Singapore Math: Number Sense and Computational Strategies

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.

Lesson 1
Do you ever feel like your math lessons are falling flat and maybe even confusing your students? Well, help is here. Get ready to learn the revolutionary curriculum from Singapore, one of the world's math leaders! In today's lesson, we'll start exploring Singapore Math, the number sense instruction that it revolves around, and how number sense and computation the Singapore way can help you reach your students.

Lesson 2
While we all have a general idea of what number sense is and why it's important, Singapore Math takes number sense to the next level. It integrates number sense into every computation by building a solid foundation on concrete, pictorial, and abstract number sense activities. Today we'll talk about Singapore's number sense instruction in detail.

Lesson 3
Hand in hand with number sense is place value instruction, which helps us understand how a number can occupy different places in an equation and represent different quantities in doing so. The number 2 can be 2 or it can take the ten's place in 20 or the hundred's place in 200. Are you eager to learn how Singapore Math brings place value instruction to life with place value mats and disks? If you and your students love games, you're sure to enjoy this concrete way of learning about place value.

Lesson 4
Addition is such a basic part of math, but surprisingly, many students struggle with this operation. So today we'll learn three impressive Singapore Math addition strategies. We're going to use place value mats and disks to complete all of our addition problems. We'll start with single-digit problems and then move to multi-digit problems and problems requiring regrouping. I promise you'll love these place value mats by the end of the lesson!

Lesson 5
Let's say that your students have been working with mats and disks for a while, and they're ready for more advanced addition strategies. That's when you'll be glad you know about branching, left-to-right addition, and vertical addition, the three strategies we'll meet in today's lesson. These strategies help students transition from manipulatives to algorithms using their number sense as a guide.

Lesson 6
Once students are comfortable doing addition, it's time to move onto subtraction. It will probably come as no surprise that we start this lesson with subtraction on our place value mats. As we did with addition, we'll begin with single-digit problems that don't require regrouping. Then we'll move onto multi-digit problems that don't require regrouping and those that do require regrouping. It's fascinating how we use the place value mat to do subtraction, and I think you'll soon fall in love with the technique.

Lesson 7
Now that we've learned a little bit about subtraction the Singapore way, we can move onto more advanced subtraction strategies. Today, we'll practice subtraction with branching and with the traditional algorithm. But guess what? It'll be a cinch because you've already got a firm footing with your place value mat. You'll really appreciate how branching builds on the work we laid with the mats.

Lesson 8
Well, we've already mastered two operations using Singaporean computational strategies! Next, we'll turn our attention to multiplication strategies that double the learning. You guessed it—we'll begin by using our place value mats to complete simple multiplication problems. Only this time, we'll put groups of chips on the board to represent our quantities. Stay tuned to see how versatile our place value mats really are when we're doing multiplication with and without regrouping.

Lesson 9
While the place value mats give us a great start with our multiplication, they aren't the only strategy we use. In this lesson, you'll meet model drawing, multiplication through the distributive property, and area model multiplication, three inventive strategies that teach us to look at multiplication in a totally new way. All three of these terms may be totally new to you, or you may already be familiar with a few of them. But what I can promise you is that these are dynamite strategies your students will love.

Lesson 10
Are you ready to tackle division? Often considered the hardest of the four core mathematical operations, division sometimes gets the short end of the stick. There are a number of ways that we can make this operation click for our struggling learners, and we'll start today where we always do: with our place value mats and disks. Isn't it amazing that we can use these simple mats for each of the operations? We'll begin with single-digit division and then progress to division without regrouping and with regrouping.

Lesson 11
Some of my favorite computational strategies live in this lesson, where we take our division skills to the next level. Today, get ready to meet the distributive property in action, partial quotient division, and short division. Each of these strategies has a Singaporean twist that makes it particularly powerful and innovative, and soon, your students will be longing for long division. No, really!

Lesson 12
Now that you have all these new computational strategies at your disposal, I bet you're wondering, "Well, how do I bring all of this together in my classroom?" That's just the question we'll answer today. We'll create a portable toolkit you can use to share Singapore Math with your students and other teachers at your school, and at the same time, we'll discuss the most effective way to slowly and methodically integrate the best of Singapore Math into your current curriculum.