Level 1
A combination of activities for learners and insights for educators
Building Strength with Numeracy is a wonderful resource that you can use to help learners gain fundamental mathematics skills and concepts using everyday applications. (It's so great, we also featured it on the Numeracy in life page.)The resources are for educators and include activities that can be used with learners. Extensive information is provide for educators making this an ideal resource for those who might be hesitant about their own math capabilities. Confident educators will also learn some new ways of approaching numeracy. Some references and activities are Australia specific and require adaptation. .
The video features the author, Beth Marr, who "takes you through some strategic thinking" and provides some tips for using the concepts and activities.
Copyrighted. Available as PDFs or online.
Fractions-Full.pdf5. Fractions (online)
Percentages-Full.pdf6. Percentages (online)
Decimals-Sample.pdf7. Decimals - Sample only
Option to purchase for $25.00 AUD
Measurement-Sample.pdf8. Measurement - Sample only
Option to purchase for $25.00 AUD
Workbooks from the BC Open Collection and NWT Literacy Council
Adult-Literacy-Fundamental-Mathematics-Book-1-2nd-Edition.pdfAdult Literacy Fundamental Mathematics: Book 1 - 2nd Edition
Topics in this book include: number and number operations, patterns, functions and relations, real life applications, geometry and time.
Adult-Literacy-Fundamental-Mathematics-Book-2-–-2nd-Edition.pdfAdult Literacy Fundamental Mathematics: Book 2 - 2nd Edition
Topics in this book include: Number sense, addition, subtraction, multiplication, making change, time, and perimeter.
ALF_Math_Book_3_PDF.pdfAdult Literacy Fundamental Mathematics: Book 3
Topics in this book include multiplication, division and measurement.
Use selectively and cautiously with your students. There is an over-emphasis on multiplication and division by hand. Use the quizzes and a few exercises if needed to meet a specific goal such as passing a test.
Also available as a Word document.
Simply_Math_2014.pdfOverview of basic math
Simply Math Workbook from the NWT Literacy Council provides a user-friendly overview of whole numbers, basic operations, fractions, decimals, percents and measurement.
No copyright or CC license; permission granted to use without restrictions.
Beginning Curriculum for Adults Learning Math (BeCALM)
This curriculum from the United States has both teacher and student materials that can be downloaded as Word documents or PDFs. The math content is aimed at beginning level learners (grade level equivalency of 2–4).
Copyrighted. PDFs and Word versions available.
NumberSense_Pt1_TeachersGuide_Jan2022_0.pdfNumber Sense - Teacher's Guide (Word version)
NumberSense_Pt1_StudentPacket_Jan2022_0.pdfNumber Sense - Student Packet (Word version)
BeCALM_Multiplication_TeachersGuide_v7.pdfMultiplication Concepts - Teacher's Guide (Word version)
BeCALM_Multiplication_StudentPacket_v6.pdfMultiplication Concepts - Student Packet (Word version)
OperationSense_Pt2_TeachersGuide_Jan2022.pdfOperation Sense - Teacher's Guide (Word version)
OperationSense_Pt2_StudentPacket_Jan2022.pdfOperation Sense - Student Packet (Word version)
Operation_Sense_Student_Additional_Readings.pdfOperation Sense - Additional Readings (Word version)
BeCALM_Geometry_Teachers_Guide_Dec2021_0.pdfGeometry - Teacher's Guide (Word version)
BeCALM_Geometry_Student_Packet_Dec2021.pdfGeometry - Student Packet (Word version)
Geometry_SHAPE_SET_0.pdfGeometry - Shape Set
Triangle_Dot_Paper_Small_0.pdfGeometry - Dot Paper
Comprehensive video collection focused on foundational math concepts and strategies
Math Visuals is an amazing collection of videos to help students of all ages visualize foundational math concepts and strategies. It was created by a math teacher, Berkeley Everett. The emphasis is on problem-solving and logical thinking, not rote memorization. Topics include the following:
Multiplication and division, and
The complete collection of 107 videos is on Vimeo, which allows you to share them with a link or embed them. You can also download the videos to create your own library. (Look for icons below the video.)
No copyright or CC licensing information; maintain attribution.
Online math manipulatives from GeoGebra
GeoGebra has a collection of elementary math resources including manipulatives to learn math concepts in a fun and interactive way
Once you have an account, you can assign the interactive to Google Classroom or create a lesson code for each student. Both will allow students to use the manipulative to solve a challenge as you monitor their progress.
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Visual math challenges
The site Play with Your Math is a collection of images and accompanying PDF posters that display a math challenge for students to solve. "We design posters and handouts that hook you visually and explain the problem in just enough words. The problems that we’ve picked require trying, struggling, failing, adjusting, and trying again until, finally, a discovery is made."
No copyright or CC licensing information; maintain attribution.
Open Middle math problems
The following review is from the Adult Numeracy Network
Open Middle is an incredible source of math problems that can be searched by topic and/or grade level K-12. What makes an "open middle" problem? All the problems on the site have a closed beginning because they start with the same initial problem. Most have a closed ending, because they end with the same answer (though there are some problems here that have more than one answer). They all have an open middle, because there are multiple ways to approach each problem. The problem to the left is an example of a middle school level task.
Learn more about using Open Middle with adult education students:
Using Open Middle - Math Practitioner Spring 2017
CollectEdNY review - Open Middle: Hundreds of Challenging Math Problems Worth Solving.
Search the site by math topic or grade level to find individual problems. These can be printed, shared and downloaded. Slide sets organized by grade level are also available here.
The complete collection and website is available in French.
No copyright or CC licensing information; maintain attribution.