Problem Solving As It Relates to Math

Are you having your students stretch their math thinking and having them apply basic math skills into problem solving type scenarios.  Students who are able to apply their basic math skills will be stronger at math than those who can not. Problem solving and applying math to real life situations is a great way to not only make math lots of fun, but also stretch students math communicating and thinking.  

Here are some web resources to help you do this:

Math Starters of the Day 

• This site has a math problem each day on the calendar.  It might be a good warm-up for kids at the beginning of the day or as independent work during math centers.

http://nrich.maths.org/students 

• Click on Students and then choose your grade level at the top of the screen.  The current live problems will appear on your screen.  
• Clicking on SchoolMath Topics gives you math topics to choose problems from.  
• Games and Interactives... obviously gives you games and interactives.  
• Clicking on the Topics button may also give you a good way to choose specific math topics that align with your current math goals.
• Clicking the Teachers link at the top of the screen and then choosing your grade level will give you great resources geared to your grade level.

http://www.mathlanding.org/

• This site is easily searchable by grade level and by math skill or topic.  Once you search, you will get a list of activities and interactives that meet the skill and grade level you chose.  Great activities for Math centers and independent math thinking and exploration.
• Click on Collections, and the Classroom Collections gives you a different way to look for activities.  Here you can also see activities as they relate  to the Mathematical Process standards.

http://mathforum.org/index.html

• This math great find, while a subscription based site (which might be worth the price....), it also has some resources to explore for free.
• Under Problems & Puzzles, you see at the top center the problems for members and the problems for free.  Try KenKen for a challenge of basic math computation.  Great fun!
• On the left. check out the Sample Problems