ALLKIDSARITHMETIC1

How to Implement All Kids Can Learn Arithmetic

To implement All Kids Can Learn Arithmetic, you need the activity guides (ebooks) and materials for the keys. The activity guides consist of lessons that supplement or may be used in place of the usual ones for whole numbers and fractions in elementary school and middle school math. They rely heavily on pictures to communicate and require little teacher/adult intervention. The materials consist of an for the , for the , and for the .

Makeshift Materials and Free Lessons

The templates for paper models of the materials and hundreds of sample lessons in this website enable using the program at little or no cost. Additionally, some of the activity guides, such as those for fractions, are free. (Click to view all of the activity guides and download the free ones.) Permission is given to use the lessons in the guides in any educational setting: tutoring, homeschooling, public and private elementary school and middle school classes, remediation classes in high school and junior colleges, adult education classes, and teacher preparation courses—all rights reserved. The activity guides and materials in the are to facilitate using the program, not put a price on it. Still, check out the EquaBeam™ and Fair Lands™ blocks in the store. They make great educational toys!

Begin with the Equals Key

The five keys are interrelated but sufficiently independent of one another to where you can begin with any one of them. If a certain key is timely for your child(ren) or class, start with it. Otherwise, start with the Equals key. It is the easiest to teach and covers the most amount of mathematics: from the mathematical meaning of equality to solving algebraic equations in one unknown (like x+5=12 or 43+9=6y+10). Even kindergartners can solve algebraic equations using the EquaBeam™! The suggested order after that is the , , Fair Trades key, and Real Fractions key because there is a natural flow from one key to the other in that order, but there is no real disadvantage in mixing up the order. What matters with the keys is that you teach them—all five.

What to Do and How to Know When You've Done It

The objectives for the keys are found by clicking on “teaching stuff beneath “home for each key. For a particular key, do only as many lessons from the relevant activity guide as are needed to attain the objectives. For most objectives, you will not need to use all of the lessons in the guide. Then repeat for whatever key you plan to teach next until you have taught all five keys. When finished, the children you have taught will understand arithmetic, like it, and be confident in their ability to learn more math. You, too, will probably understand arithmetic better even if you are an elementary school teacher and have been teaching it for years or in business and have been using it for years.

See the Growth!

To see how your students are doing, administer the All Kids Can Learn Arithmetic , , and before beginning the program.

For kindergarten, give the Concepts test but only as much of it as seems reasonable.

For grades 1-3, give all three tests but only as much of them as seems reasonable.

For grades 4-8, give all three tests in their entirety.

Then administer the tests again after all five keys have been taught and compare the results to the first set of results.

Do not worry about the grade-level “appropriateness of some of the test items. In All Kids Can Learn Arithmetic, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are introduced in kindergarten, so all four operations are tested from grade 1 on.