Grades 3-5
About this course
Overview
We firmly believe that there is more to math than just counting and that math can be enjoyable and interesting!
Our goal is for our lessons to be exciting and enjoyable while maintaining a serious value for the progress of our students and academic excellence. We provide a more detailed and personalized approach toward teaching everything on the school grade curriculum and beyond. We want our students to become more advanced thinkers. Our classes are not about memorization and repetitive tasks, we want our students to develop a deeper understanding of problem-solving and reasoning behind math problems. Our 3-5 curriculum includes components of logic, reasoning, geometry, and algebra. We cover not only what’s included in the school curriculum but also delve into it with greater detail and depth.
Our aim is not necessarily for our students to become famous mathematicians but rather acquire the critical thinking skills that will help them solve the challenges of tomorrow.
About this course
Critical Thinking
We are trying to teach logical reasoning and critical thinking at a very early age. It teaches how to analyze problems, break them down into manageable steps, and develop the best solutions.
Word Problems
Solving word problems is one of the most important and applicable skills students learn in school. Whether you need to leave a tip for a waiter, calculate if you have enough money to buy groceries, or estimate the gas mileage of your car, you need to know how to solve word problems. Instead of focusing on procedures or keywords, we ask children to think about the meaning behind each problem.
Visualizing word problems is key to solving new and unfamiliar problems. Drawing a bar model or making a table makes complex problems easy to solve. Throughout the curriculum, we introduce students to a variety of world problems such as rate, fractions, ratio, percentage, etc.
pre-Algebra
Even though the studio’s program introduces some algebraic concepts as early as kindergarten, we teach serious pre-Algebra concepts in grades 3-5. Algebra exercises are a great way to advance our students analytical and problem-solving skills as well as abstract thinking. A solid base in algebra is an entryway to a successful career, whether you are going to be an engineer, a carpenter or a medical professional. It is not surprising that most standardized tests include algebra sections.
Logic Problems
Logic problems bring life to a math class, they are one of our students favorite exercises. This is because finding creative solutions is an intrinsically satisfying experience.
The studio’s program includes logic units in all grades. We emphasize creative solutions, and thinking “outside the box”. Students become experts at approaching new and difficult problems. They often brainstorm the solution together as a group, and learn to work as a team.
Geometry and Spatial Reasoning
Geometry is the most visual part of the mathematics curriculum, and yet many students struggle with it in high school. The key to a successful geometry course is to start early, and use the right curriculum. Our students study the properties of 2D and 3D shapes, building a solid foundation for more advanced classes. Students develop an understanding of the commonly used formulas for perimeter, area and volume. Throughout the course, our students get plenty of practice drawing shapes, and using tools like rulers and protractors.<br /> ions.
We use visual-spatial skills in everyday life. Whether you are using a map, looking at a floor plan or imagining a new couch in your living room, you are solving a spatial reasoning problem.
Our program includes dozens of geometric games, mindbenders, puzzles and construction sets. These manipulatives sometimes require students to mentally flip and rotate objects. Students learn to imagine objects from different perspectives.
Math Competitions
We actively encourage math competition participation among our students. Lessons are supplemented with engaging problems from math competitions like Math Kangaroo, Noetic, and other Math Olympiads. Our students participate in various math competitions, bringing home fantastic results!
Throughout the course, our students get plenty of practice drawing shapes, and using tools like rulers and protractors.
Curriculum Grade 3
Arithmetic
- Addition and Subtraction of 3-digit numbers
- Standard algorithm
- Mental math strategies: adding and subtracting compatible numbers, rounding, adding and subtracting parts
- Multiplication and Division
- Understanding the concept of multiplication as repeated addition
- Multiplying a 2-digit number by a 1- digit-number using distributive law for multiplication
- Mental math strategies: finding compatible numbers, rounding
- Understanding the concept of division as an inverse of multiplication
- Division with remainder
- Order of operations: introduction
- Fractions: introduction to basic concepts
- Improper fractions and mixed numbers
- Equivalent fractions
- Comparing fractions
- Number Sense
- Understanding of 4-digit numbers. Value and place value
- Guess the number puzzles
- Missing numbers puzzles
Geometry
- Identifying basic plane figures
- Angles
- Polygons
- Introduction to area and perimeter of rectangles
- Introduction to volume
- Identifying basic types of solids
- Vertices, edges and faces of polyhedrons
- Shapes with curved surfaces
- Composite solids
- Transformations and symmetry
- Development of spatial and geometric thinking
- Dissections of squares and circles
- Coloring regions on a map problems
- Copying and transforming designs on a grid
- Paper folding and cutting problems
- Unicursal tracing
- Engineering drawing and projections
Logic
- Methods and techniques for solving logic problems
- Logic grids
- Introduction to sets and Venn diagrams
- Relations and ordering
- Nonverbal reasoning: analogies, patterns, grouping and classification of objects
- More difficult logic problems: pigeonhole principle, fencepost error, jug problems, crossing the river problems
Word problems
One step and multi-step word problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of whole numbers
Algebraic thinking
- Algebra shape puzzles
- Balance puzzles
- Elements of algebra: proportional reasoning, graphs, number patterns
Investigation and math olympiad problems
- Various types of investigation problems
- Math Kangaroo, Math Counts and CML problems
Curriculum Grade 4
Arithmetic
- Addition and Subtraction of 4 and 5-digit numbers
- Standard algorithm
- Mental math strategies:
adding and subtracting compatible numbers, rounding, adding and subtracting parts - Estimation for addition and subtraction
- Multiplication and Division
- Multiplying 3-digit numbers by 1- digit-numbers using distributive law for multiplication
- Dividing 3-digit numbers by 1 and 2-digit divisors using distributive law for division
- Mental math strategies: finding compatible numbers, rounding, multiplication and division by 5
- Multiplication and division of round numbers
- Estimation for multiplication and division
- Order of operations
- Fractions
- Basic concepts: improper fractions and mixed numbers, equivalent fractions and comparing fractions
- Adding fractions with different denominators
- Subtracting fractions with different denominators and subtraction with regrouping
- Introduction to decimals
- Number Sense
- Understanding of 5-digit numbers. Value and place value
- Factors and multiples
- Divisibility of natural numbers
- Missing numbers puzzles
Geometry
- Basic geometric shapes
- Points, lines, and angles
- Measuring angles using protractor
- Triangles
- Quadrilaterals
- Solids
- Area and perimeter of rectangles
- Volume
- Development of spatial and geometric thinking
- Engineering drawing and projections
- Nets of solids
- Dissections
- Paper folding and cutting problems
- Unicursal tracing
Logic
- Methods and techniques for solving logic problems
- Logic grids
- Venn diagrams
- Modeling problems on a number line
- Relations and ordering
- Nonverbal reasoning: analogies, patterns, grouping and classification of objects
- More difficult logic problems: pigeonhole principle, fencepost error, jug problems, crossing the river problems
Word problems
- Multi-step word problems with whole numbers
- One step and multi-step word problems with fractions
- Finding part given a whole
- Finding whole given its part
- Problems involving addition, subtraction, and comparing of fractions
Pre-algebra
- Algebraic expressions
- Translating algebraic expressions
- Simplifying expressions with variables by combining like terms
- Balance puzzles (introduction to equations)
- problems of Number Codes (introduction to systems of equations)
- Development of algebraic thinking: proportional reasoning, graphs, number patterns
Investigation problems and Math Olympiad
- Various types of investigation problems
- Math Kangaroo, Math counts and CML
When choosing an afterschool educational program for their child,
most parents pursue two goals: short-term academic success at school and long-term success in their children’s future career.
The short- term goal is clear.
For multitude of reasons, some parents are not satisfied with the quality of education their school provides or wish to supplement and expand it.
An afterschool program can teach kids the skills aligned to the school’s curriculum and provide the practice they might be lacking at school increasing their academic performance.
Long-term, with the college education in mind, an afterschool program should delve deeper and expand beyond the basic curriculum promoting critical thinking skills versus memorization.
Even longer term, in 10 or 20 years, every parent wants their children to grow into great independent learners when they might pursue a continuing education program or a career change.
This leads to a choice of an afterschool program that not only provides the basic academic skills, but also teaches how to be a successful learner.
Any educational afterschool program tries to reach these goals, but here, at the Studio, we are convinced that it is most efficiently done in smaller groups. Research has shown that what a child learns in their first six years has an important impact on their educational experiences, so we believe that it is best to start learning math at an early age. Working with the younger kids necessitates that a big part of the classes must be taught using sensory and manipulative approach which is also better achieved in smaller groups.
When developing educational materials for the Studio, we bring the thinking process into focus trying to save time on the mundane tasks such as copying the problems from a textbook. With younger kids, we use workbooks only, where the students can write the solutions and answers without having to go back and forth between the handout and their solution on a paper. Because of that, the volume of homework might seem bigger and could be daunting for some kids. We suggest that parents prepare their children for the idea of the weekly homework assignments, so it doesn’t come as an unwelcome surprise.
Studio is dedicated to meeting both short- and long-term goals of your children’s education. To give parents an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the variety of our materials, we posted a few sample problems and topics for grade 4. Among these materials, you will not find the problems focusing on practice and review of basic calculation skills. It is not because we don’t think them important; mastering foundational skills is a cornerstone of our curriculum. Every parent is familiar with this type of problems and expects any math afterschool program to teach how to add, subtract, multiply and divide whole numbers and fractions. If you are interested in seeing these materials, they can be shown during your child’s evaluation by request.
Curriculum Grade 5
Arithmetic
- Review of addition and subtraction of 4 and 5-digit numbers using standard algorithm and various mental math strategies
- Review of multiplication and division of 3 and 4-digit numbers using standard algorithms and various mental math strategies
- Distributive law for multiplication and division
- Introduction to negative numbers
- Basic idea of a negative number: negative numbers on a number line, finding opposites, compare
- Expanding the ideas of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to include negative numbers
- Negative fractions and decimals
- Order of operations with positive and negative numbers
- Fractions
- Multiple strategies for comparing fractions
- Review of addition and subtraction of fractions and subtraction with regrouping
- Multiplication and division of fractions
- Basic ideas of decimals: place values, rounding
- Addition and subtraction of decimals
- Multiplication and division of decimals
- Introduction to percentage
- Number Sense
- Understanding of 6-digit numbers. Value and place value
- Factors and multiples. Finding GCF and LCM
- Composite and prime numbers
- Divisibility rules
- Advanced missing numbers puzzles
Geometry
- Basic geometric shapes
- Parallel and perpendicular lines
- Triangles and their angles
- Construction of triangles
- Quadrilaterals and their angles
- Solids
- Measurement
- Area and perimeter of rectangles and composite shapes
- Volume of cuboids and word problems involving volume
- Development of spatial and geometric thinking
- Engineering projections
- Nets of solids
- Plane dissections: straight line and curved
- Paper folding and hole punching problems
- Advanced unicursal tracing problems
Logic
- Methods and techniques for solving logic problems
- Logic grids
- Venn diagrams
- Modeling problems on a number line
- Nonverbal reasoning: analogies, patterns, grouping and classification of objects
- More difficult logic problems: pigeonhole principle, fencepost error, jug problems, crossing the river problems
Word problems
- Multi-step word problems with whole numbers
- One step and multi-step word problems with fractions
- Ratio
- Percentage
- Average
- Motion
Pre-algebra
- Algebraic expressions
- Translating algebraic expressions
- Simplifying expressions with variables by combining like terms and opening parentheses
- Problems of Balance (introduction to equations)
- Introduction to basic methods of solving linear equations
- Problems of Number Codes (introduction to systems of equations)
- Introduction to powers and exponents
- Development of algebraic thinking: proportional reasoning, graphs, number patterns
Investigation problems and Math Olympiad
- Various types of investigation problems
- Math Kangaroo, Math counts and CML problems
What to expect:
Results and outcomes:
