Our focus in elementary classrooms since the project began in 1998 has been on students’ learning and reasoning. We have worked with students in Kindergarten through eighth grade in the greater Boston area.
The current materials on this website are designed for Kindergarten through eighth grade. The Kindergarten, first, second, third, and fourth grade lessons are designed to be presented twice a week. K-2 lessons are approximately 30 minutes long, and Grade 3-4 lessons are approximately 45 minutes long. The fifth grade lessons are designed to be presented weekly, for approximately 90 minutes. However, you should use the materials however they fit best into your classroom routine. If you have not introduced algebra into your mathematics lessons in the past, you may find the lower grade lessons adequate for much older students.
The middle school lessons have been implemented as part of a summer camp experience. Each activity specifies the approximate amount of time that it will require to implement. Some of these lessons may be adequate for students beyond middle school.
Please consider these materials “ideas for classroom discussions” rather than off-the-shelf, ready to go materials. Most are in Word format so that you can edit them to fit your classroom needs.
Classes are extremely interactive; opening with a simple problem or demonstration and initial discussion, followed by group work and then a comparison of the diverse strategies used in solving the problems. A large part of the time is dedicated to having students’ explain their thinking and their representations.