Lemon Tech Tidbits

  Are you looking for a fun activity to help teach math concepts such as telling time, using a number line, or understanding fractions? Take a look at all of the FREE math apps available from MathLearningCenter. The apps can be used on an iPad or a Chromebook. You can even use most of them straight from a website without downloading the app itself. In addition to providing many wonderful apps, MathLearningCenter has curriculum guides and lesson plans created for teachers from Kindergarten through grade 5. On top of the apps, there is a really cool home connection in which activities can be done either in class or at home with the parents for more practice. 

  The website was created for math teachers by other teachers as a way to get them to think about math concepts. It is good for elementary through high school students. The pictures are divided into three categories: Shapes, Numbers, and Graphs&Equations. Teachers have submitted pictures in groups of four and together, your students have to explain which character does not belong with the others. There are no answers so students must justify their reasons. When you find a picture you want to use with your students, do a right click and copy the picture. You can then paste it into a new Google Slide presentation or document so it is bigger for your students to see. 

The other day, I was on some social media site (can’t remember now) where the conversation was about apps teachers absolutely love. Many people responded by saying “Watertank Math for the iPad!” So of course, I had to take a look and investigate. What is Watertank Math? It is a visual representation of adding and subtracting numbers using a water tank and/or a toilet. In the app, there are different categories such as work tank, into words (math problems), show me, and practice. Where can I get it? There is an app for iPads . The app is free to download and use. Why use it? The app was created by a team of math teachers as a fun way for elementary students to learn about math symbols used in addition and subtraction while presenting a visual representation of what happens. What more math app suggestions? A blog post from Online Tech Tips shares 6 of what they feel are the best math apps for students. You can access the entire list here.

Promote young children’s visual-spatial reasoning and creative problem-solving skills through open-ended play RelationShapes is available for both iPad and Chromebooks. It was designed specifically for elementary students to encourage children to “explore and discover visual-spatial relationships, or how objects relate to one another, in a fun and interactive way. Children move through eight levels of cumulative, progressively challenging activities designed to encourage flexible thinking and creativity. As they drag, scale, and rotate both abstract and figurative elements, they are exercising their spatial reasoning skills – which build a strong foundation for mathematics, problem-solving, and creative expression.” To see how it works, watch this short video: https://youtu.be/urLBpZ_yVqA To watch an app review, click on this video: https://youtu.be/3r0lrch1wXY

20 GREAT YOUTUBE CHANNELS FOR MATH TEACHERS Learning new math concepts can be daunting for many students. This is especially true if they are trying to practice math problems at home with no one around to help them. Thankfully, there are many youtube videos available for students to access. The problem though is which ones are the best. A blog post by Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has compiled a list of 20 great youtube channels to follow. Each channel listed has a short description of what it is all about. These channels can be used to reinforce a skill taught by the teacher, to provide a refresher course, or to use as instruction. Take a look at the list and find one that will work for you and for your class by clicking here: https://goo.gl/NWhryW BONUS: Here is another list titled: 10 YouTube Channels That Will Help Your Kids With Math

CK-12 Foundation is a  FREE  open-source website that provides teachers and students with many resources to use in  Science  and in  Math. There are  science and math stimulations, study guides, lesson plans, videos,  and even  Flexbooks  (digital textbooks that can be customized). CK-12 was designed to work anywhere on any device. It is interactive with Google Classroom and Edmodo as well as other platforms. Although the site is free to access, teachers and students will gain even more by signing up for a free account. It’s easy to do as you can sign in with your Google account. Take a look at  ck-12.org To learn more about CK-12 and Google Classroom, watch this short video:  https://youtu.be/2aF8gqhEYxs To see a more detailed video on how to use the features, CK-12 has created a series of video’s. You can access them here:  https://www.ck12info.org/about/ck12-webinars/  

From CommonSense Media: “Mangahigh is a web-based platform that boasts dozens of math games and hundreds of tutorials and quizzes, all aligned with Common Core standards. It teaches and reinforces a wide variety of math fundamentals, from counting and number sense all the way up to beginning algebra and geometry concepts. Students can play through games at their own pace or work on teacher-assigned challenges and lessons. For extra-competitive flavor, students can earn medals, badges, and rewards, compete in social games with students across the world, or take part in school-wide challenges against other schools." An impressive teacher dashboard lets instructors manage the whole experience with a gorgeous gradebook system, easy class setup, comprehensive analytics at the class or student level, and full interactive previews of all games and lessons. Classroom Mode allows teachers to lock down student access to teacher-assigned tasks (games or activities) for up to 90 minute...

Matific   is a web-based site that provides curriculum aligned math resources for grades K-6 and encourages conceptual understanding. “Explore Matific's library of hundreds of interactive and playful activities, called “episodes”. Discover the award winning pedagogy that earned Matific the endorsement of math teachers worldwide.” There are hundreds of episodes available with new ones added each week.  As a teacher, you can sign up for a free 30-Day trial. After the trial period, you can register for access for as little as $10.00 for twelve months.  As a parent, you can sign up to use Matific for 3 months to a full year for the price of $30.00 For more information, please visit the Matific website or watch this 30 minute webinar:  https://youtu.be/MxhLQnBI-5Y