In this course, students will be introduced to and practice curriculum from the third and fourth grades, including multiplication and division, simple fractions and measurements. The curriculum will be introduced and practiced through games and written practice within the Waldorf approach to education, meaning we will create our own textbook and learn how to really think things through and understand math concepts by relating them to everyday life. 

Students should already have at least minimal introduction to working with the times tables and be familiar with the concept of division. Class will be structured with warm up practice problems, both verbal "mental math" problems and written practice, followed by games and the practice of longer written problems. Games will include "24," math bingo, math squares and sudokus. 

As a teacher, I try to link math concepts to familiar, everyday things such as cooking, money math and story problems that are relatable to the students. The use of games is intended to help the math practice be engaging and fun for students. Students will  be invited to work together in our small group and will have the opportunity to create their own story problems and math games in addition to more traditional practice. This class does not approach learning with rote practice but rather requires the student to think creatively about numbers and their functions, as well as the processes we use to work with them. In addition to scratch paper style of practice problems, students will be encouraged to create a beautiful math notebook that incorporates the material we will learn together, ending with a "math main lesson book" that they can refer to as they move forward with their learning.

An overview of the progression of the curriculum throughout the twelve week class is as follows:
Week 1: The times tables, 1 -12: Multiplication practice through games and practice problems.  
Week 2: Continuation of multiplication practice with the introduction of additional math puzzles and games.
Week 3: Multiplication practice and introduction to division, story problems. 
Week 4: Continued focus on multiplication and simple division. Sudokus, the game 24.
Weeks 5-6 Story problems and practical written practice of long multiplication and division.
Weeks 7-8 New ways of practicing multiplication, including the Japanese method, additional math games.
Weeks 9-10 Continuation and progression of all of the above topics as well as an introduction to working with fractions and decimals. 
Weeks 11-12 The completion of our math notebooks, incorporating artistic examples of multiplication and division, simple fractions and geometry from third and fourth grade curriculums.