Are your students bored during your math lesson? Are you tired of teaching from a dull, dry curriculum?
Today I am going to share some easy ways to make your math lessons more engaging!
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Read Alouds
You might be thinking, but Cassie, I teach math, not ELA! Friend, read alouds are just as effective when you are teaching math!
In this blog post, I shared many reasons why you should use children’s literature during your math lesson. (Plus, you don’t have to start from square one! I share lists of book titles for math for Grades 1-5!)
Manipulatives
Use manipulatives when you are teaching math! Not just at your small group table! Use them during your whole group lesson.
My favorite manipulatives for my whole group lessons are magnetic manipulatives. You can find so many of these on Amazon! (Magnetic place value blocks, magnetic money, etc…)
Here are some of my FAVORITE math manipulatives across elementary grade levels:
- Dominos
- Red/Yellow Counters
- Bears
- Unifix Cubes
- Pattern Blocks
- Magnetic Fraction Bars and Circles
- Dice in Dice
- Foam Dice
- Place Value Disks
- Magnetic Elapsed Time Set
Digital Math Lessons
Your students will love interactive math lessons. Use them during your whole group lesson as you introduce or practice a skill and they’re sure to capture your students’ attention!
In the lesson below, you can move the astronauts to the rockets to solve the two-step word problem.
We have digital math lessons (in Google Slides) for grades 1-5! Grab your grade level here.
Get Up & Moving
Make movements to correspond to the concept you are teaching. Teaching addition? Bring your hands together while you speak a math equation. Bring your hands apart when you are teaching subtraction!
Here’s one for teaching columns and rows: Students stand straight like a statue when you say columns. When you say rows, they lay down on the ground like a row. Call out columns! rows! and keep practicing while students are moving!
Use Music
There are MILLIONS of songs on YouTube that you can use to teach math lessons! Do a quick search for whatever math concept you are teaching and you’re sure to find so many catchy tunes!
When I taught second grade, I used this song to help my students memorize doubles facts. We would listen to it during transition times, like lining up for lunch or specials, or when cleaning up from guided math. Music helped ALL of my students memorize these facts with ease.
How do you keep your students engaged in your math lessons?
Looking for more support? Check out this blog post where I teach the changes I made to Guided Math to make it run better in my classroom! I’ll share my secrets with you so you can have success with math small groups too! ?
