Think Links: Whole Numbers

Maintenance activities on whole number arithmetic in a game-like format. Includes calculator exercises. Answers to hundreds of problems in the activities themselves. Ideal for small groups and learning centers.

Fair Lands™ Importing & Exporting Activities for Teaching Addition & Subtraction

Over 100 directed activities on importing (adding) and exporting (subtracting) in different lands using the Fair Lands™ blocks (Two Land and Three Land), Base Ten blocks, and counters. Emphasizes understanding. Models addition as fair trades “up” by requiring that so many of one thing all the same must be traded for one of the next bigger thing. Models subtraction as fair trades “down” by requiring the opposite. In making fair trades up and down, students learn the essence of how numbers are added and subtracted in a place value numeration system. Best used over several grades.

Grades 1-6 (depending on the activities selected), 122 pages of reproducible black-line masters with permission to duplicate and 16 pages of answers.

Snap Cubes

Counters are readily available in most pantries. Just about anything that can be sorted by size or color will do: certain kinds of cereal, different kinds of beans, or spray painted lima beans. Cereal is risky, though, because it is a temptation to eat. Snap Cubes are recommended if you would rather not raid your pantry:

Fair Lands™ Activity Boards

Used with the Fair Lands™ blocks, Base Ten blocks, and counters to keep everything alike in the same column like in arithmetic when trading up or down in different lands.

Math Games & Activities, Vol. 1

Activities for all major topics in number, geometry, and measurement in elementary school math. More than 50 games and nearly 80 activities, worksheets, and instructional aids, many for early childhood. Diagnostic/prescriptive games for whole number arithmetic.

Answers, permission to duplicate, more than 100 pages of concise, easy-to-find instructions, and lots of examples and illustrations.

Ten Land Blocks

Multi-base arithmetic blocks for base 10 out to four places—only four because the blocks get too big after that. (A Mega Cube—literally, a million Unit Cubes—would be a cubic meter.) Scored to illustrate the nature of base 10 numeration: that each digit to the immediate left of another digit is exactly ten times the value of that digit (just like on the odometer of a car). This relationship is shown with the Ten Land blocks by having ten the same make the next bigger block.

True base 10 blocks showing that base 10 numeration is literally based (or built) on 10: 10 unit cubes make a long (or ten rod), 10 longs make a flat (or hundred flat), and 10 flats make a cube (or thousand block). Different entirely from base 10 place value blocks (even though called base 10 blocks) where the flat is made of 100 unit cubes and the cube is made of 1000 unit cubes.

Mini-center of Ten Land blocks: 40 Unit Cubes, 20 Longs, 10 Flats, and 1 Super Cube (71 blocks total) from 1cm3 to 10cm3 by a factor of 10.

Fair Lands™ Blocks

Multi-base arithmetic blocks for base 2 and base 3 out to seven places. Scored to illustrate the structure of a place value numeration system: that base 2 is based (or built) on 2: each digit to the immediate left of another digit is exactly twice the value of that digit. This relationship is shown with the red or Two Land blocks by having two the same make the next bigger block. Likewise, base 3 is based on 3: each digit to the immediate left of another digit is exactly three times the value of that digit. This relationship is shown with the blue or Three Land blocks by having three the same make the next bigger block.

Mini-center of Two Land blocks: 8 Unit Cubes, 5 Longs, 4 Flats, 3 Super Cubes, 3 Super Longs, 3 Super Flats, and 1 Mega Cube (27 blocks total) from 1cm3 to 4cm3 by doubling.

Mini-center of Three Land blocks: 10 Unit Cubes, 6 Longs, 5 Flats, 5 Super Cubes, 5 Super Longs, 5 Super Flats, and 1 Mega Cube (37 blocks total) from 1cm3 to 9cm3 by tripling.

Suitable for all grades, with permission from older students so as not to be insulted.

Counting Forward and Backward Songs

Ten counting forward and backward songs from 1-10 and 1-18. Best and easiest way to teach and maintain counting skills for the addition and subtraction facts. Lots of variety in the topics picked for the songs. Tunes include Elevator, Footprints, Bee Careful, and Baseball

Fair Lands™ QUICK START

A tutorial on Fair Trades Up, Fair Trades Down, importing in Two Land, Three Land, and Ten Land, and exporting in Two Land, Three Land, and Ten Land. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this little booklet is worth a dictionary. No wordy lectures. Everything explained with pictures of blocks on activity boards. Includes examples of recording after a trade.

Multiplication Motivation

Nine skip counting songs from the 2s (2-4-6- … -20) through the 10s (10-20-30- … -100), one for each number. Best and easiest way to teach and maintain skip counting skills for the multiplication and division facts. Tunes include The Twos Stroll, The Alive Fives, The Waltzing Sevens, and The Nines Blues. Students look forward to singing the songs everyday. Lyrics