Mathspad

I do enjoy finding new sites that I can use in my classroom.  The other day, I checkout out Mathspad from the United Kingdom. Although it is geared more towards the curriculum used in the United Kingdom, there is still quite a few things that would be of use in the United States. This is a paid site but it does offer some free materials. It appears to be for mostly middle school students.

I began by looking under teacher resources.  I checked specifically for free materials. There are two booklets on place value and decimals, one is the core instruction while the other is geared to provide support. Support means that it is additional material to give students extra practice.  The core booklet is 32 pages long while the support booklet is 38.

For ordering decimals, students have access to free interactive decimal blocks. The tool has an introduction, a build where students are given a number and they are expected to place the proper blocks in the proper column so they have a visual representation of that number.  They can check their answers, reset, or ask for new problems. If they miss the question, it automatically shows them the answer so they can see how it should look. They can reset the problem and do it themselves or they can ask for a new problem.Then they can look at a visual to determine the number represented and check their answers.  In addition, they can also   compare decimal numbers and moving on to a question that takes their thinking one step further.

Teachers also have access to a game played with partners.  One person selects a number from the board and the other person has to ask questions that can be answered only with yes or no. Based on the information, the student has to make a guess and come up with the answer within 60 seconds.  At the end of the time, they switch jobs to do it again.  To end the section, there is a worksheet with decimal lines that asks students to identify the decimal based on what is shown.  

After this, there is no more free material until worksheet in the multiplying and dividing decimal section. The worksheet has students practicing multiplication facts for certain "families" such as 11 x 500, 11 x 50, 11 x 5, 11 x .5, 11x 0.05 and 11x0.005 so they can see relations between the facts.  If you look at the site you'll find other free items but they are things like fractions, decimal, and percentages, or scientific notation. 

There are a couple interactive tools that can be accessed without a subscription such as the construction tool with compass, protractor, ruler, etc so you or your students can perform geometric constructions.  Or the spinner for helping students learn about probability. The spinner allows you to edit it to change things so the values change.  Students are asked to find the probability of the spinner colors, apply the probability to a situation and conduct trials. Although there are a total of eight free interactive tools, I haven't figured out how to access all of them. 

Check it out, play with it and see if it offers something you can use with your students.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.