Top 5 Cool Maths Sites for students

There are plenty of math sites out on the web that target to different audiences and needs but it is always difficult to find sites that you can just freely let your kids roam and and explore and learn something at the same time.  The list I have put together below are 5 great sites that I can confidently recommend to use in your classroom or at home to have some fun and extend their knowledge.

 Cool Math 4 Kids

Describing itself as an "amusement park of math", this site offers online games, brain benders, flash cards, and a game zone. Parents and teachers will appreciate the printable flash cards. One of the more unique games isLemonade Stand, where kids get to run their own virtual lemonade stand

Math Cats
Kids who love cats will enjoy exploring this site. Learn exactly how old you are in days, minutes and even seconds. Games include multiplication grids, using money, and guessing how many people there are in What a Crowd!

Brain Bashers

Includes an interesting collection of math, logic, and language puzzles, games, and illusions, separated into easy, medium and hard categories.

Escape from Knab
You've won a one-way ticket to the Planet Knab, but once you're there, you find that it isn't what you thought it would be. Get a good job, make wise financial decisions, and save enough to pay for the next rocket ship to Earth, or you might just be stuck on Knab forever!

www.funbrain.com/numbers.html. This site includes 17 original games based on soccer, car racing and much more Other games include Math Baseball, where a child can score runs with correct answers and Operation Order, where students can build pyramids with their knowledge of algebra.

Student Led Passion Projects - Brilliant personalised learning task

Passion Projects are a brilliant opportunity to let your students develop their own personalised learning styles, offer them the chance to take ownership of their learning and work within a timeline to meet deadlines all the while spending a term doing something they have a real passion about.

I would have to say that when I run my Passion Projects annually my students continually amaze me in terms of what they can achieve when they are motivated about learning.  Regardless of whether they are high achievers or struggle academically I have seen students totally transform their attitude to learning once they realise what they can achieve through this project.

What is a passion project you may ask?

Here is the complete outline for you to hand out to your students explaining the expectations of this project but in a nutshell here is how it works.

• Students select a task or skill in which they want to learn something new. (some examples my students have done in the past are dressmaking, making a video game, learning an instrument, cooking a 3 course meal for their family or building a cubby house.)

• Students research and complete the task within the time frame outlined.

• Students keep an online diary of their learning journey outlining their successes and failures.

• Students then teach a family member or friend their task or skill to show them what they have learnt.

• Students put together a presentation outlining their learning journey including videos, photos and feedback from family members or friends. They are peer assessed in accordance with the assessment rubric.

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IT’S ALL HERE

A complete unit of work on PASSION PROJECTS for teachers and students. NO PREP REQUIRED.

Your students will be super ENGAGED working on PERSONALISED LEARNING TASK they are PASSIONATE ABOUT. OVER 50 PAGES OF CONTENT, RESOURCES AND ASSESSMENT TOOLS INCLUDED.

DOWNLOAD NOW

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Please note it is unimportant whether a student succeeds or fails in completing their task they are attempting.  What is important is that they record and learn from those successes and failures and can share that knowledge with others.  This is outlined in full in the assessment rubric which is handed to students and explained to them at the beginning of the project.

Passion Projects are aimed at students from grades 3 – 9 but can definitely be modified to suit any year level.

Be sure to invite parents to attend the final presentation as it is a huge moment for some students.  I have included a covering letter for this also that I have used in the past.

From a teachers perspective this is a brilliant task.  You simply give your students all of the information provided and contribute your own input along the time line (about 3 times in total) to ensure students are staying on task and offer guidance where necessary.  All of the assessment is understood before students begin and I have recently let peers assess them using the assessment rubric.  It runs for a term and is very easy in terms of your input but offers massive rewards when you see the finished product.

Resources:

Passion Project Overview (Ensure Students, Parents and staff have a copy of this.)

Passion Project Assessment Rubric (Ensure Students, Parents and staff have a copy of this.)

Letter to Parents inviting them to attend Presentation Evening.

I wish you well.

You may need to alter these resources to suit your own needs obviously and if you have any queries please don’t hesitate to comment below and I’ll address them.

Free e-Learning for kids

This site offers a reasonable amount of ICT based opportunities for students based upon year level and key learning area.  It has a large amount of content contained within it and you could comfortably rely upon your kids to find something productive to do here.  Check it out.

Some literacy activities for Primary Students

What is it: I  have complied about half of my independent literacy tasks aimed at primary / elementary students .  The activities are included as a PDF with instructions and are very easy to follow all related to reading and literacy.  The activities are:  Make a puppet; Same story different Words; Picture Mobile; Mobile Building; Word Puzzles, Wanted Poster; So you want to be a Poet; Letter to the Editor; false Advertising; letter to a Friend; Radio Play; Going to the Theatre; Personality Plus; Don't Judge a book by it's cover; Illustrations; collages; Time lines, Larger than Life; Fables; Crosswords; I've lost my Page; I agree; They did what;

How can I use these in my classroom:  You can use these as either group or individual tasks for your students to work through over a period of time.  they are applicable to any text so you can ask students to relate them to a book being read as a whole group or as an individual text.  See how you go. 

Download the PDF here. I have a load more of these availble also that I will add.