Complete Resource List

These are colorful plastic sticks that snap together, but are still able to move freely to form different angles. Each color is a different length, which is written on the stick in both metric and U.S. Standard measurements. At my school, we use these in third through fifth grade. Not only do we use them when studying angles, but they are great for learning about polygons. We build different types of polygons, but also test out which lengths of Anglegs will snap together and why or why not, as well as what types of angles are formed within the polygons. You can find these under the names Anglegs or Geostix, but they’re both the same item.

Read More

These blocks are fantastic—they come in several shapes and colors, and each piece is a polygon (so no curved sides). There are magnets along the edges inside the blocks that allow them to easily stick together. Your child can build towers and towns and whatever else comes from their imaginations, and you can also support them learning about polygons and polyhedrons, using vocabulary that they have learned in school like “vertices”, “angles”, “faces”, and “edges”. While I use these in class when we’re exploring the characteristics of polyhedrons and learning the different names for each one, I’ve found that my third graders will happily go grab these any time we have indoor recess, they just love playing with them so much. And clean-up is SO easy—since they each have magnets in them, all you have to do is stack the same shapes together and they stick together easily and fit nicely in the box.

Read More

The FlashMaster is a hand-held computer to help your child master their math facts (all four operations). It goes as high as 9+9 in addition, up to 18-9 in subtraction, up to 12 x 12 in multiplication, and up to 144 divided by 12 in division. If your kid gets a problem incorrect, it gives him or her the correct answer AND repeats the same problem two more times for practice. It has an array of modes and levels, so you can choose the difficulty of what your child is working on. Additionally, there are timing options, so you can give them a specific amount of time to do as many problems as they can, or you can give them a certain number of seconds per problem. You can also choose up to 15 problems of your own choosing if there are specific problems your child needs to work on and practice. It even saves the information from the last nine times your child has played it, so that you can see how much time it took, how many problems they finished, and how many they got correct/ incorrect. While initially I was a bit skeptical since at first it just sounded like an expensive set of flash cards, the kids really love working on the Flashmaster and I have found it’s a good go-to for my early finishers, as well as an extra activity on game days in my class. Plus, the information you get from having the kids play this is so valuable—way better than trying to keep track yourself of which problems tend to trip them up and they need to work on. (As a note, however, there are websites out there like XtraMath and IXL that you can subscribe to and will track your child’s progress for you… this is just a very portable version of that.)

Read More