (more on that later), [...]
For teachers in and around Seattle, we’re happy to announce that some motivated teachers and coaches will be leading a new round of Math Teacher Circles this May & June, 2025, using our materials from the last [...]
When math works itself into political debates at the national level, it generally takes the form of a cudgel. To whit, the president wields a large number as the reason he needs to take away a fundamental right: the right to a [...]
If you’re a K – 8 teacher for Seattle Public Schools or you teach in the Seattle area, one of our favorite PD opportunities – Math Teacher Circles – will be starting up in January of 2025. Sign up on the form below [...]
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