Enrichment Units in Math: Book 1, Grades 2-3

Go beyond the regular curriculum with these units to challenge your more able primary grade math students. With their ease of use, clear instruction, and motivating topics, these are the perfect enrichment activities for the regular math curriculum. This book contains four units that are structured so that students can easily develop an understanding of the topics on their own. The four topics are:

• attribute pattern blocks,
• tangrams,
• sets and Venn diagrams, and
• ancient Egyptian numbers.

Each unit provides sequential activities that allow students to work through these motivating topics, whether they are working by themselves, in a small group, or in a whole-class setting. The units lend themselves easily to a math center arrangement with each student having an individual folder and checklist to record his or her progress. While they were designed to provide added challenge for students who have mastered the regular curriculum, some of the units can be used as supplements for whole-class instruction. The emphasis in these units is on promoting thinking, developing perseverance, expanding students' view of mathematics, enjoying a challenge, and keeping math students actively involved and enthused about math. This book will help you provide students with opportunities to explore mathematical ideas in ways that promote their intellectual growth and expand their views of mathematics.

This is one of a three-book series. For older students, use Enrichment Units in Math Book 2―permutations and combinations, tessellations, line drawings, and graphing; and Enrichment Units in Math Book 3―probability, topology, number characteristics, and magic squares.

For other math units to extend the math curriculum and provide opportunities to work independently, see Math Extension UnitsBook 1 andBook 2.

Grades 2-3

Judy Leimbach received her master's degree in Instructional Strategies in Gifted Education from National-Louis University. She has 14 years of experience teaching in regular classrooms, kindergarten through fifth grade, and 14 years experience teaching gifted students in grades 1-5. In addition, she has spent 5 years supervising groups of student teachers at Wheaton College. When she first started teaching in a gifted program, there were few materials available for gifted students in primary grades, so Leimbach began writing her own and had several books published. Having previously taught in the regular classroom, she also was very aware of the need for high quality, easy-to-use materials for regular classroom teachers to use for their gifted students in both primary and intermediate grades. She began working with other teachers, including her daughter, a middle school math teacher, to develop materials to meet that need.