How to Promote Math in a Fourth-Grade Classroom
Teachers face the challenge of making mandated curriculum exciting for their students. Many students find subjects such as math boring and believe that it is useless to them. However, math can be promoted in the fourth-grade and other elementary grades by relating math to real-world scenarios, using games and allowing students to participate in math competitions.
Instructions
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Relate math concepts to real-world applications. When working with the four basic operations of math, use real-life examples to reinforce the importance of using math operations. For example, when teaching division you can bring a box of cookies to school and ask the students to use division to determine how many cookies each child in the classroom can have. Another fun real-world activity allows students to interview classmates about favorite food items or other items and then use their data to create classroom graphs.
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Use games to increase interest in math concepts. Games such as multiplication or division bingo can be played in the classroom and interactive games can be found online. Many online math games can be found at Trip1.org and Gamequarium.com. To promote the understanding of money concepts, a class store can be set up and students can be allowed to purchase items such as pencils or other school supplies with either real or fake money.
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Allow students to compete in mathematics competitions to promote interest in mathematics. Students enjoy competing. Competitions can be organized using teams or can be completed individually. Students can be challenged to complete complex math problems and word problems. Winners can be awarded with stickers, certificates or even fake money that can be used in the classroom store.
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