Maintenant disponible en français!
Finally … French translations of my latest books are now available!
Je viens de traduire mes deux ressources de bonnes questions — “A Year of Good Questions for Grades 2-4” et “A Year of Good Questions for grades 5-8” — afin que mes collègues d’immersion aient des ressources françaises avec lesquelles travailler. Merci pour vôtre patience!
In these new French translations of the English originals, you’ll find more than 200 open-ended and engaging problems for french immersion students from primary through middle school. All are posed in French and explore important mathematical concepts across the grades.
The first book: Bonnes Questions: Une année de bonnes tâches mathématiques pour les élèves de 2e à 4e is suitable for late primary students (grades 2-4) and features operational tasks, measurement tasks and pattern tasks of increasing complexity, posed in French.
The second volume: Bonnes Questions: Une année de bonnes tâches mathématiques pour les élèves de 5e à 8e is perfect for middle school immersion students (grades 5-8), with a focus on proportional reasoning, algebraic thinking as well as operations on integers, fractions and decimals to name a few.
Engaging problems and choice make these volumes the perfect conversation starter for our immersion classrooms, promoting oral language development and mathematical thinking …en même temps!
All are available from my online store.
Carole
New For Primary! Good Questions: A Year of Open-Ended Problems for Grades 2-4
For those of you who have been waiting ever so 
patiently, I wanted to let you know that I have completed a primary companion to the Year of Good Questions for Grades 5-8 resource released this summer.
A Year of Good Questions for Grades 2-4 is the late primary version of this stand up calendar of problems — one for every day of the school year!
Like its intermediate counterpart, this compact but potent book comes with an easel so you can set it up on your desk and flip from one rich problem to the next, posing open-ended questions of your primary students.
Good Questions: A Year of Open-Ended Math Problems for Grades 2-4 is a problem-a-day resource that includes rich tasks ideal for grades 2, 3 and 4. Organized by topic and structured in problem sets of 5, this simple to use teacher resource includes 200 mathematically important questions to engage your students in deep thinking. For only $25, it’s a reasonably priced way to stimulate and promote mathematical conversation!
Operations, measurement, proportional thinking and patterns are featured in this calendar of problems. Each one engages students in thinking flexibly, critically and creatively to solve tasks of varying complexity.
Visit my online store at mindfull.ecwid.com to order.
Let the fun begin!
Carole
Place Value in Primary: Developing Number Sense
Wow. I have had the most extraordinary summer. Truly extraordinary. And somehow between engaging in a series of remarkable, life-affirming adventures I have managed to write another teacher resource book… 😊
It’s all about Place Value (as I’m sure you’ve figured out!) and is intended for teachers of kindergarten through grade 2, with special accommodations for those who teach in combined grades settings. There are 230 pages of developmentally framed lessons designed to address the diversity in our primary classrooms. Each one supports students to represent and describe quantity, to compare and order sets, to use referents to estimate and to skip count. Lessons devoted to measurement — an ideal practical application of place value in the world — are also featured. Whole class lessons, centres tasks and games for practice allow students to connect these important concepts in a seamless way, and can be used both as a unit or spread throughout the year to build and consolidate understanding.
Place Value in Primary: Developing Number Sense is available from my online store for $40 plus shipping. I hope you enjoy it!
Carole
(PS… A companion volume for Grades 2 to 4 is in the works – expect it later this fall!)
Math and Literature Resource for Grades K-3
Hello all!
My colleague Sandra Ball and I have completed another resource for primary teachers!
Read A Story: Explore The Math promotes the teaching of important math concepts through the context of great children’s books… The lessons span K-3 and some are even appropriate for grades 3/4 classrooms. Lessons involving number sense and operations, data management, measurement and more are included in this 65 page resource. Scan through the list of titles and corresponding math concepts to sort out which children’s books would be a best fit for you and your students. The complete set of ISBN numbers for each of the stories is included so you can easily share ordering information with your teacher librarian…!
To download, please visit my online store (https://mindfull.ecwid.com) and click on the FREE DOWNLOADS icon.
Enjoy!
Carole
Teaching Addition and Subtraction in Grades 2 & 3
Happy New Year, Everyone!
I am pleased to announce the release of my latest resource, Sums and Differences – Teaching Addition and Subtraction in Grades 2&3. This teacher resource is matched to the WNCP curriculum and addresses the operations of addition and subtraction to 100 for grade 2 and to 100o for grade 3. Designed to be used by teachers of combined grades – or by anyone who has a range of learners in their classrooms – these lesson sequences focus on the big math ideas of adding and subtracting! Each lesson asks students to engage with place value in concrete, pictorial and abstract ways, while practicing and developing fluency with the operations. Word problems, games and written practice are included to ensure students hone their skills and deepen their understanding of addition and subtraction with bigger numbers.
The resource includes all the line masters, game boards, written practice and teaching materials required to support your students in becoming proficient with addition and subtraction in ways that are consistent with the curriculum and which promote number sense.
This 220 page resource is just $40 plus shipping. Click here to order!
PS – The companion resource for grades 1&2 is also available for purchase. Read about it by clicking here.
PPS – My sincere apologies. I have discovered 2 errors in the book. One comes on page 167, in the game called “Three in a Line – Subtracting hundreds, tens and ones”. The wheel at the top of the page and the differences below don’t match. 😦 I’ve attached the replacement game here for you.
Likewise, I’ve had some feedback about the “I have…, Who has…?” game in the early pages of the resource. I’ve re-created it and uploaded the replacement here.
Thanks for your patience and understanding…
Carole
The “What Do They Know” Assessment for Gr 2 & 2/3
Sandra Ball and I have been at it again!
We have just put the finishing touches on another assessment tool for use in fall of the year. It’s a companion to the other “What Do They Know” assessments featured above, but are designed for students in grade 2 and 3.
Focussed on place value, partitioning and skip counting, this tool highlights number sense and the operations. The tool is administered by the classroom teacher and involves the whole class and small groups.
If you’re interested in piloting these materials, please go to my online store (https://mindfull.ecwid.com) and click on the FREE DOWNLOADS icon.
I hope it proves helpful to you in getting to know your learners and what they’re truly capable of!
Carole
Daily Math Investigations for K-2 – An Alternative to Calendar
Sandra Ball and I are pleased to announce the release of our newest collaboration, entitled Daily Math Investigations: Meaningful Math Routines. The resource is intended to present alternatives to a traditional calendar time – ways to keep our students actively engaged in the learning of mathematics in meaningful, hands-on and developmentally appropriate ways.
In the resource, you’ll find a set of thoughtful tasks that promote visual spatial capacity, number sense, operational sense, data and measurement concepts. Each is presented in the form of both entry tasks and rich routines, intended to keep your youngest students thinking and reasoning mathematically. The complete resource, including a selection of classroom-ready line masters, is available to download for free, by visiting my online store at https://mindfull.ecwid.com. Click on the FREE DOWNLOADS icon to access the PDFs.
We sincerely hope that this resource provides you with practical, fun and engaging ideas for use your primary classroom – ways to ensure all students are doing math every day!
Carole and Sandra
Teaching Addition and Subtraction in Grades 1&2
Hello and happy August!
I have been busy writing this summer – putting together a volume devoted to teaching the operations in primary. And so, I am pleased to announce the publication of my latest teacher resource: Sums and Differences: Teaching Addition and Subtraction in Grades 1&2.
This resource includes a series of lesson sequences – open tasks, games, written practice, word problems and assessment support – for teaching the operations in a developmentally appropriate way. Beginning with place value explorations, these lessons increase in complexity while providing support for students across the grades. The lessons make explicit connections between concrete, pictorial and abstract representations of the math to ensure the operations are truly mastered.
The content in the book covers the grade 1 and 2 curricula and presents them in such a way that teachers of combined grades can use the lessons to work with their classes as a whole.
To order a copy online, click here.
All the best!
Carole
Magic Squares – Online
Here’s a fun little game for primary classrooms… The Magic Squares game provides students with a total for each row and column, as well as a few key starting numbers. Use the magic wand to place the correct digits from the set of numbers at the bottom of the screen. Double click to grab and then place the correct numerals in the grid.
Each game sets a different total for the rows and columns, so students can choose a number that makes sense for them before beginning.
The challenge of finding a sum for 3 addends is a good one for late grade 1 (when the digits without images to accompany them make sense) through grades 3.
Have fun!
Carole
Lucky Ducky – A Subtraction Game
I just had to share! Here’s a game drawn from my new Mastering the Facts: Subtraction resource, called Lucky Ducky!
Students play the game “Lucky Ducky” in partners. They’ll need 15 counters (or cubes) each as well as a 10-sided die.
Before they start playing, children decide who will be the odd numbers and who will be the evens…
Each player subtracts from 18 on their turn.
Player A rolls the die and reads the number. She subtracts this number from 18 and puts a counter on the difference.
Player B has their turn, and play continues until all the counters are used up.
The player who is “Odds” collects all the counters that have been placed on odd differences on the board (9, 11, 13, 15, etc). The player who is “Evens” collects all the counters placed on the even differences (10, 12, 14, 16, etc).
The player with the most counters at the end of the game is the winner!
Have fun….
Carole
PS – This game was drawn from my Mastering the Facts – Subtraction resource. To order online, click here.
New Resource! Mastering the Facts – Subtraction
You know, some people holiday over the summer. Me, I seem to write teacher resources. :o)
I am very pleased to announce the release of my newest resource called Mastering the Facts – Subtraction: Lessons for Making Sense of Subtraction for grades 1 to 3. This teacher book includes 17 complete lessons aimed at supporting primary aged students in mastering the subtraction facts to 20. Each strategy-based lesson features:
- a 3-part direct instruction lesson
- a task for guided practice
- games and worksheets for independent practice
- open-ended story problems
- targeted fluency building opportunities
- an assessment task customized to match the facts learned
All the lines masters for games, written practice, flash cards, teacher materials and other instructional support are included in this 185 page resource. Organized by strategy, these lessons are designed to promote mastery of the facts, not just memorization! Teacher tips for using and organizing manipulatives, for supporting students who struggle and for working in a combined grades setting are also included.
Matched to the WNCP and BC math curricula, this book is designed for classroom teachers of grades 1 to 3 and primary resource teachers. Select lessons are suitable for kindergarten students as well.
Cost for the resource is $40 plus shipping.
If you’re interested in getting your hands on a copy, click here to order online.
Thanks for your ongoing support. I hope the book proves helpful.
Carole
PS – Please click below to download select colour line masters drawn from the resource. All other line masters are included and are to be copied onto black and white, but these ones deserved a little colour…!
Mathematical Thinking 