Math Tools

Thanksgiving Math & Literacy, Art, Science & More….

October 26, 2017 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

Do you ever wish someone would just plan out your entire homeschool year for you….then maybe bundle it all up and email it to your inbox on Monday morning?

Yeah….me too.

Well, I don’t have an entire YEAR of curriculum to send you, but I do have something that will make your homeschool planning super easy this November.

SMART: Science, Math, Art, Reading & Take Home activities for Thanksgiving! This helpful set is filled with a week’s worth of fun, educational math games, hands-on activities, science experiments, art projects, early readers, writing prompts and a Bible memory verse. Everything you need to add a little holiday fun to your kindergarten classroom this year!

Thanksgiving Science: This set includes five simple science experiments and challenges. Each thematic activity guides students through a fun, hands-on science exploration with very little prep-work. Students work their way through the scientific method using the step-by-step science journals. Each experiment includes a follow-up activity for added learning.

Thanksgiving Math: Each day students will play a fun game or activity then follow up their learning with a lesson sheet to show mastery. Games focus on learning to frame numbers to ten, basic addition, counting to 100, and counting by 10’s.

Thanksgiving ART: We include five stunning autumn art projects that are perfect for Thanksgiving. Each project comes with a full photo tutorial, printable templates and easy to follow materials list. Students work with oil pastels, paint, textures, blending and more.

Thanksgiving Reading (and Writing): This set includes three early readers covering social studies and history. Each story includes a carefully controlled word list and incorporates key vocabulary for extended learning. Students are provided narrative and comparison writing prompts that are not only simple to follow, but would make wonderful educational keepsakes.

Take Home/Review Work: T is for Take Home Review Sheets. These sheets can be used as review work in the homeschool classroom or as homework in a standard classroom. Each page features reading, writing, vocabulary, and scripture memorization activities. Character thinking points are available instead of Bible memory for those using this resource in a public school setting.

Thanksgiving Math Games for Kindergarten

October 11, 2017 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and you might be looking for fun ways to get your students learning this holiday season! I know my kiddos sure enjoy a little FUN during the holidays and with our brand new Thanksgiving SMART Pack you can still include educational content

Thanksgiving BUMP is a super fun way to work on multiplication facts. Using a paperclip spinner students spin and multiple the number they land on by 10. Then, they cover that number with one of their markers (coin, flat marble) and it’s the next student’s turn. The goal is to get four in a row covered. If a number is already covered by the opponents marker you can, ‘BUMP,’ them off. A fun follow up worksheet is provided to reinforce skip counting by 10’s.

Thanksgiving SPIN and FRAME is another fun game for younger students. Children spin with a paperclip spinner then frame the number in the ten frame below. Provide students with fun holiday candies, such as candy corn or candy pumpkins to use as counters. A simple follow-up worksheet is provided to show mastery.

Turkey Trot is a FUN game for students learning to count to 100! Students take turns rolling the dice, adding their number and moving their marker across the hundreds board. Land on a multiple of 10 and you get to roll again. First one to 100 wins! A simple follow up worksheet is included for students to work on number value.

Roll a Turkey Printable Game is a fun drawing activity that also builds basic addition skills. Students roll two dice, add the value and then draw the corresponding turkey feature on their paper. Lots of silly turkeys will be made with this printable game. A follow-up worksheet provides students the opportunity to build addition equations, or work on number dot patterns.

Thanksgiving BINGO isn’t your average BINGO game! This game works with multiples of 10 so the calling cards are multiplication problems. The bingo caller will call out the problem (10 x 7) and the students will mentally solve the problem and find the correct square on their bingo board. The first one to get a bingo wins!

Find these 5 Thanksgiving Games and more in our new Thanksgiving SMART pack:

Let us do your holiday planning for you! SMART stands for Science, Math, Art, Reading and Take Home Review. We’ve included FIVE full days of thematic games, worksheets, and activities for your students covering all the bases. Everything prints in the order needed, simply print and go! Click Here for More Sample Pages.

Interactive Math Notebook for Kindergarten

June 28, 2017 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

As a homeschooling mother of four, I know all about the daily math struggles. I am currently using THREE different math programs in my classroom because each curriculum lends itself to a particular child and grade level. Of course, this is one of the many benefits of homeschooling….picking and choosing the curriculum that will aid in the development of individual skills.

Now, my youngest child just graduated Kindergarten this past year and one of the things that helped us build his Math skills was a daily learning folder. This folder became our go-to resource for covering key skills in a fun, engaging way. Each morning before his math lesson, he would pull out his folder and we’d verbally review different parts. This was very unscripted and simply intended at a warm-up activity. I would ask things like, “Find the number 55 on the hundreds chart,” or “What shape has four equal sides?” and he would use his folder to help solve the problem. Let me tell you that this folder WORKS! He quickly began to internalize and commit many key math concepts to memory and it only took about 5 minutes each morning. This was such a successful setup for our family so we wanted to be sure to include it in our new Interactive Math Curriculum:

Preview our newest Homeschool Math Curriculum Here

Our Interactive Math Notebook is Comprehensive:

Interactive Math covers 4-days/week over 36-weeks and is a complete kindergarten math program. Prior to starting, students should have a good foundation in number recognition and number names. Over the course of the curriculum, students will learn number patterns, ordinal numbers, number value, addition, subtraction, counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s, place value, number bonds and more.

Practical Math: Each month students will focus on practical math concepts to develop necessary life-skills. These topics include counting money, telling time, using a ruler, estimating, reading a calendar and more.

Review Weeks: Review weeks cycle every 5 weeks and provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate mastery of concepts learned during the previous 4 weeks. Online math games targeting each concept are suggested for some extra fun practice while assessing student skill level. For more details please see the sample pages above or the chart below.

Our Interactive Math Notebook is FUN!:

Daily Warm Up Folder: Each day your student will review their daily warm up folder prior to starting any new lessons. This folder serves as a simple way to work on key math skills in small time chunks over the entire year. While we have teaching suggestions available, this is intended to be quick, unscripted time for you to connect with your student to cover key concepts.

Daily Lesson Worksheet

For each daily lesson, students receive an instructional worksheet covering a new concept or skill. Students follow simple instructions to complete the activity. As the week progresses, students build upon each specific skill with new and engaging activities. Each daily lesson is reinforced with a hands-on activity that prints on the back side of the page.

Daily Hands-on Activities & Games

For each daily lesson, students complete a hands-on activity page or game to reinforce the new concept or skill. We’ve taken great care to make sure these games require minimal prep work and use supplies that you are likely to have on hand.

Our Interactive Math Notebook is Organized & Ready to Go!

No more endless hours spent on Pinterest searching for fun, hands-on printables to keep your students engaged! Interactive Math includes everything you need to teach over the entire year and it prints out in the exact order you need it. With over 250+ pages, this set covers the following weekly topics:

Our Interactive Math Notebook is Engaging:

Best of all….Our Interactive Math Notebook is Inexpensive:

Interactive Math Curriculum Notebook

$25.00

Shape Mats: Drive & Trace Activity Pages

April 18, 2017 By Valerie Mcclintick 1 Comment

With the release of our newest product, “Shape of the Week,” we’ve been busy learning all about shapes. This new set is geared towards Tots and Preschoolers and includes lots of hands-on fun! Best of all it’s FREE and the shapes coordinate perfectly with our Shape of the Week program so you can easily integrate this into a fun center time activity.

Drive and Trace Mats should be used with small toy vehicles for children to drive around the shape. We recommend laminating them for durability. Students can then trace the shapes with a dry erase marker or a finger.

Print Drive and Trace Mats Free from our Sister Site: PreschoolMom.com

Looking for more? Try our new Shape of the Week Program today!

Fact Family Games for Kids

July 8, 2016 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

If you have children working on their addition and subtraction skills, teaching them about fact families can go a long way! The idea of fact families is that numbers can be grouped and reordered to create different equations. This is a great way for children to visually see that numbers have relational values. With the number 2, 5, and 7 for example we can make four different equations:

Two addition equations:

5+2=7 and 2+5=7

Two subtraction equations:

7-5=2 and 7-2=5

Learning that numbers can be interchanged like this provides children with core strategies they can use to solve more difficult math problems later in life. Plus, fact families are fun to learn!

Print our Fact Family Game and Follow up Worksheets Here

I’ve even included a follow up worksheet children can use to show mastery.

While I recommend purchasing a set of plastic number tiles (I use these all the time) you can also print a set of paper number tiles that you can laminate and use in your classroom.

Find more Free Math Games Here

Multiplication Mazes & Worksheets

May 29, 2016 By Valerie Mcclintick 1 Comment

Multiplication facts have been one of the HUGE chores of homeschooling. No matter how many times my children have these facts memorized, they always seem to regress backwards and forget random pairs of facts. We often review multiplication facts over the Summer (in fact, this Summer we’re trying out the Times Tables Videos) to help make up for these gaps. So today, I wanted to make something that was FUN but also included multiplication practice: Skip Counting Maze Worksheets

This set features a fun number maze alongside skip counting dots for children. If you laminate these pages, and use a dry erase marker you can reuse these sheets over and over again in your classroom. You might even challenge children to a SPEED test to see how fast they can complete the sheet. This set includes multiplication practice for numbers 2-9 and you can print them free on our sister site BrainyMaze.com

Free Number Formation Mats

May 10, 2016 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

Okay….let’s face it. Some children do not like to write. I know because I have a child who would rather eat fried worms then write a sentence on his paper. It’s true.

Over the years I’ve had to find creative ways to encourage him to get his letters down on the paper in a neat and orderly fashion. And I wish I would have had these fun mats when he was younger, as I’m sure it would have been a fantastic introduction to learning to write his numbers in the proper formation.

These printable Number Mats are tons of fun, children can drive the vehicle through the road to make each number. I’ve included a fun formation rhyme which helps them to remember how to make each number.

You could even take things a step further and let your child drive their card in a sand tray, or in the dirt….maybe even dip the wheels into some paint and let them practice “Driving” the numbers across a page.

Download Print and Drive Number Mats free from Preschool Mom

Find More Number Printables and Worksheets Here

Find early Math Printables Here

Love Bug Preschool Printables

February 2, 2016 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

Valentine’s Day is just a couple of weeks away, and we’ve got some adorable Love Bug activities you can use with your students this year! Children love to play with Valentine’s Day candy, so take advantage of this and sneak in a little hands on math fun with our free Love Bug Math Mats.

This set also includes four different follow up worksheets for children to show their skills learned in these activities. Addends up to 5 are used for addition and subtraction equations.

Print these super adorable resources free from our sister site Preschool Mom

Find More Valentine’s Day Resources:

Valentine’s Day Watercolor Card

Valentine’s Day Bible Printables

Valentine’s Day Bible Verses for Kids

Valentine’s Day Preschool Printables

Color Your Own Valentine’s Day Cards

Valentine’s Day File Folder Games

Even More Valentine’s Day Printables

Second Grade Math Games

January 24, 2016 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

Hot off the press are three new Second Grade Math games for your students! These games have been cleverly designed to keep your children engaged and having fun while learning.

The Rounding Clown Game

Children draw tickets and record ticket sales…..but the rounding clown wants them round!

A simple printable game for children learning the rules of rounding numbers up to 100.

The Rounding Clown is always Clowning Around!!

Skip Counting Charts & Worksheets

This is a simple Skip Counting Chart you can glue to a folder for children to practice.

This set includes nine different worksheets, that can be used to build mastery for numbers 2-10.

BUMP Multiplication

Skip Counting BUMP is played by rolling two dice and then marking a space on the number line.

If you roll a 4 and a 2 for example you can either mark off 2×4 (8) or 4×2 (8) on either number line.

The goal is to get four in a row so you need be strategic about where you place your token.

If someone is already on a number you can bump them off!

Find More Second Grade Math Games Here

Counting to 100 Printables

August 18, 2015 By Valerie Mcclintick 2 Comments

With the first day of school upon us, it’s a great time to work on counting to 100! I’ve just created this super adorable set of counting cards and charts for working on key counting skills. This set includes counting cards to 100 by 1’s, 5’s, 10’s, and 25’s as well as a full size hundreds board. Combine this with our Write to 100 Pack for a handy unit to start off your school year. You might even add this to your Daily Folder for quick impromptu review with your child.

First Grade Mini Office

May 22, 2015 By Valerie Mcclintick 3 Comments

Today I have a fantastic expansion set to add to our Mini Office Printables!

Our Mini office has been an amazing resource for my son’s Preschool and Kindergarten years, and I wanted to make sure I added in a few First Grade items for his upcoming year.

I decided to offer this as a First Grade Expansion Pack and it’s full of helpful resources you can use with your students

So What is a Mini Office?

A Mini Office is basically a custom built learning resource for your student. The goal of a mini-office is to serve as a self led reference chart for children, freeing up time for teacher to work with other students and encouraging children to find answers to their own questions. The benefit of making a mini office is also in the size and the minimal supply list. All you’ll need is a couple of file folders, scissors, glue, and your printable pages.

Print Your Free First Grade Expansion Pack Here

(It’s near the bottom as I’ve got assembly instructions and other expansions available there as well)

What’s Included in this Expansion Pack:

Math:

Telling Time (clock with moveable hour and minute hands, 5 minute intervals around)
Place Value Blocks (written word, number form and place value up to 1000)
Shape Symmetry (visual depiction of a line of symmetry)
Skip Counting (numbers 2-12, up to 12 numbers. First Grade Use: 2, 5, 10, and maybe 3)
Rounding Numbers (Visual Rounding Clown to help children round and estimate)

Language:

Writer’s Glove (The 5 W’s: Who, What, Where, When, and Why for writing sentences)

Geography:

USA State Map & Compass (State Names as well as Directional Compass for daily practice)

Social:

My Address/My Phone (Use as Reference and Practice)

My son won’t be starting his First Grade year until this September, so I might add a few more updates to this pack by then. Be sure you are subscribed to our newsletter if you’d like updates on available resources!

Find More Mini Office Printables Here

Place Value Learning Game

May 19, 2015 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

Learning about place value is tons of fun with this NEW free file folder game from File Folder Fun.

This is a multiplayer game that includes high quality place value cards for children to race to 3000!

Children in grades K-5 can play this game with a little instruction, and a helpful place value chart is included for reference.

Print this game and more free from File Folder Fun.

Find More Place Value Printables & Resources

Place Value Bus Game

Building Big Numbers Game

Monster File Folder Game

April 18, 2015 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

My boys are crazy about Monsters.

I’m not sure why but they love creepy, goopy, slimy looking creatures, but they do.

Monsters can be cute too though right?

My four year old drew these silly Monster Brothers and I thought they were absolutely adorable.

(Side Note: Scan your children’s artwork into your computer to save them)

I was also to happy to find these Silly Wacky Monsters from Daily Art Hub because I knew they would make for some adorable games and worksheets!

Make 10 Monster Worksheet

Use this worksheet to reinforce key number bonds that make 10. Children can use counters to cover the monsters while they compute the equations.

Make 10 Monster Truck Game

This is a great game to play with children who are learning number bonds that add up to 10. Children choose a wheel and then find the correct second wheel to solve the equation.

Find More Silly Monster Printables at Preschool Mom

Make 10 Printable Game

April 8, 2015 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

Making ten games are always a great way to build key math skills for your Kindergarten and First Grade kiddos. Children can easily memorize which numbers can be joined together to make 10, and it’s a skill that will be important through out their entire lives!

Ten Frame Boards are simple boards with ten squares.

Usually a portion of the squares are filled in with marker (7 are filled above) and it’s the child’s job to figure out how many more need to be added to make 10.

Children can visually see that three more are needed so they can place the markers accordingly.

(btw……we love these counters here)

Anyway, I wanted to create a game that included the actual numbers on the Make 10 boards.

Can you tell that I really want my boys to do some quick memorizing of these number bonds?

I’m hoping that soon they will start to identify the missing number without counting.

This is also a great early introduction to algebra, you could say something like “Oooh, we have a mystery number!! 7 plus what = 10?”

Print Make 10 Game Free at File Folder Fun

The set includes 10 different number bonds, you simply cut them out as shown above and let children match them back up again. I thought perhaps the numbers might be a bit confusing, which is why I colored the markers orange and purple, so I would encourage children to make sure each number bond has different colors.

Find More Make 10 Learning Games Here

Want to Make your own Make 10 Game?

HomeschoolClipart.com has free ten frame graphics in black and white or color so you can design your own worksheets and games.

Writing to 100 Worksheets

March 13, 2015 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

I don’t know what it is about the number 100 but my boys are constantly trying to get there.

They want to do 100 jumps on the trampoline, build a tower 100 blocks high, and I’m convinced they try to ask me “WHY?” at least 100 times a day.

In our house, there are so many opportunities in REAL LIFE to practice counting to 100, but the actual writing to 100 is something new for my Kindergartner.

He’s been working super hard this year with his Mini Office, so I wanted this set to sort of emulate the same chart he’s been using to learn his numbers.

I included quite a few different printable worksheets in this pack:

Tracing to 100
Fill in the Blank
Counting by 2
Counting by 5
Counting by 10

Because children need so much practice, I recommend sliding these into a page protector or laminating these and using a dry erase marker

Print our Writing to 100 Worksheet Pack free at File Folder Fun

Find More Kindergarten Math Games Here

Find First Grade Math Games Here

Printable Nets

September 21, 2014 By Valerie Mcclintick 5 Comments

These printable nets can be helpful for teaching young students geometry and geometric concepts.

Plus they are sorta fun to make!

We recommend you print your nets on colored paper. Â This makes it more fun and colorful.

You can print on cardstock and laminate if you’re making a classroom set, but we’ve just used regular strength printer paper for this set.

Cut your nets out carefully, the tabs are in light gray and can be difficult to see on the colored paper, so go slow!

Crease all your folds. Â We assembled ours so that the lines are inside the shape and don’t show.

Use a glue stick on the tabs for best results.

Here is how our cube looks when assembled!

They won’t be perfect, but they are an inexpensive way to add a little hands on fun to your math lessons.

Print your set of Geometry Nets Here

This is a subscriber freebie so be sure you’re logged in first!

Find more Math Printables and Manipulatives here.

Free Mini Office Printables

September 17, 2014 By Valerie Mcclintick 2 Comments

This week we’re featuring a FREE Mini Office for our newsletter subscribers!What is a Mini Office?

A Mini Office is basically a custom built learning resource for your student. Â The goal of a mini-office is to serve as a self led reference chart for children, freeing up time for teacher to work with other students and encouraging children to find answers to their own questions. Â The benefit of making a mini office is also in the size and the minimal supply list. Â All you’ll need is a couple of file folders, scissors, glue, and your printable pages. Â (Free Mini Office Printables Below)

How to Make a Mini Office:

To assemble your mini office simply cut the tabs off of two file folders and glue them back to back. Â This will create a three panel office. Â You can make a larger office if you want to include extra information, however I find that the three panel is useful for small hands and when it’s stood on end it makes a great privacy blocker. Â (This is especially helpful if you’re teaching around the kitchen table.)

Inside the folders you glue in KEY concepts for children to help them along with their studies.

Really you can add whatever resources you want your child to study. Â In a homeschool setting, I’ve found these reference folders to be helpful for PreK-3rd graders, but you could certainly use them with older children as well. Â You might consider ways to build your folder so that you can expand and adapt it as your child grows. Â Alternatively, you can create multi-leveled folders for each student year. Â The resources provided below can be adapted to suit your needs.

Newsletter Subscribers Download our Free Mini Office Here

Not yet following? Â Subscribe Free Here

MiniOffice Videos on Lapbook Lessons:

Find more free printables and links for making thematic mini office’s for yor children:

DIY Homeschool Tools

May 3, 2014 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

DIY Math Tools for Homeschool
These tools can be used in your Homeschool or Classroom setting asÂ an alternative to purchasing premade educational materials.Â Not only will you save money, but you’ll be ableÂ to customize your classroom to fit the needsÂ of your children!

Base 10 Bean Sticks

Math Facts Learning Folder

DIY Number Bean Bags

Making Math Sentences Game

Printable Math Equations Board

Math Master Speed Scoring Chart

Math Mini Office Printables

Free Math File Folder Games

DIY Language Arts Tools
Learning grammar and spellingÂ doesn’t have to be boring! Â Try theseÂ eight ideas in your own classroom toÂ spice things up a bit. Most of theseÂ games are made with resources youÂ can find around the house.

Word Family Block Game

DIY Spelling Activities

Free Printable Language Charts

DIY Vocabulary Notebooks

Free Language File Folder Games

Free Summer Reading Chart

Language Mini Office

Writing NotebookÂ (available in our eStore)

Be sure you check out our Favorite Homeschool Tools and Craft Supplies during your visit!

60% Off Online Math Program!

October 6, 2013 By Valerie Mcclintick 2 Comments

Huge Subscriber Offer: 60% OFF + BOGO at CTC Math
You must use that link for the discount. Homeschool Family Pricing Available.

Math is one of those subjects that your child either LOVES or HATES.

My daughter HATES math.
VERY MUCH SO.

She does her math homework first thing in the morning.
Which if you know her, really means she dislikes it.

~~Some days~~ Most days she bombards me with questions like,
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
It’s TOO HARD!
(which isn’t a question)
And WHY?

She is not behind in math,
She might even be a tad ahead, but she really EARNS that position,
it most definitely doesn’t come naturally to her.

My son, on the other hand, enjoys math.
He is a thinker.
a problem solver.
a riddler.

If you happen to be new,
and anywhere within 100 or so feet of him,
he might surprise you by pulling a brain teaser out of his pocket
and demand that you match wits to see who can solve it first.

Math is his favorite subject,
something he looks forward to,
and if it were up to him,
math would be the only subject of the day.

He says things to me like:

“Math is my favorite subject”

and

“If it were up to me, math would be the only subject of the day.”

But, even though they are both so very different in their enthusiasm towards math,
they both really like CTC Math.

Which is good because CTC Math sent us a free subscription to try out their program and let our readers know what we thought.

So, are you interested in an online math program? Here’s the deal:

CTC Math is a supplemental online math program for K-12.

A Subscription to CTC Math Includes:
1,367 animated and narrated math lessons (VIDEOS!!!)
A bank of over 57,000 interactive questions
Diagnostic tests
Instant feedback to students and regular reporting to parents
Algebra, statistics, geometry, trigonometry, probability plus more

Here’s how all that looks:

Getting Started:

Essentially, you can start your child at any grade level and any topic that you want. Just choose your grade, choose your stream, and then choose a specific topic.

If you don’t know where to start, each topic includes an optional comprehensive test, and an instant report you can view to diagnose problem areas.

I actually already know that Bubba needs to work on Statistics and Probability so I put him in 3rd grade; Statistics; Graphs and Charts.

Clicking on the topic takes me directly to the video lesson.

The Lessons:

Each video lesson is under 10 minutes long. (Can I get an Amen?) They are simple, easy to understand, and usually include interactions within the lesson.
Children can pause, stop, rewind any of the videos on their own. Big buttons. Real simple like.

Not to mention the teacher is Australian.
(Seriously, what kid can ignore a math teacher that sounds like The Crocidile Hunter?)

Follow Up Questions:
Direcly after the video lesson, children complete the follow up questions. This is all done online and often involves click and drag positioning to answer some questions. I want to point this out because the response of the actual graphics is fantastic.

I’m very impressed with how easy the tools and objects on the screen move around and respond to user interaction. They also make sense. (Which, if you’ve ever sent your children to a state required math assessment, you know how frustrating bad computer graphics and response can be.) CTC Math is crisp and easy to work with, there are no technical frustrations and children are free to focus on learning.

Reports:

After taking the required questions, children are given an immediate report and it’s easy to visually see where the child missed the mark. For example, in Bubba’s report above I can easily determine that my child understands the concept of picture graphs, but mixed up the numbers. I can see that I don’t need to keep teaching pictographs, but I need to give him tools to SLOW down and carefully approach math problems so we don’t make simple mistakes. Additional reports are saved in the parent login area so you can always access and pull up you’re children’s work.

Pros:

Family Pricing, CTC Math has competetive homeschool pricing. Even Better: CTCMath is offering our readers 60% off + BOGO, which means when you purchase a year subscription, you’ll actually get two years!!

Optional Testing. I can’t tell you how many online programs MAKE you test, or email the administrator to change the grade level of your children. With CTCMath comprehensive tests are offered for each subcategory, but they are NOT required to begin working at a particular grade level…..which leads me to my next pro:

Ability to bounce from grade level to grade level. CTC Math covers Kindergarten through Trigonometry. This is a helpful feature if you have a child who struggles with fractions but is amazing with division. You as the parent can assign them to different grade levels to continually build on their knowledge without any lapses.

Reports are Easy to understand. You can easily see what areas your children are proficient in, or what areas they need more instruction with.

No Visual Distractions. It’s not gimmicky. There are no flashing ads, no “design your own” avatars, and all that jazz. It’s simple. With a highly distractable child, this is something I can really appreciate.

NO CD’s!! Video lessons are streaming online, which keeps things simple. No disks to loose, scratch, or turn into flying saucers in the middle of a lesson.

Cons:

I actually don’t have any cons for CTCMath. (is that possible?) I WAS planning on complaining that the lessons weren’t available on our mobile devices, but I just pulled out my Kindle Fire to find that CTCMath is compatible with iPad and Android devices. I didn’t even have to download anything, it just pulled right up using HTML5 instead of Flash.

That was pretty impressive.

And if you still have any doubt, you can try CTCMath for free.
None of that credit card baloney either, just enter your email and you’ll immediately be able to take quite a few lessons…..see for yourself why over 200,000 students use this program.

If you do, let me know what you think below!

Giveaway: Pop for Addition and Subtraction!

November 25, 2012 By Valerie Mcclintick 279 Comments

UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed!

We have a winner!!

Comment #188 was:

Last month we were contacted by Learning Resources to review one of their newest products

How Exciting!
We actually use many different Learning Resources products already,
so I was pretty excited to have a NEW item in our collection!
And I even got to choose which one!
Can you guess what I picked?
(Ya’ll know about my math fact troubles lately right?)

I chose a game called, “POP for Addition and Subtraction”
The suggested age level for this game is 6-8
and it retails for $9.99

It’s cute, It’s colorful,
and it’s helping my kiddos to learn (and relearn) those evasive math facts.

Like I mentioned last week,
we are hitting the math facts pretty hard around here.

So I thought it would be nice to change it up with a math fact game,
and seriously, a little friendly competition goes a long ways around here.

Not to mention that it’s fun to play!
Here’s the deal:

The game includes a spinner and an assortment of math fact gumballs.

On each turn, your child spins the spinner

Then draws the appropriate amount of gumballs from the “gumball machine” (i.e. box)

In order to keep the gumballs children have to say the answer to the math fact printed on the gumball.

If they get the answer correct, they keep the gumball in their pile.
If they don’t get it correct, the gumball goes back into the box.

If they draw a “POP” gumball, all of their accumulated math facts go back into the box.
(the POP gumball is now out of play).

The game continues until all gumballs have been collected.
They are then counted and a winner is declared.

What I like:
The quality of the game is reflected in the price.
The box, and playing pieces are thick and sturdy,
and they are sure to stand up to years of classroom use.

Everything is stored in the box, making it simple to store and easy to use.
(it would totally fit in a stocking if you’re looking for ways to stretch that homeschool budget!)

There are two levels of game play and the directions for both are printed on the back of the box
(how thoughtful is that

With 90 gumballs, this game is for any number of players.
You can play this game at home with one child or use it in your classroom.

Classroom Idea: Sometimes it’s fun to have an end of the day activity or ritual in your classroom….you know like a little fun treat children can look forward to.
I think it would be super cute for children to choose a gumball fact to solve on their way out and exchange it for a small treat, or sticker for their charts. You could even make the “POP” gumballs stand for something special. It would encourage children to be working on those math facts at home to show what they’ve learned each day.

I’m sure YOU can think of creative ways to use this game too!

Learning Resources is offering you the opportunity to WIN your own
POP for Addition and Subtraction game!

How to Enter:

1. Leave a comment telling me how you would use POP for Addition and Subtraction in your classroom.

Optional Entries:

2. Check out all the other Math activities by Learning Resources, come back and tell me what you have on your wish-list.
3. Like Learning Resources on Facebook. Come back and leave me a comment telling me you did.
4. Follow Learning Resources on Twitter. Come back and leave me a comment telling me you did.
5. Follow Learning Resources on Pinterest. Come back and leave me a comment telling me you did.
6. Share about this giveaway via your blog or social media. Give yourself one extra comment for each way you share.

Giveaway ends Friday 11:59pm PST. Winners will be drawn at random and this post will be updated.

Disclaimer: I was sent free product from Learning Resoruces for purposes of this review and giveaway. All opinions are my own.