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Math teaching resources for every K-2 classroom: Lesson ideas, hands-on activities, books, online tools, and more!
Math Resources for Teaching Kindergarten, First, & Second Grade
Do you ever feel unmotivated when planning math lessons? Perhaps you are using the same lessons you teach each year and want to try something fresh and relevant? This post will help inspire you to create engaging lessons for your math block.
Having a go-to list of quality resources to refer to when you need inspiration is possible with these hands-on ideas and fun strategies.
You will find resources founded on solid academic standards that are easy to use (No extra prep work? Yes, please!).
Just remember to bookmark or PIN for later!
Math Books
Books are always a helpful tool for teaching academic topics, and math is no different.
Here are some quality children’s books for your math lessons.
- Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss – This fun, charming book is excellent for basic counting for young learners.
- One Hundred Angry Ants by Elinor J Pinczes – Kids will learn that there are so many ways to make one hundred!
- Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 by Bill Martin Jr. – Good book for building number sense.
- Place Value by David A. Adler – This book will introduce kids to place value with these cute little monkeys.
- 10 Black Dots by Donald Crews – For young kiddos, this book is suitable for introducing counting and numbers.
- Ten for Me by Barbara Mariconda – A fun book that helps kids practice adding.
- How Many Snails?: A Counting Book by Paul Giganti Jr. – This book allows kids to practice counting and work on observation, discrimination, and visual analysis.
- Cookie Road 123: A Counting Book by Sohee Ahn – Early learners will learn about counting and simple subtraction in this fun book.
- 100 Bugs!: A Counting Book by Kate Narita – This book explores different ways to make 10. An essential math book.
- I Spy Numbers by Jean Marzollo – Always fun, this I Spy book helps kids work on identifying numbers.
Math Books
Here are more excellent children’s books to help you teach math in K-2, organized by topic.
- Teaching numbers
- Building number sense to 20
- Patterns
- Addition strategies
- Subtraction strategies
- Teaching measurement
- Counting
- Telling time
Hands-On Math Activities
Of all the reasons for using hands-on math activities, the most important is to allow students of all abilities and learning styles to succeed.
Add multiple teaching methods to your math lessons: direct and explicit instruction, whole-group, small-group, independent practice, exploratory, and hands-on learning.
Providing opportunities for active and engaged learning is one way to meet each child where they learn best.
Hands-On Math Activities to Teach Math Concepts
- Numbers to 20 – An extensive list of number sense activities and resources, including books, materials, math manipulatives, and free number puzzles.
- Numbers to 100 – Tips and strategies for learning numbers to 100 or 120 in Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. An extensive list of number activities to 100 and resources are included: books, materials, lesson ideas, and FREE number train activity.
- Addition & Subtraction – Build math fact fluency and teach hands-on ways of solving word problems. Don’t forget to grab the FREE addition sorting activity!
- Graphing and probability – Ideas for hands-on fun during your graphing unit, plus a FREE graphing board game.
- Shapes & Geometry – There are tons of fun math activities and a FREE pattern block symmetry activity.
- Fractions – Tons of ideas for teaching and learning fractions, practice activities for kids, and hands-on learning, including a FREE fraction puzzle activity.
- Telling Time – Help kids learn to say what time it is within seconds with just a glance at the clock. They will enjoy the fun activities, including the FREE time puzzles.
- Patterning – Teach kids the math skills of identifying and creating patterns with hands-on activities. They will love making pattern hats with the FREE printable template!
- Measurement – Build kids’ understanding by exploring weight, length, capacity, and area in hands-on ways using rulers and non-standard units. Try the FREE measurement task cards for some hands-on fun!
- Money and coins – Ideas, activities, tools, games, and books to make your lessons effective and fun when teaching money and coins. Give the FREE coin sorting mat activity a try!
- Math Manipulatives – Check out what every classroom needs on hand for math lessons, activities, and games.
Online Math Tools
The following Math websites are great resources for teachers to use in the classroom or to assign as homework.
- Fun Brain Math Zone – Lots of fun math games!
- Khan Academy – Tons of free videos on various math topics.
- Math Game Time – Fun math games on various grade levels.
- Math Goodies – Lessons, games, and worksheets for math instruction.
- Prodigy – Kids play games, and teachers can monitor their progress.
How to Teach Guided Math Email Training
Looking to strengthen your skills in teaching math and help your students acquire important math skills? Looking for effective strategies for running whole-group and small-group lessons and centers?
This free math training for K-2 teachers can help!
Sign up for FREE today to get the SIMPLE tips and HELPFUL tools to help you teach math effectively in K-2.
This math email series will guide you step-by-step on your journey to teaching math effectively.
You will learn strategies to help you set up and run a guided math program, PLUS you will gain valuable FREE math tools and activities you can access right away.
Simply click the image below to sign up!
Math Teaching Resources for K-2
The Mindful Math curriculum by Proud to be Primary includes detailed lessons that can be broken down into whole-group mini-lessons and small-group instruction. It also has various independent math practice options, such as journals, warm-up task cards, practice sheets, centers and games, and assessments.
You can read more about the Mindful Math program available for Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade HERE.
Check out a FREE Mindful Math lesson for k-2 to see how it can work for you!
Kindergarten Mindful Math Curriculum
Mindful Math is a comprehensive math curriculum for kindergarten that was designed to be teacher and student-friendly. It was created to give teachers a ready-to-teach math curriculum that is fun, engages minds, and leaves students knowledgeable and fluent in math concepts.
First Grade Mindful Math Curriculum
Mindful Math is a comprehensive math curriculum for first grade that was designed to be teacher and student-friendly. It was created to give teachers a ready-to-teach math curriculum that is fun, engages minds, and leaves students knowledgeable and fluent in math concepts.
Second Grade Mindful Math Curriculum
Mindful Math is a comprehensive math curriculum for second grade that was designed to be teacher and student-friendly. It was created to give teachers a ready-to-teach math curriculum that is fun, engages minds, and leaves students knowledgeable and fluent in math concepts.Free Math Mini-Lesson Ideas for K-2
Are you stuck not knowing which mini-lessons to teach? Grab a copy of our printable ideas list to gain TONS of mini-lesson ideas for Kindergarten, first, and second grade.
Click the image below to grab a copy.
More Math Teacher Ideas
PIN for Later
FREE Number Sense Email Series
Sign up for the building number sense email series filled with effective strategies, must try activities, and FREE resources to build routines in your classroom. Everything you need to help kids grow their number sense and have fun at the same time!
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