Keeping in mind that Algebra is the destination for our K-8 math students, this section recommends key activities for each grade that bring the Common Core State Standards in Math (CCSSM) for that grade to life, plus references to H. Wu’s Understanding Numbers in Elementary School Mathematics and Teaching School Mathematics: Pre-Algebra and other relevant books and links.
My goal is three-fold:
- to give you worthwhile things to do with your students that help them develop the number sense they need to make sense of arithmetic on their way to Algebra,
- to justify those activities according to the CCSSM, with pertinent citations for each,
- and to put those activities in the larger context of school mathematics and human cognition by citing relevant pages and passages from the work of H. Wu and others.