Mega-Fun Math Games and Puzzles for the Elementary Grades - (Jossey-Bass Teacher) by Michael S Schiro (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Make developing basic math skills fun and painless

With this great collection of over 125 easy-to-use games, puzzles, and activities, teachers and parents can help kids comprehend fundamental math concepts, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, place value, fractions, and more. All games and puzzles use easy-to-find household items such as paper and pencil, playing cards, coins, and dice. The activities also help children develop problem-solving skills, such as testing hypotheses, creating strategies, and organizing information, as well as spatial relations skills, part-to-whole skills, and memory.

Michael Schiro, EdD (Chestnut Hill, MA), is an associate professor at the School of Education at Boston College. He is the author of several books on teaching and learning math and is a frequent presenter at local and national math conferences.

From the Back Cover

Mega-Fun Math Games and Puzzles for the Elementary Grades

125 Ready-to-Use Activities That Teach Math Facts, Concepts, and Thinking Skills

This hands-on resource is an educational and fun-filled collection of games and puzzles that help teach basic math skills to students in grades 1-5. Correlated to the national math standards, the games and puzzles will help even the most reluctant students become comfortable with addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, place value, fractions, inequalities, multiples, and factors.

Using nothing more than paper and pencil, playing cards, coins, dice, and other easy to find items, parents and teachers can help kids learn and practice math the fun way. Mega-Fun Math Games and Puzzles for the Elementary Grades is designed to help

• Build basic math skills
• Engage students with different learning styles
• Hone problem-solving skills
• Develop coordination, memory, communication, and social skills
• Meet standards requirements in math
• Fill down time in the classroom

In addition the book is filled with illustrative examples and contains easily reproducible pages. Now any child can become a math fan, playing the book's dynamic games and solving the challenging puzzles.

PRAISE FOR MEGA-FUN MATH GAMES AND PUZZLES FOR THE ELEMENTARY GRADES

"Finally a fantastic collection of timeless math games and puzzles that can be used in a differentiated class, a math center, or even a math enrichment program."
--SUSAN BIGHAM, first grade teacher, James Fitzgerald School, Waltham, Massachusetts

"Students in my methods classes found the rich activities in this book the most useful resource presented to them in the course. Pre-service teachers used the activities as part of their lessons, to maintain skills, and as math centers in the classroom. One of the nicest features of the activities is that they require minimal resources and preparation time. No elementary mathematics teacher can afford to be without this magnificent resource in their professional collection!
--PAMELA A. HALPERN, PhD., Associate Professor, Salem State College, Salem, Massachusetts.

"Michael Schiro's Megafun Math Games and Puzzles for the Elementary Grades stands apart in thanks to its unique pedagogical framework for game and puzzle use in the classroom! The "why" and the connections to the NCTM Standards are as important and useful as the print-ready classroom activities."
--SUZANNE ALEJANDRE, Director of Professional Development, The Math Forum, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

About the Author

MICHAEL S. SCHIRO, Ed.D. is an associate professor at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. He's written numerous articles and many books on teaching and learning math and is a frequent presenter at regional and national math teacher conferences.