MATH STRATEGIES

FOR GRADES 3-5

IDEAS 2015
June 3, 2015

By Dr. Jenny Williams and

Dr. Nora Swenson
INTRODUCTIONS
Dr. Jenny Williams, Ed. D. SLP
Jenny Williams Educational Consulting
Adjunct Professor -
Coastal College of Georgia

Dr. Nora Swenson, Ed. D., CCC-SLP

Swenson Educational Consulting
MC SC

BC MC
Wt = 15 lbs Wt = 8 lbs

SC
SC
MC

BC Wt = ?
Wt = 11 lbs BC
Visual Strategies
• Multiple representations for Concepts
• Mental math
• Building mathematical language
• Early emphasis on building students’
understanding of “ten”
• Number bonds, ten frames, place value
charts
• Concrete to Pictorial to Abstract (CPA)
• Model Drawing
 Where are strategies used?

 In Co-taught classes
 Specialized Instruction used to focus and teach
concepts to students who are lacking skills
(IEPed and students who missed concept)
 Format- Station, parallel or alternative groups
 Accommodations or Universal Design for Learning -
for all members in class
 Give multiple representations for concept to enhance
learning for all
 Format-Whole group, station or alternative
Number Sense and Place Value Development

• Develop Cardinality (The final number

stated while counting a group is the total
number of the set.)
• Conservation of number (One-to-One
Correspondence)
• Subitization (Instantly recognizing units
of a number – usually 1-6)
Exemplars
Why Use Manipulatives?
• Makes abstract ideas concrete

• Gives students a way to get their hands on ideas

• Builds mathematical confidence

• Useful tools for problem -solving

• Makes learning math interesting and more

enjoyable
Turn to your partner:

• Identify three spacial words

• Briefly describe the previous mat
using those spacial words
• Identify three numeral words
and have the other partner
describe the mat with those
words
Use Literature for Context
• Read a story with numerical concepts
• Use blocks to count
• Divide blocks into “tens’ towers with students
counting up to 10 to help break into towers
• Students count “10s “ towers
• Count extra by 1’s

• Use literature as context for presenting object—

• Match blocks to numbers presented
• Put blocks into long string
• Break string into 10s towers
• Count by 10s and extras by 1s
Review Articles
• As a group we will define:
• Number Sense
• Subitizing
Sense of Number
(Exemplars)
• Basic Counting
• Understanding Size
• Number Relationships
• Patterns
• Operations
• Place Value
Subitizing
• See article on Subitizing
• Read and discuss with your table.
• What are some new ideas you gained from this article?
Subitizing
• Math Dictionary
• Subitizing is instantly recognizing a number when a
group is presented
 SUBITIZING
This exercise lets you know if the student
has a concept of numbers and what they
represent.
If they have to “peek” to see
how many fingers they are holding up,
they don’t understand numeracy.
What strategies can you use to help
them grasp this concept?
 Hands for Counting--
• If ten frames are difficult- relate back to Hands for
counting
Ten Frames
• Establish recognition of
numbers of objects –
• Counting, grouping objects
and leading to identifying
groups without counting
• Focus on multiples of 10
• Leads to number bonds or
groups of numbers that equal
10- and
• Do your students have
these?
• Where do you need to start?
Ten Frames - Game
• Do your students need practice at this
level?
• Do they all have this concept or do you
need to go back to the
Ten Frames originated with – “Hands”
Number Bracelets is
another subitizing format

• This is another way to orient students to

grouping numbers with “rekenrek” or
“arithmetic rack”

• Number lines made of beads are color

coded to help students group numbers
and increase “mental math” skills
Number Bracelets with Rekenrek Pattern
NUMBER BRACELETS
You will need the following:
10 chenille stems (pipe cleaners), all one color
55 beads, 40 red and 15 white
Choose one color of pipe cleaner and add red
beads for first 5 beads on each bracelet
Numbers 6-10 will be white
Make a number bracelet for each number 1-10
Number Bracelets
Add beads to pipe cleaners, in increasing
numbers.
• Beads 1-5 will all be red.
• Bracelets 6-10 will have the first five beads red
and the remainder are white.
• After adding beads, bend pipe cleaners into
circles and twist ends together to make circle
large enough to go over your hand for a bracelet.
Number Bracelets Activity

• Each student will have 10 bracelets, one for each

number to use like an abacus counting frame.
• Sequence bracelets on arm from smallest number
to greatest numbers of beads.
• Have one students “draw” bracelets from a bag to
see who can call out the correct number of beads
first.
• http://www.thinkingmathematically.com
Rekenrek Rods
• Another way to stress • An Arithmetic Rack
Focus on Base 10
To make a Rekenrek Rod
• One tongue blade
• 6 inch elastic string
• 5 red beads (right)-5 white beads (left)

• Put string through hole at one end of

tongue blade
• Add beads and add other end of string
through hole at opposite end of tongue
blade
Learning to Think Mathematically
With the Rekenrek

A Resource for Teachers

A Tool for Young Children

Jeff Frykholm
From Website:
Let’s try another
subitizing tool
• Make and Take:
• Make DOT CARDS
• You need:
• 5 x 7 cards
• Dot Markers
• Dot patterns
Domino Patterns to 6
Subitizing with dots
• Most adults see a dice and never count –
they know the number by the pattern
• Dot “patterns” help students identify the
number
• Common dot patterns are used with “number
cubes” like domino or dice patterns
• Use these patterns to make sets of cards
Dot Pattern Activity
• Use cards you made as flashcards
• Have group identify numbers when
patterns are flashed
PROBLEM SOLVING
WITH MODEL DRAWING
• The model drawing approach takes students
from the concrete to the pictorial to the abstract
stage.
• Students create bars and break them down into
“units.”
• The units create a bridge to the concept of an
"unknown” quantity that must be found.
• Students can learn to use this strategy in the
primary grades and continue with it through the
middle grades.
• There are two types of model drawings: discrete
and continuous
Discrete Model
• “crete” like concrete blocks
• Used with smaller numbers
• One-to-one correspondence
• Use with fraction problems
• Use with percentage problems
Concrete: Unifix cubes
Jan has 5 yellow cubes. Bill has 4
red cubes. How many cubes
altogether?

}
Jan’s 5
cubes
9
Bill’s 4
cubes
 Concrete to pictorial
Jan has 5 dogs. Bill has 4 dogs.
How many dogs altogether?

}
Jan’s
dogs 5
9
Bill’s 4
dogs
Pictures to Dots

Jan has 5 dogs. Bill has 4 dogs.

How many dogs altogether?

}
Jan’s
dogs • • • • • 5
9
Bill’s
dogs • • • • 4
Numbers on the inside
Jan has 5 dogs. Bill has 4 dogs.
How many dogs altogether?
You may want to use large grid paper at first

Jan’s 5
dogs 1 1 1 1 1
9
Bill’s 4
dogs 1 1 1 1
Numbers on the outside
Jan has 5 dogs. Bill has 4 dogs.
How many dogs altogether?
First Grade

}
Jan’s 5
dogs
9
Bill’s 4
dogs
8 Steps of Model Drawing

1. Read the entire problem.

Jan has 5 yellow cubes. Bill has 4 red
cubes. How many cubes altogether?

2. Decide who is involved in the

problem.
Jan
Bill
 Jan has 5 yellow cubes. Bill has 4 red cubes.
How many cubes altogether?
3. Decide what is involved in
the problem.
Jan’s cubes
Bill’s cubes
 Jan has 5 yellow cubes. Bill has 4
red cubes. How many cubes
altogether?
4. Draw units of equal length.
Jan’s cubes

Bill’s cubes
 STOP
Jan has 5 yellow cubes. Bill has 4
STOP
red cubes. How many cubes
altogether?
5. Reread the problem, one sentence at
a time, saying the word stop at each
comma or period and draw the
information on the unit bars.
Jan’s cubes 5

4
Bill’s cubes
 Jan has 5 yellow cubes. Bill has 4
red cubes. How many cubes
altogether?
6. Determine the question and place the
question mark in the appropriate place in
the drawing.

Jan’s cubes
?
5

4
Bill’s cubes
 Jan has 5 yellow cubes. Bill has 4
red cubes. How many cubes
altogether?
7. Work all the computation to the side or
underneath the drawing.

9
?
Jan’s cubes 5

Bill’s cubes 4

5+4=9
 Jan has 5 yellow cubes. Bill has 4
red cubes. How many cubes
altogether?
8. Answer the question in a complete

9
sentence.
Jan’s cubes 1 1 1 1 1 5

Bill’s cubes 1 1 1 1 4

Jan and Bill have 9 cubes altogether.

Model Drawing Problems
• Jan has 2 more kittens than Sally. Sally has 6
kittens. How many kittens are there in all?
Continuous Model
• Use with larger numbers
• Talk about what part-part-whole means
• Talk about what whole –part-part means
• Adam has 65 matchbox cars. He has 13
more than Peter. How many cars does
Peter have? How many cars are there in
all?
• A necklace costs $15. Meg had $3 left
after buying the necklace. How much
money did Meg have at first?
Together Kim and Chris have 35 cards. Kim has
5 more cards than Chris. How many cards did
Kim have?
One basket holds 10 apples. How many
apples will 6 baskets hold?
Grandma baked 25 cookies. There were
6 children. She gave each child 4
cookies. How many cookies were left?
BRANCHING
Mental math activity
Number bonds come
before branching
Frames of ten come
before branching
Helps with understanding
the abstract of addition
and subtraction.
 Branching with single-digit
addition: “Watch me”
7 + 9 What goes
with 3 to

3 6
make 9?
What goes
with 7 to
make 10?

10 + 6 = 16
 5 + 8
Look at
handout
and change
numbers to
5 +8

5 3

10 +3 = 13
Always keep
the tens on
the outside!
14 + 5

10 + 4 5
10 + 9 = 19
 21 + 18
Always
think of

10
making

20 1 the
number 8
10.

Always keep
the tens on 20 + 10 + 9 = 39
the outside.
Mental Math

• Mental math starts with number bonds in

kindergarten
• Number bonds are a precursor to mental
math
• Number bonds are used after students
have numeral recognition
• Number bonds are used after the
concrete stage
 ESSENTIAL QUESTION
FOR THIS WORKSHOP
What math strategies can be used to
differentiate math lessons and improve
math performance?
Websites
• http://pages.cms.k12.nc.us/michaelwhite/
• http://www.nzmaths.co.nz/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/ind
ex.shtml
• http://www.quickmath.com/
• http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
• Mathwire (mathwire.com)
• J. Meacham (jmeacham.com)
• http://www.thinkingmathematically.com
• Materials: www. Crystalspringsbooks.com
Key Concepts for K-2
• Provided multiple ways to develop
• “Number Sense” and
• Subitizing
with your students