Contents

Materials for Teaching 2nd & 3rd Grade

The teacher holds the dual board with two ten-blocks and eight unit-blocks and asks the child, 'how far will this number reach in the track?' The child looks at the 1-100 track and responds, 'To 28.'

Building 2-Place Numbers in the
Dual Board

Children build a 2-place number, such as 28, by putting two ten blocks and eight cubes in the dual board. Then they measure the number by placing the blocks in the number track. This gives them both the cardinal and the ordinal aspects of numbers. The Dual Board helps children see the structure of 2-place numbers. The number track helps children see where numbers come in the number sequence.


Building the 20-Stair

Children discover the role of 10 in each teen number as they build the stair from 1 to 20. They name the blocks in each step, such as 10 and 5, and then give their sum, 15. In this way they all understand the composition of each number from 11 to 20.

The teacher holds up the 20 by 20 board with number blocks 1-10 arranged in a pyramid shape, and asks the child, 'what is 10 and 5?' The child responds, '15.'

The teacher instructs, 'drop the stop-and-go cube. If you get Go, you can put your marker on 1 times 10.' The child rolls the cube (like a die or flipping a coin) and says, 'Go! 1 times 10 is 10. I'm on 10 now!'

The 10-Table

The children discover the multiples of the 10-table by placing the 10-blocks in the number track, one after the other. They learn the meaning behind each multiplication fact as they state it in this game. This game is called "Stop and Go."


Introducing the Containing Aspect of Division: An Example

Children learn how to record and solve division examples. To discover how many times 5 goes into 15, children put 5 blocks into the number track until they reach 15. The teacher shows them where to write the answer 3 in this division algorithm.

The teacher asks, displaying 3 5-blocks on the number track, 'how many times does 5 go into 15?' The child responds, '3 times,' and the teacher says, 'Good! We put 3 above the 15.'

Fred Stern E-mail:
sternmath@gmail.com