If the teacher creates a narrative to carry the math, the students are strengthening their listening skills, learning to pick out the information in a story that is important, and then using their developing independent thinking skills to come up with an answer. Children learn to raise their hands, wait their turn, keep the narrative in their heads as the questions progress, and follow a quick moving story. Over the years I have been delighted to discover that children who find working out math problems on paper challenging or have trouble memorizing algorithms can still be stars at solving problems orally. Their approach to solving verbal questions call on a different part of their thinking capacities, allowing them to be quite successful. That success builds their confidence in their ability to develop skills during more traditional math lessons.  As opposed to those traditional math lessons, where a teacher moves slowly and carefully to develop a concept, mental math moves quickly, engaging as many students as possible in about four or five minutes, only slowing down when the teacher asks a question to someone she knows will need help. Then the exercise slows down while that child is helped to find an answer.

 

Nothing is written on the board during this exercise and the students don’t work on their own with pencil and paper. Because of its quick pace, this exercise is done in the first part of the main lesson, the part that provides the wake up activities, connecting the students through group work, and preparing them for the recall and story, and, finally, the academic work that follows.

 

Many years ago I received a grant to do a study about the teaching of math in the elementary grades. As part of that project I interviewed more than thirty-five teachers and sat in on many classes. I was very heartened by the excitement veteran teachers had for the mental math activity, and the deep understanding they had about its benefits. There were also many teachers, however, who were very hesitant to engage in the exercise on a regular basis, thinking they couldn’t come up with enough story lines to make it a rhythmic part of their day. When I visit classrooms I love being able to model the exercise, to the delight of both the students and myself.  However, I’ve often had the class teacher say how difficult it would be for them to come up with enough themes and questions for a daily practice. Over the years more and more teachers have asked me to create a template, something that could provide enough inspiration for them to create their own curriculum. These packets are meant to provide that inspiration.

 

The content for the narratives in the younger grades will depend on the local weather, geography, flora, fauna, populations, and cultural activities of a particular area, and my suggestions are designed to be a template for daily inspiration. After fourth grade the exercise relies more on using traditional math problems to solidify concepts and master algorithms, though middle school students also still enjoy solving math problems from a narrative story developed out of their class activities.

 

As you move through the grades developing stories and introducing different ways to practice math orally it will become easier for you as the teacher. In the following curriculum materials the focus will be on developing stories for a specific grade; the examples in the first grade will meet the children where they are mathematically, but also socially. Each packet will provide examples that meet the needs of one specific grade, using child development, math skills, and the social needs of the age to create the stories and problems. They are meant as inspiration for the class teacher, providing templates that can be used over the course of a year. Many teachers find great joy in this simple yet important exercise, and the hope is that these examples will inspire you to join their ranks.

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There are 60 unique mental math examples in each grade. Here is a sample for one of them (Day 4 for first grade):

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"On my walk to school this morning I had to step over an ant hill. They were very busy. I saw 15 ants carrying seeds. 5 moved as one group. How many walked in a different direction? ___ Those 10 ants each carried 2 seeds. How many seeds was that group carrying all together? ___ They carried 10 seeds down a sidewalk crack. How many seeds stayed above ground? ___ The 10 seeds remaining on the sidewalk were divided between ants in two equal groups. How many were in each group? ___ Other ants were climbing into an ant hill. I saw 12. Then there were 9. How many disappeared into the hill? ___ Then there were 6. How many disappeared? ___ Then there were 3. How many disappeared? ___ Then they were all gone. How many disappeared? ___ I heard the geese honking and looked up to see 10 geese in V-formation. One goose was the leader and there were 5 geese on one side of the V. How many were on the other side? ___ Of those 4 on that side, half of them looked full grown. How many were a bit smaller? ____ Of the 5 on the other side of the V, 2 were quite small. How many were large geese? ___ Then all were gone!"