Math Resource Roundup

When it comes to teaching a student or helping your child in math, having credible accessible resources at your fingertips is critical.  For a student to master and retain a new math skill, they need quality instruction and modeling from a teacher, guided practice, independent practice and most students need repeated practice.  At school, teachers are trying to work through more math lessons than they have school days, and when a handful of students are struggling and not ready to move on, it can be challenging to find a way to reteach previous lessons while still plunging forward with the rest of the class.  At home, parents desperately want to help their child not get left behind in math, but don’t always know how to help or have reliable resources available to use at home.

At Ignite Learning Company we have been working hard to develop resources and programs for teachers and parents in math that provide everything they need to make sure that students in grades 3rd-6th learn and master the most critical math skills for their grade and not get left behind.  We want to make sure you are prepared for the upcoming school year, so if you haven’t already, be sure to grab your FREE guides for this school year and sign up for our new Math Hero membership with versions available for teachers and parents. 

We want to be your most trusted “go-to” source for help with math in grades 3rd-6th and of course have included information on our brand-new Math Hero memberships, we also wanted to highlight other resources available that we think will be a great addition to your arsenal!

Math Resource #1

Math Hero for Teachers and Math Hero for Parents
Haven’t heard the scoop on Math Hero yet? Well get excited! Math Hero contains all of those critical components students need to master and retain math skills all rolled up into one and delivered to your inbox each week. We took a deep dive into all of the math lessons students are faced with each quarter of the school year and pulled out the 36 skills that are not only the most important for success in math, but also those skills that are known for causing the most confusion among students and parents trying to help them. For every skill each week you will get instructional videos led by a real teacher, guided practice through printable pdfs that have example problems with step-by-step instructions on how to solve them and worksheets that are perfect for independent and repeated practice. Visit our website to learn more about Math Hero for Teachers and Math Hero for Parents available for the upcoming school year!

Math Resource #2

Boom Learning

Using Boom Cards available on Boom Learning is a great option for students to reinforce math concepts they have learned through repeated practice.  Boom Cards are best described as digital flashcards or task cards and are available to purchase in decks, or “Boom Decks.” While there are countless beneficial math boom decks available (and I have a wide variety in my teacher arsenal for my own classroom), I especially love using them to help students learn their multiplication and division facts.  The Boom Decks available to purchase are created by teachers, so there are always multiple different formats (e.g., multiple choice or fill in the blank) available on any given skill to choose from. In my experience using different resources online, I will warn you that at first, getting set up and learning how to use this platform may be a little more challenging than others.  This wasn’t a process that I just could “figure out” as I went, and I did watch several of their tutorial videos to help get me started when I first began using Boom Learning 3 years ago.  The good news is that they do a great job of providing support and videos to help.

Math Resource #3

TPT 

Even though the acronym stands for “Teachers Pay Teachers,” there are tons of great math resources available to purchase that can be useful to both teachers and parents. I literally crack up every time I think about the first time my sister and business partner, Holly, learned about this website and found the homework sheets her son was bringing home every week in math.  Of course, she bought them (complete with answer keys), and her son was convinced she had somehow hacked into his teacher’s computer, and he would for sure be in trouble for cheating!  Before anyone gets all judgy on this topic, Holly DID NOT just give her son the answers, but instead used them as a tool whenever she was helping him with confusing math homework she didn’t understand to see if they were on the right track and getting the answers right.  The best part of TPT is that the worksheets and resources available are created by real teachers and even labeled with which grade levels they are appropriate for.   Unfortunately, most of the good stuff on TPT is not free and you pay for what you get.  

Math Resource #4

Math-Aids and Math-Drills websites

These websites are a great resource for when you need a free worksheet on a specific skill to use for extra practice problems.  Both sites offer free worksheets on a huge variety of math topics with options for customizing problems to meet your need and some skills even have instructional pages that include definitions and descriptions.  Be careful when using these websites as they both contain heavy advertisements, and you can easily be tricked into clicking on one by mistake and get swept off into something totally different altogether.  My main complaint is that the math problems generated and presented on the worksheets offered on these websites are not grade specific.  So, you need to scan through the problems to make sure that the values in the problems are appropriate for the age and grade level of your student/child.

Remember, confidence comes from being prepared!  Whether you are a teacher or parent, let’s get prepared for this school year!  Please let us help you on your journey this year in math by signing up for Math Hero for Teachers or Math Hero for Parents.  Why should you search the internet for an appropriate video lesson, then spend more time searching for or preparing a worksheet to go with it and even more time developing quality resources that are parent friendly?  With a Math Hero membership, we’ve done that all for you so that you can be a Math Hero for your student or child this year and make sure they don’t get left behind!