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The writer says, “I bought this book when I realized that my 2nd grader was struggling with math. She just wasn’t grasping the basics, it would take her 15-20 minutes to work through 20 simple (ex. 8+4) problems. We have been working through this book for about a month now, and she is so much more confident! She is now able to add and subtract numbers to the hundreds place quickly, and we are finally able to move on to adding and subtracting with regrouping. I highly recommend this product, it has worked wonders for us!“

She or he points out exactly what is supposed to happen once children learn basic math facts: #1, confidence, and then #2, the ability to move on to more advanced math!

As always, I am happy to hear when children are successful in math, because that usually means children they are enjoying math, and are happier children too!

If you are interested in the book, check an earlier post for a special discount!
See and try out sample pages at www.TwoPlusTwoIsNotFive.com

Ask children to write as many words as they can from a particular word.

When I was teaching in a classroom, this was a monthly contest.
For the month of February, I used: Valentine

Some sample answers: I, it, it, tin, ten, lit, nine, live, ate

If you give them the same word with the letter s at the end:  Valentines, there will be a lot more possible answers: tin, tins, nine, nines, live, lives, its, slave, slit,

More spin-off activities from just this one:

1. Alphabetize the three-letter words

2a. List the nouns. (adjectives, verbs)

2b. Separate this list into persons, places, things.

3. Write four sentences using three of the words in each sentence.

4. List all the words which begin with a consonant blend or have the same vowel sounds.

Lots of fun ideas came back; I suppose it’s like riding a bicycle.

Now, keep in mind, this little one has about every princess and little-girl related toy, doll, and book out there. I’ve filled in with educational books, building toys, and classics. (Toys that don’t ring bells, talk to you, or play annoying music every time you touch them.)

Telling stories:
Best part: The TV IS OFF.

This is something you can do without a book. Try it In a car; on a walk; while your child is getting dressed or in the bathtub; or waiting for an appointment or food in a restaurant; when cuddling or sitting together anywhere; or to distract from cranky behavior.

You can tell stories for 45 seconds or 10 minutes. No rules!

Telling stories with your child is so much fun, and it’s like sneaking in the vegetables. It’s also educational!

Think about the imagination skills being developed; Ability to answer inferential questions; reading comprehension; auditory memory; visualization; sequential skills and what happens next?

The blank lines or underlined words represent where you let the child fill in. Those blank lines can be anywhere in the story, and there are no wrong answers. Only fun stories! For example:

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named _______ who lived in ______ (Atlanta, on a farm)

One day, she went for a walk (Plane ride, boat ride) with her ____________ (Can be friends, you, her parents, grandma’s dog, the fireman, Cinderella, Robin Hood).

When they got to the park, (or the grocery store, the zoo, Justin’s house, the farm, or around the corner) they saw a  little  ______________ (For whatever reason, my grandchild liked to pick a big bad wolf, and then the story led to me taking an airplane from Colorado, and making it go away with my magic wand.)

She liked the stories when I said, we walked around the corner and everything was the color RED. Our teeth were red, our faces were red, the dog was red, the grass was red……  The colors changed as we turned corners or arrived at places, and I could see her thinking about and visualizing the changes.

Big sisters, little brothers, daddies, grandpas, and playmates can join in too!

Try it. It’s fun; doesn’t cost a penny, and you don’t have to be a professional story-teller!

The idea behind my talk was for teachers and parents to think about different ways to differentiate or individualize for children. 

1. A “Bag of Tricks” is something we all have! It is “filled” with any idea which may help children learn. These ideas can be teaching methods and ideas you already use or know about, or something new that you will add to your “Bag of Tricks” collection. It may mean doing something different than you have done in the past, and it might mean researching to find a new way to teach a concept. It could be merely using on-the-spot creativity or ideas collected from educational magazines, university classes, in-services, workshops, talking with other teachers or reading their blogs or tweets. I kept my collection of ideas in a file box sorted by topic. (It’s like when in the middle of cooking, you realize you are out of an ingredient. You either modify the recipe, borrow from a neighbor, run to the store, or quickly change to another recipe!)
2. I suggested using worksheet templates to create parallel assignments. Different numbers can be written in based on the different abilities or levels of the students.
3. I talked about the importance of record-keeping, and informal assessments to see what the children already know, and to design assignments using the students’ knowledge, and strengths to teach new concepts. If a student knows the Magic 9 addition facts, such as 9+5, use those facts in the new concepts you are teaching. Some very simple examples: 

• Money – $9 + $5. 
• Estimation – Estimate 89 + 52. (90 + 50)
• Word math: There are 9 red chairs and 5 blue chairs. How many chairs in all?
• Addition regrouping: 190 + 150.

• Is it because prerequisite skills weren’t mastered?
• Is it because math facts aren’t memorized, and children are counting incorrectly to get answers? 
• Is it because when working on math problems, columns are not set up correctly, and careless errors are made?
• Is the student proficient with math facts, but does not understand how to regroup? Is the student placing the new ten or hundred in the wrong spot, and therefore adding incorrectly? Does the student understand WHY numbers are regrouped?

Word math and following directions could be affected by reading ability or limited English. 

• Think of a student who struggles to sound out most of the words, but by the time he or she has finished reading the word math question, the meaning of what was just read was lost! 
• Children with non-verbal learning disabilities can read, but might be having trouble comprehending what they read. They will need strategies to help them visualize the problem.
• What about children who can read and do the math, but do not follow directions?
• There are children who can read, and do the math, but may not understand some of the vocabulary.

So, when you are giving math assignments, ask yourself, what are you measuring in the assignment? Ability to read, ability to know how to solve a word math problem, ability to be able to do certain computational skills, or ability to know what certain words mean in math such as mean, mode, median?