Number Sense and Sensibility

All aboard for another field trip through the World Wide Web! This excursion promises engaging number sense activities for all budding mathematicians. Here your students will find fun, and you'll find fortitude.

First stop, Cut-the-Knot! Students test their number sense savvy against their computers when they determine Plus or Minus. In this game, users take turns with the computer to decide whether they should insert a plus sign or a minus sign into a series of numbers. If the solved equation turns out odd, the student wins, if it turns out even, the computer wins.

Hang out a bit longer at Cut-the-Knot, where many mathematical concepts are demonstrated with fun and challenging interactive activities. To offer students practice determining number sequence patterns, have them spend time puzzling What's Next?

Then head on over to A Matter of Age for some R&R. At this location, you'll find a variation on a popular party trick where, through a series of computations, users guess a person's age. Students can dazzle their friends when they perform one more simple calculation to come up with the person's correct age.

Relaxed, and armed with a keen sense of numbers, rejuvenated minds can test their mathematical prowess at Word Problems for Kids. Your students will enjoy a variety of word problems that increase their number sense and computational skills. These simple problems help ease the transition from number algorithms. Students can also check out links that offer hints to solve the problems and check their answers against an answer key.

Students can take a crack at solving more complex number problems at our last stop, Math Maven's Mysteries. Users will find a wide selection of engaging math stories that challenge students' number sense and reading comprehension skills. The mysteries are conveniently labeled with the math skill and the appropriate skill level.

Plus or Minus
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/SimpleGames/pm.shtml

What's Next?
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/recurrence/guess.shtml

A Matter of Age
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/arithmetic/rapid/age.shtml

Math Problems
http://www.stfx.ca/special/
mathproblems/grade6.html

http://www.stfx.ca/special/
mathproblems/grade7.html

http://www.stfx.ca/special/
mathproblems/grade8.html

Math Maven
http://teacher.scholastic.com/
maven/index.htm