By Kim Markworth, Jenni McCool, and Jennifer Kosiak

Engage students year-round in meaningful problem-solving tasks

Holidays and seasonal activities provide excitement and a change of pace for teachers and students alike. They also offer perfect backdrops for mathematical tasks that can be related to other topics and themes in the classroom. Problem Solving in All Seasons, Grades 3–5 delivers thirty-six appealing, real-world situations, arranged in grade-level order, to engage young learners in mathematical tasks that are tied to the Common Core State Standards or other content standards and designed to allow children to participate in the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice.

An implementation guide furnishes specifics on each task and includes the following elements:

• Problem Discussion, supplying details about the mathematics
• Strategies, identifying possible student solution methods
• Misconceptions/Student Difficulties, describing the confusion and challenges that students may encounter
• Launch/Explore/Summarize, detailing the three-phase lesson format through which students might engage in each task
• Differentiation, highlighting approaches for extending or simplifying problems for students while maintaining the mathematical integrity of the task
  

Handouts and ancillary materials for each task can be downloaded for printing at NCTM’s online More4U website (nctm.org/more4u). Problem Solving in All Seasons, Grades 3­–5 is your all-in-one practical handbook for problem solving in the upper elementary years.