A Math Message is provided at the beginning of each lesson, beginning with Unit 4 in first grade. The Math Message usually leads into the lesson for the day; sometimes it reviews topics previously covered. Children should complete the Math Message before the start of each lesson.

You can display Math Messages in a number of ways. You may want to write them on the board, overhead transparencies; or post them on the bulletin board; or duplicate them ahead of time on quarter-sheets as handouts.

Many teachers find it attractive to have children record their answers to the Math Message. In some classrooms, children keep a daily Math Journal where they enter Math Message questions and answers. In other classrooms, children record their answers on quarter- or half-sheets, which teachers collect from time to time.

Although the Teacher's Lesson Guide contains many suggestions for Math Messages, you are encouraged to create your own, designed around the needs of your children and on the activities that take place in your classroom. You may also want to provide a Suggestion Box into which children can put their own Math Message ideas as well as number stories.

The term Mental Math and Reflexes refers to exercises, usually oral, designed to strengthen children's number sense and to review and advance essential basic skills. Mental Math and Reflexes sessions should be brief, lasting no more than five minutes. Numerous short interactions are far more effective than fewer prolonged sessions.

There are several kinds of Mental Math suggestions provided in the Teacher's Lesson Guide. Some involve a choral counting routine; many are basic-skills practice with counts, operations, or measures; and some are problem-solving exercises. Ideally, children record their answers to these problems on slates.

The Teacher's Lesson Guide suggests Mental Math and Reflexes exercises for almost every lesson. You are encouraged to use these exercises based on your children's needs and your classroom activities. If the suggested exercises do not meet the needs of your class, feel free to provide an alternate set.

Math Boxes, originally developed by Everyday Mathematics teacher Ellen Dairyko, are an excellent way to review material on a regular basis.

In Everyday Mathematics, Math Boxes are one of the main components of review and skills maintenance. Once this routine has been introduced, almost every lesson includes a Math Boxes page in the Math Journal as part of the Ongoing Learning and Practice section.

Math Boxes problems are not intended to reinforce the content of the lesson in which they appear. Rather, they provide continuous distributed practice of all skills and concepts in the program. The Math Boxes page does not need to be completed on the same day as the lesson, but it should not be skipped.

Math Boxes are designed as independent activities. Expect that your guidance will be needed, especially at the beginning of the school year when some problems review skills from prior years. If children struggle with a problem set, it is not necessary to create a lesson to develop these skills. You can modify or skip problems that you know are not review for your children. Lesson activities revisit skills throughout the year. Math Boxes also provide useful assessment information on review skills.

Home Links are the Everyday Mathematics version of homework assignments. Each lesson has a Home Link, which can be found in the Math Masters book. The next lesson has a follow-up to the previous Home Link. Home Links consist of active projects and ongoing review problems that show parents what the children can do in mathematics. A blank Home Link form has also been provided for you to create your own.

Home Links activities serve three main purposes: They (1) promote follow-up, (2) provide enrichment, and (3) involve parents or guardians in their children's mathematics education.

Other reasons for using Home Links throughout the year include the following:

-The assignments encourage children to take initiative and responsibility.

-The activities help reinforce newly learned skills and concepts.

-Many of the assignments relate what is learned in school to the children's lives
outside of school, tying mathematics to their everyday world.

-The assignments can serve as informal assessment tools.

Many Home Links require children to interact with parents, other adults, or older children. Since primary caregivers or those likely to help with the homework are not necessarily "parents," Home Links instruct children to complete the activity with someone at home. At the beginning of the year, send home the introductory Family Letter to acquaint parents with the Everyday Mathematics program. Continue to involve families throughout the year by sending home unit-introduction letters that explain the content that will be covered. Everyday Mathematics also provides Family Letters that are meant to be sent home at the with particular Home Links. These letters explain an idea or an activity that parents might not be familiar with. All Family Letters and Home Links are included in the Math Masters book.

Think of the Home Links suggestions as a beginning. As you and your students become familiar with the program, you may want to send home activities of your own as Home Links. You may also want to use the Home Links format to extend various Explorations and Projects. Blank Home Links forms have been provided for these purposes in the Math Masters book.

In Everyday Mathematics, the term Explorations means time set aside for independent, small-group activities. In addition to providing the benefits of cooperative learning, small-group work lets all children have a chance to use manipulatives (such as the pan balance and base-10 blocks) that are limited in supply.

If there are enough materials for everyone, you may decide to have the whole class work on one Exploration at a time. It is more likely, though, that you will want to have small groups of children working on several Explorations simultaneously. Thus, you will need to plan how you will manage several different activities at the same time. Parent volunteers can be very helpful in these situations.

The Explorations have been designed so that you can position the various activities at different stations around the room and have groups rotate among the stations (or rotate the materials among the groups).

Whenever possible, you might find it helpful to organize thematerials for each Exploration by keeping them together in a small plastic tub, pan, bin, bucket, or box. After the Explorations have been completed, you can make the materials available for review and free-time activities.

Each Explorations lesson suggests three activities, with the option of adding others. Decide how many stations you will need to accommodate groups of three to five children each. Each station should have one kind of material for children to share. To ensure you have enough stations for all of your groups, you may want to set up two stations for each Exploration activity or set up additional familiar activities or games for children to complete independently while other groups are working on Explorations.

Of all the Exploration activities suggested in the lesson, the first one, Exploration A, contains the main content of the lesson andrequires the most teacher involvement at the outset. Try to spend most of your time at this station, although you will likely need to circulate as well, especially if parent volunteers are not available and particularly at the beginning of the year, when children are less independent. If you remain at one station as the children rotate through it, this will enable you to work with every child in a small group and to use the task at that station as an informal assessment opportunity.

To promote a cooperative environment, the authors suggest that you make and display a poster of Rules for Explorations. Discuss these rules prior to each Explorations lesson until children become accustomed to working this way.

Beginning in second grade, Everyday Mathematics supplies instruction masters (found in the Math Masters book) for the Exploration activities. These masters aim to make the groups more independent and to incorporate reading into the Explorations process. The groups will need more help and attention at the beginning of the year. But as the year progresses and children become stronger readers, and as they familiarize themselves with some of the activities, they will become increasingly independent. You may want to mount the instruction sheets on tagboard and/or laminate them so you will be able to use them over the course of the school year.

You should set aside enough class time so that all of your students can experience the Explorations. Do not set up the Explorations stations solely as optional centers for children to use when they have finished their other work. If you do that, the children who need these experiences the most will get fewer opportunities to participate in Explorations activities.

Many parents and educators make a sharp distinction between work and play. They tend to "allow" play only during prescribed times. However, children naturally carry their playfulness into all of their activities. This is why Everyday Mathematics sees games as enjoyable ways to practice number skills, especially those that help children develop fact power.

Games are an integral part of the Everyday Mathematics program, rather than an optional extra as they are traditionally used in many classrooms. Make sure that all children have time to play games, especially those who work at a slower pace or encounter more difficulty than their classmates. Just as with the Explorations, if children play the games only after finishing other work, many of the children who need these experiences most will get fewer opportunities to have them.

Games can also be played frequently without the same mathematical problems repeating because the numbers in most games are generated randomly. The game format eliminates the tedium typical of most drills. You may want to set up a Games Corner using some of your students' favorite games. That way, students can get additional practice while playing games of their own choosing during free time. Rotate games often to keep the Games Corner fresh and interesting.

There will be times when certain games do not offer sufficient practice with a concept. On these occasions, you may want to employ traditional drill problems. In some instances, you may also wish to use timed drills. Always strive for balance in your approach to drills and practice. Too much monotonous, rote pencil pushing has helped produce generations of people who see mathematics as little else.