Ellie Brown

While language is embedded in virtually all schoolwork, math is often perceived as a special, unrelated subject. This concept needs to be overturned early in a child’s education. The explicit and sequential teaching of numeracy skills should be ongoing from the child’s first year of school. Classroom lessons should be combined with hands-on activities and engaging, challenging practice exercises. Essential Skills has the best math programs for elementary students covering grades K-6. Math acquisition needs to happen step-by-step, so it is essential to ensure your student has accomplished the understanding of a concept before moving on to the next one. When you use online math programs for elementary students, you will be informed immediately of a student’s progress and the program will build skills incrementally as the child is ready.The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) recommends “Young children in every setting should experience mathematics through effective, research-based curricula and teaching practices. Such practices in turn require that teachers have the support of policies, organizational structures, and resources that enable them to succeed in this challenging and important work.” Essential Skills has developed the best elementary math programs to build skills gradually and sequentially and ensure mastery at each step. The units that need to be covered in a comprehensive math program include: Numeracy A basic knowledge of numbers and simple arithmetic operations Measurement including units of length, weight, time, and temperature Patterning includes repeated sequences of shapes, colors, numbers etc. that can be finite or infinite Geometry learning basic 2-dimensional shapes and 3-dimensional solids and some terms to represent them Data Management learning to read and construct simple graphs and charts Probability the likelihood that an event will occur These skills will be built upon as a child progresses. Many children will acquire these skills at different rates. It is common for a student to get “stuck” on a concept and unable to advance until they are able to grasp that idea. When children are consistently behind their peers in more than one unit, it may be an early signal of a learning disability or other condition that requires more intense and individualized support. Using math programs for elementary students from Essential Skills will record student progress as it happens and create reports to help teachers determine areas of need. The built-in pretest feature can be used to automatically individualize math instruction for each student based on pretest results. The best elementary math programs will inspire kids to stick at math practice using a variety of games and activities that appeal to visual, auditory, and tactile learners. We think you will agree that Essential Skills offers some of the best math programs for elementary students. Visit our homepage or contact us to request your 30-day free trial and discover the Essential Skills difference!