Easy Math Lessons for Young Students

Making Math Easy for Younger Kids

Planning the Lesson

Before creating a math lesson, you need to have a specific, measurable goal in mind. If you know what you want your students to be able to do at the end of the lesson, you will have an easier time writing the plan for it.

Incorporating Five Steps

There are five steps in presenting easy math lessons that will help all of your younger students. You can customize these techniques to fit your students' needs.

Preview the Topic

The point of this step is to get the kids' attention and interest, introduce the lesson and motivate them to learn what you are about to teach. This may include why the students need the lesson and what they can do with the information once they learn it. Connect the information they are about to learn with what they already know.

You might do an activity that appeals to young students, such as reading a fun book about the topic. Singing songs can also be a good strategy.

Teach the Lesson

This portion of the lesson plan requires you to teach the concepts of the lesson. It includes facts or ideas, skills, vocabulary, methods and strategies that the kids must learn for math success. For young students, this usually includes demonstrations using manipulatives or other visuals.

Provide Guidance

In this step, you can help the children do what you just taught them. Show them step-by-step again before you ask them to do it themselves. You can help students individually as needed, guiding them to success. Students can practice the new skill as many times as the schedule permits. Questions and answers are useful during this time; be sure to ask some questions of your own to the class.

Encourage Independent Work

Now the kids get the chance to show that they learned. This can be accomplished using worksheets, puzzles and games. If you have Internet access, interactive games can be very useful in providing practice, and many of them offer instant answers.

Close the Lesson

You can finish the lesson by assisting students in organizing what they learned. Ask them what they are still fuzzy about and how they can use the information from the lesson. Here are some other exercises you can use to close the lesson:

1. Ask each student to explain to the rest of the class what his or her favorite part of the lesson was.
2. Have each kid write his or her own math problem that's based on the lesson. Mix the problems up in a container and send it around the room. Each student will pick one and solve it.
3. Have the students collaborate to create a fun short story, song or poem that summarizes what they've learned. You can do this in small groups or as a whole class.