May 2025 - Selecting Strategies
When you face a problem or a challenge, there are different ways to solve it. These different ways are called “strategies.” Just like having a toolbox with different tools for different tasks, having a variety of strategies can help you tackle different problems.
Here are some strategies students use in the classroom:
April 2025 - Selecting Tools
In mathematics, tools refer to physical objects or digital resources that students use to explore and understand mathematical concepts. Students learn how to choose tools to help them solve problems and to represent and communicate their understanding of mathematical concepts.
These tools can include counters, number lines, geometric shapes, calculators, graphing software, rulers, protractors, and even everyday objects like beans or blocks for counting.
Selecting and using tools in mathematics helps students to:
March 2025 - Representing
When we talk about representing in math, we mean using different tools and methods to understand and communicate mathematical concepts. Here are some ways students represent math:
February 2025 - Communicating
COMMUNICATING
Communicating in math is about how students share their ideas, understandings, and solutions with others. When students explain their ideas clearly and listen to others, they understand better and think more deeply about math.
January 2025 - Connections
Connecting involves seeing how different math ideas are linked, like building blocks, and how they relate to the world around them.
Students are engaged in connecting when they:
December 2024 - Reflecting
Reflecting
Reflecting happens when students go beyond just solving a problem and take time to think about the strategies they used and whether their solution makes sense.
Reflecting involves:
November 2024 - Reasoning and Proving
When students learn math, they also learn how to think through and explain their ideas. This is called “reasoning and proving”. They use what they know about math to explain why they think their answer is right. They do this by showing proof or evidence. Mathematicians do something similar when they make “conjectures”. A conjecture is like a guess that you make when you don’t have all the information. Mathematicians test these guesses by looking for evidence. Then, they use this evidence to see whether their guess was right.
October 2024 - Problem Solving
“Mathematical thinking is when students have opportunities to doubt, understand, conceive, affirm and deny, will and refuse, imagine, and perceive.”
(Dan Finkel, Five Principles of Extraordinary Math Teaching)
September 2024 - Introduction to the Mathematical Processes
In the Ontario Mathematics Curriculum there are seven interconnected mathematical processes that support all students to learn and apply mathematical knowledge, concepts and skills. These processes are:
May 2024 - Number Sense Games
Games and puzzles are a great way of practicing math skills while having fun. Playing games and doing puzzles support computational fluency, strategy development, and making connections between mathematical concepts.
Pile it On: A Multiplication Game
Introduce multiplication using any counters and dice. This game provides an excellent demonstration of how multiplication works.
Goal: Be the person with the most counters at the of the game.