Maria's Math News, October 2021

Hi again!

I hope you enjoy this month's collection of tips. 😀

Math Mammoth news
Is SPEED in math important?
Multiplication table searches (grades 3-5)
Hexingo — order of operations game (grades 2-6)
Virtual dice roller and coin tosser (grades 7-10)
Just for fun!

1. Math Mammoth news

Math Mammoth Canadian version is now available for grades 1-3. Read more here!

Lulu is currently running a sale for 15% off of all printed books, which means you can also get Math Mammoth books there at that discount.

Use coupon code TRICK15. The offer is valid through October 8.

To find Math Mammoth books at Lulu:

For the Light Blue series books, you can use the links on this page.
For all the others, you will find a link to Lulu on the web page of each individual product. You can start browsing here.

If you've purchased some grade level of Math Mammoth complete curriculum in the past and have noticed that the Internet resource link lists in the chapter introductions contain a lot of non-working links (e.g. Flash), you might like to know that we have updated and replaced all those links.

If you purchased a digital version (since September 2016) at mathmammoth.com, you can request a new download link here.

If you purchased a digital version earlier, or somewhere else, you can contact us to get updated files.

If you have printed books, contact us to get access to the online versions of the updated link lists.

Another new testimonial in...

I just wanted to say THANK YOU for creating an amazing math curriculum! I am a teacher of 14 years now turned homeschool mom of a kindergartener! I looked for a while before hearing about your program. I was not finding anything I liked and thinking I was going to need to create my own (which is what I did a lot during my teaching years because of gaps in curriculum). A friend told me about your program and how much they loved it for their children (now in high school). After just finishing level one (just starting level 2) I can see why this family loved the program! I am completely hooked! I have told many of my friends about this great program and how using it they can feel confident their children are learning the standards and the steps preparing them for the equations....they will be ready for HS math!!! I just want to say thank you for putting the immense amount of time and effort it took to create each of these levels and materials!!! : )

Kristina Bronder

2. Is SPEED in math important?

What do you think of SPEED in math? Is it important? How important?

While there is a benefit in quick recall of basic facts, the DANGER in emphasizing speed is that it can create math anxiety. It also goes along with the view that math is all about correct answers, nothing else.

One has to keep a balance. You don't want children to get stressed over speed, nor learn that the only thing that matters is getting the right answer.

I want my children (and all other children I teach directly or via my materials) to view math as something beautiful and enjoyable — an area of life where you get to learn, you get to DISCOVER, you get to see connections, and yet you also get to succeed as you solve both easier and more challenging problems and puzzles.

That said, I'm not against drills and speed drills as long as the child can handle those emotionally speaking, and as long as the child knows and can experience that that's not all there is to math.

There's some great food for thought in Donna Boucher's article De-emphasizing speed in math. Here's a quotation from it:

I recently spoke to the mother of a 1st-grade student who told her mom that she was bad at math because everyone in the class could answer so much more quickly than her. Heartbreaking. Six years old and already feeling that she is a failure at math. It got me thinking about what instructional shifts are needed in our math classrooms to de-emphasize speed in math and place more of an emphasis on reasoning and understanding.

Emphasize the process over the product

For as long as I can remember, math was about finding the right answer. Some people even say that they like math because there is a right answer and a wrong answer. That is changing. With standards that emphasize understanding over rote memorization of procedures and increasing calls for balancing content with process, math instruction is beginning to look different. Students need opportunities to see that while, yes, there might be only one right answer, there are many approaches to solving the problem. Even if the problem is as simple as finding the sum of 6 + 7.

I know that 6 + 6 equals 12, so 6 + 7 is just one more, or 13.

I decomposed the 6 into 3 and 3. I used one of the 3s with the 7 to make 10, and then added the other 3 for 13.

Seven and seven is 14 and one less is 13.

I put 7 in my head and counted on 6 more using my fingers.

3. Multiplication table searches

From my newsletter 10 years ago... Table searches — a FREE resource for multiplication tables. Table searches are like word searches but you search for multiplication facts instead. 🙂

4. Hexingo — order of operations game

NEW at Math Mammoth Practice! A game for order of operations.

This game can be used, not only to practice the order of operations, but also to practice addition or subtraction of several numbers (in grades 1-2).

5. Virtual dice roller and coin tosser

My son made a virtual dice roller for MathMammoth.com. Go ahead and play around with it! 😄 You can choose the number of dice, and how many rolls to do. It shows you a bar graph of the results (the sum of dice), and a table of the experimental and theoretical probabilities.

One thing this is useful for is to observe how the experimental probabilities get close to the theoretical ones, as the number of repetitions increases.

Then, the coin tossing tool allows you to choose the number of coins, the number of repetitions, and the probability of getting a tail (for a weighted coin... normally this is of course 50%). The outcomes refer to the number of heads (H) and tails (T).

These two tools are actually useful for the Math Mammoth curriculum, in the grade 7-B student book.

6. Just for fun!

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Feel free to forward this issue to a friend/colleague! Subscribe here.

Till next time,
Maria Miller