Writing is a key component in developing mathematics thinking and understanding. Four strategies to encourage student writing to describe thinking and reasoning are offered. Teachers can use this writing to verify student understanding of mathematical concepts. (MT)

Offers suggestions for presenting multiplication to elementary students at the primary and intermediate levels. At the primary level, the emphasis is on introducing the concept of multiplication; at the intermediate level, the focus is on numeration and place value (using grids and a place value game). (SM)

This article (1) provides a review of "Anno's Counting House," a wordless picture-story and game that engages children in thinking about numbers; and (2) examines a classroom activity from which children learn that the same data, graphed differently, may support a variety of conclusions. (GLR)

Presents suggestions for teaching elementary students about shapes and similarities. Primary students can read an illustrated story that encourages observation and discussion of shapes. Intermediate students can cut shapes out of magazines and describe their similarities. Another activity teaches students that geometrically similar figures,…

A primary math activity teaches students counting and classifying using a book about a mother and child who tour a farm at midnight. An intermediate math activity teaches logical reasoning through a story problem in which students must use information from a story to figure out an answer. (SM)