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Elementary Math Materials for Math Success

 

Math can be overwhelming to some students, who may see it as boring, hard, and useless. But it doesn’t have to be that way. A single elementary math teacher who is enthusiastic about math and teaches for understanding can make all the difference in the attitudes and performance of the students. Enthusiasm is contagious. And when students have a deep understanding of foundational math concepts, they will be able to apply the math to future academic and real-life situations.

In your classroom you have the opportunity to help your students understand math and love math class. And we at BJU Press want to partner with you in that endeavor. You supply the motivation. Our elementary math program can supply the tools you need to help your students develop that deep understanding of math concepts.

Each grade level of our elementary math program contains both student and teacher materials that will help you assess your students’ progress and guide them to future learning. Here’s how each of these pieces can help you meet your instructional goals.

Teacher Edition

The teacher edition is your most valuable tool as you plan your school year and your individual lessons. In the front of the book, you will find the Lesson Plan Overview that outlines the scope of the entire school year and will be helpful for long-term planning. An editable version is available on Teacher Tools Online.

At the beginning of each chapter, a chapter overview previews the skills taught within the chapter, provides a list of needed materials for the chapter, and gives you teaching strategies to help students. Narrative stories at the beginning of each chapter help engage young students especially. Characters such as Farmer and Mrs. Brown, Matt and Paddy, Captain Bailey, and others, will help students build a framework for understanding math and applying math in real-life situations. Biblical worldview themes are presented throughout the teacher edition of each grade level in order to help teachers teach mathematical principles from a biblical worldview.

Each lesson is mapped out for you but leaves you plenty of room for customization based on the needs of your students. The beginning of each lesson will state the lesson’s objectives and provide you with a list of materials that you will need for the day. Then it will suggest activities to review previously taught concepts. When you are ready to introduce the new content for the day, the teacher edition will provide strategies, examples, activities, and illustrations for you to use to ensure your students’ understanding. It also contains reduced student worktext pages with answers so you can see exactly what your students are seeing on their pages.

Student Worktext

The student worktext provides your students with the opportunity to practice and reinforce what you have taught them. Each lesson has a corresponding colorful worktext page (one page printed front and back). You will want to use the front side of the worktext page for guided practice during the lesson and have students complete the back side of the worktext page independently. The back side of the worktext page also includes a review section to keep previously-taught material fresh in your students’ minds.

Throughout the worktext, your students will also have opportunities to apply math to authentic learning situations and to think about the role of math from a biblical worldview. Students will learn how math helps us understand the design of God’s world and can be used as a tool to help people work efficiently and minister to others. At the same time, they will learn that math has limits and cannot solve some of life’s biggest problems.

The student worktext also helps you communicate with parents. The beginning of each chapter includes a page explaining what is going to be taught in the chapter, which can give parents some ideas for reinforcing that learning at home with authentic learning opportunities.  

Student Manipulative Packet

The student manipulative packet is an essential part of our lower elementary math program because it helps make math concepts concrete. As young students learn new math concepts, they are encouraged to use manipulatives to build understanding before they interact with the concept in an abstract way. The packet contains sturdy manipulatives to help you teach place value, coin value, geometry, fractions, and much more. Each of your students should have his or her own set of manipulatives to fully engage in the learning.

Teacher’s Visual Packet

The teacher’s visual packet will help you teach for understanding by allowing you to visually illustrate math concepts to your students. In the packet, you will find large, classroom-sized manipulatives so you can model problem-solving methods. You will also find classroom charts to enhance your lessons. You can display these charts in your classroom to remind your students of problem-solving steps and more.

Reviews

The math reviews worktext will help students cement math concepts and move towards automaticity by providing them with extra practice that they can complete at home. Like the student worktext, the math reviews book contains one page (printed front and back) per lesson. The front page provides additional practice for the content taught in the lesson, and the back page reviews previously taught material.

Tests and Test Answer Keys

Our printed chapter tests provide you with a tool to assess your students’ understanding of the material you covered in the chapter. They will give you the information you need to make informed decisions about your students’ readiness for new material and will help you create an individualized learning plan for students.

Digital Resources

Teacher Tools Online

Your subscription to Teacher Tools Online gives you a storehouse of digital resources at your fingertips—resources that you can use to efficiently plan lessons, enhance your teaching, and assess your students’ understanding. Within Teacher Tools Online, you will find digital teacher editions, videos, PowerPoint presentations, digital artwork files, and more. Be sure to check out the TTO Tips for Teachers articles to learn how to make good use of this great resource.

Afterschoolhelp.com

We created AfterSchoolHelp.com to provide opportunities for reinforcement. If you teach 4th, 5th, or 6th grade students, you can send them to After School Help to find tutoring videos explaining different math concepts. You will want to encourage students of all ages to regularly use the math fact drills on the site so they can gain math fact automaticity.

We are thrilled to partner with you as you teach the next generation math from a biblical worldview. If you are interested in learning more about the BJU Press math program, you can sign up for one of the following free online professional development courses (and earn credit towards your CEUs):

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Category: General, Technology
Tags: resources, math