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 The free Brick Math Lesson of the Month for November 2025 covers a topic that many students find difficult to understand -- working with fractions that have different denominators. This lesson is taken from Brick Math Basic Fractions. To get this lesson, click here, and you'll also get a new free Brick Math lesson every month after that.  After students have learned to add and subtract fractions that have the same denominators (for example, 3/8 + 2/8), it's time for them to learn how to add two fractions that have different, or unlike, denominators. In this lesson, students model the addition of 1/4 + 2/3. Before they can add the numerators, they must learn to find the Least Common Denominator to make the denominators the same. This lesson uses a wonderful technique called the "fraction train" to show clearly how to find the Least Common Denominator.  Using the studs on the bricks, students learn that the Least Common Denominator for this problem is 12. They model the two fractions with that denominator, then add the numerators. Along the way, students answer questions and explain in words why the math works. The Brick Math methods help students develop a deep understanding of math. The lesson starts with the Teacher lesson plans for the first four pages, followed by the three corresponding pages in the Student workbook. Try this lesson of the month with your students to see the power of Brick Math in action!  The Brick Math curriculum is divided into 13 separate content areas: Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions, Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, Decimals, Data and Statistics, and Pre-Algebra. Students can start anywhere in the curriculum. Brick Math can be used as a complete math curriculum or brought in as a supplement to help students who aren't having math success with other programs. Check BrickMath.com to learn more!
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 Brick Math is an innovative way to teach K-8th grade math, using bricks to model the math. It’s hands-on and fun for students, and it’s easy to teach. We often get questions about seeing the program in action. It’s so much easier to understand the power of Brick Math when you see how it works. Well, we've got you covered!  The Brick Math website offers lots of videos that show lessons from different math subjects. There are video lessons for students to watch, which can be a great way to try out a lesson with your students. There are also teacher training videos, specifically geared to showing teachers how to present a Brick Math lesson to students. Finally, there are quick video lessons that clearly show how well the bricks work to model the math concepts.  Once you’ve watched one or more of the Brick Math videos, you’ll get a good sense of how to teach with the program. You’ll quickly understand why so many educators are adding Brick Math as part of their curriculum for teaching K-8 math!  The Brick Math curriculum is divided into 13 separate content areas: Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions, Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, Decimals, Data and Statistics, and Pre-Algebra.
Students can start anywhere in the curriculum. Brick Math can be used as a complete math curriculum or brought in as a supplement to help students who aren't having math success with other programs. Check BrickMath.com to learn more!  We're well into the swing of the new school year, and Brick Math is the choice of so many educators and homeschoolers for their K-8 math curriculum. It works as a general curriculum, and also for intervention, supplement, and enrichment. This month's free Brick Math Lesson of the Month is on quotitive division and comes from Brick Math Division. To get this lesson, click here, and you'll also get a new free Brick Math lesson every month after that.  Students need to learn both quotitive and partitive division. Partitive division involves taking a group of objects and dividing the objects into equal groups of a certain number. Quotitive division looks at the concept of division in a different way. It demonstrates how division is actually repeated subtraction. Quotitive division helps students connect division to subtraction in the same way that they learn to connect multiplication to addition.  This lesson about quotitive division starts with modeling a whole of 20, then counting down by 4s to zero. Each step is represented by a brick with 4 fewer studs, clearly showing students the repeated subtraction. At the end of the problem, the subtraction sentence 20 - 4 - 4 - 4 - 4 - 4 = 0, shown by the brick model that has been built, converts to the division sentence 20 ÷ 4 = 5. The lesson then continues with a second problem, starting with a new whole of 16 and counting down by 2s to zero, demonstrating 16 ÷ 2 = 8. The lesson starts with the Teacher lesson plans for the first four pages, followed by the three corresponding pages in the Student workbook. Try this lesson of the month with your students to see the power of Brick Math in action!  The Brick Math curriculum is divided into 13 separate content areas: Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions, Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, Decimals, Data and Statistics, and Pre-Algebra.
Students can start anywhere in the curriculum. Brick Math can be used as a complete math curriculum or brought in as a supplement to help students who aren't having math success with other programs. Check BrickMath.com to learn more!  The FREE Brick Math Lesson of the Month for September 2025 comes from Brick Math's Subtraction. To get this lesson, click here, and you'll also get a new free Brick Math lesson every month after that. This lesson teaches students how to subtract within 20 and uses a strategy called "ten-frames," which helps students see the numbers as they relate to the number 10. This is key to helping students think about math in the base 10 system, without talking about that terminology yet.  The lesson starts with pages from the Teacher Edition of Brick Math Subtraction. The first model shows the concept of subtracting 6 minus 4. The next model shows 12 minus 8. In each case, the models are built on ten-frames, which help to show the numbers in the context of 10. The lesson uses important subtraction vocabulary words like subtrahend and difference.  The last two pages of the Lesson of the Month come from the Student workbook for Brick Math Subtraction. These are the pages students use as they follow the teacher's lesson. In these pages, the students respond to questions and draw the brick models as they build them. This is all part of the Brick Math learning method, which starts with building models, then drawing the models, and then explaining the math in words. It's a proven method that gets real results with students.  The Brick Math curriculum is divided into 13 separate content areas: Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions, Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, Decimals, Data and Statistics, and Pre-Algebra.
Students can start anywhere in the curriculum. Brick Math can be used as a complete math curriculum or brought in as a supplement to help students who aren't having math success with other programs. Check BrickMath.com to learn more!  The FREE Brick Math Lesson of the Month is basic and required learning for Multiplication. The lesson shows how multiplication references sets of items, and modeling with bricks makes it clear to young learners. To get this lesson, click here, and you'll also get a new free Brick Math lesson every month after that.  It's important that students understand the concept of sets of items when they first learn about multiplication. In this lesson, students model sets with small bricks and use long bricks as the dividers between sets to clearly show how many sets and how many within each set. It sounds simple, but until students understand this idea, they will have trouble with the whole concept of multiplication. Modeling with bricks makes it easy to learn!  This Lesson of the Month shows pages from the Multiplication Teacher Edition first, and then shows the corresponding workbook pages for students to use from the companion Multiplication Student Edition. Students start with a concrete representation of the math by building brick models, then move to a more abstract representation by drawing the models, then finally develop a fully abstract understanding of the math when they describe it in words. In this way, Brick Math helps students gain a deep, true understanding of math, which sets them up for future success as they move through the K-8 curriculum. The Brick Math curriculum is divided into 13 separate content areas: Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions, Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, Decimals, Data and Statistics, and Pre-Algebra.  Students can start anywhere in the curriculum. Brick Math can be used as a complete math curriculum or brought in as a supplement to help students who aren't having math success with other programs. Check BrickMath.com to learn more!  Happy summer, everyone! The Brick Math Lesson of the Month for July 2025 is on Partitive Division, which means dividing into equal shares. To get this lesson, click here, and you'll also get a new free Brick Math lesson every month after that. Partitive division is the kind of division that takes a whole and breaks it into equal parts. It's a great introduction to fractions as well as division.  In this lesson, the concept of division is presented as a real-world problem: sharing pieces of candy equally among friends. The bricks, with their easy-to-count studs, make it clear how many pieces will be in each group, as well as how many groups will be created. This is one of the most basic ideas in learning division, and it is illustrated so well using bricks! This Lesson of the Month shows pages from the Division Teacher Edition first, and then shows the corresponding workbook pages for students to use from the companion Division Student Edition. Students move from a concrete representation of the math to a more abstract representation by drawing the models, then finally to a fully abstract understanding of the math when they describe it in words. In this way, Brick Math helps students gain a deep, true understanding of math, which sets them up for future success as they move through the K-8 curriculum.  The Brick Math curriculum is divided into 13 separate content areas: Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions, Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, Decimals, Data and Statistics, and Pre-Algebra.  Students can start anywhere in the curriculum. Brick Math can be used as a complete math curriculum or brought in as a supplement to help students who aren't having math success with other programs.
Check BrickMath.com to learn more!  The FREE Brick Math Lesson of the Month for June 2025 comes from Basic Fractions, and it teaches students about equivalent fractions. To get this lesson, click here, and you'll also get a new free Brick Math lesson every month after that. Understanding the concept of equivalent fractions is important for learning to simplify fractions, a key skill. It's especially important when students are learning to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators.  In this lesson, students learn the meaning of equivalent, then model equivalent fractions of sixteenths and twelfths. After students have mastered this concept, they will move to the next lesson, which is learning to find a common denominator so a fraction can be added and subtracted.  This Lesson of the Month shows pages from the Basic Fractions Teacher Edition first, and then shows the corresponding workbook pages for students to use from the companion Basic Fractions Student Edition. Students move from a concrete representation of the math to a more abstract representation by drawing the models, then finally to a fully abstract understanding of the math when they describe it in words. In this way, Brick Math helps students gain a deep, true understanding of math, which sets them up for future success as they move through the K-8 curriculum.  The Brick Math curriculum is divided into 13 separate content areas:
Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions, Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, Decimals, Data and Statistics, and Pre-Algebra. Students can start anywhere in the curriculum. Brick Math can be used as a complete math curriculum or brought in as a supplement to help students who aren't having math success with other programs. Check BrickMath.com to learn more!  We just read in the New York Times about the latest results of the NAECP tests, showing a startling decline in math scores among the lowest-performing students since 2013. No, this isn't a COVID story -- it goes much further back.  According to the article, eighth-grade students scoring at the bottom of standardized math tests were making slow but steady improvements since about 2000. In fact, all students seemed to be bringing their scores up, until 2013. Then the lowest-performing students' scores started to dip down, and those scores continue to nosedive through today. What's the reason for the drop in math scores? Researchers point to a variety of possible causes. One is the end of the No Child Left Behind program instituted in 2002. The program was controversial and eventually was discontinued because many felt it over-emphasized math and English to the exclusion of all other subjects. Another theory is the rise in smartphones. Before 2013, less than half of the adult population in the US had smartphones. Today, 90 percent of adults and teenagers have smartphones. The article points out the "one in three 9-year-olds" has a smartphone. We all how much time a smartphone can take away from other activities. Further, school funding was cut in years 2011-2012, and the effects of that began to appear shortly afterward. But most likely, says the article, we are not focusing on our lowest-performing students anymore, and they are suffering from the lack of attention. A look at results in Mississippi, traditionally one of the worst states for student performance, shows that because of efforts being made for the bottom 25th percentile of students, scores are on the rise.  Here's what we at Brick Math take away from this research: your lowest-performing students can improve, but only if you find instruction methods that work for them. Brick Math helps students learn K-8th grade math when other teaching methods have failed them. By allowing students to "see the math," they develop a foundational understanding of basic math concepts. As they continue throughout the Brick Math curriculum, they build on their mathematical knowledge and they really learn the math, often for the first time in their experience. It's exciting to have students who beg their teachers to stay in for recess and keep doing Brick Math (true story!). And we love hearing from students who say, "I finally understand math! I can SEE it!"  Brick Math is a complete math curriculum for kindergarten through 8th grade that models the math with bricks. The curriculum is divided into 13 separate content areas: Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions, Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, Decimals, Data and Statistics, and Pre-Algebra.  Students can start anywhere in the curriculum. Brick Math can be used as a complete math curriculum or brought in as a supplement to help students who aren't having math success with other programs. Check BrickMath.com to learn more!
 No April Fool's here -- money is on everyone's mind! This free Brick Math Lesson of the Month teaches students the value of coins: pennies (while we still have them), nickels, dimes, and quarters. To get this lesson, from Brick Math Basic Measurement, click here, and you'll also get a new free Brick Math lesson every month after that.  Modeling with bricks gives students a tangible representation of the math concepts. In this lesson, students create models of the various values of coins with each stud on the bricks standing for one cent. Then the lesson shows how many nickels are in a quarter, as well as dimes in a quarter. You can extend the concept by having students create other money values, or by adding monetary values together. It's an easy yet powerful way for students to learn coin values, and they won't forget them!  This Lesson of the Month shows pages from the Basic Measurement Teacher Edition first, and then shows the corresponding workbook pages for students to use from the companion Basic Measurement Student Edition. Students move from a concrete representation of the math to a more abstract representation by drawing the models, then finally to a fully abstract understanding of the math when they describe it in words. In this way, Brick Math helps students gain a deep, true understanding of math, which sets them up for future success as they move through the K-8 curriculum.  The Brick Math curriculum is divided into 13 separate content areas:
Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions, Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, Decimals, Data and Statistics, and Pre-Algebra. Students can start anywhere in the curriculum. Brick Math can be used as a complete math curriculum or brought in as a supplement to help students who aren't having math success with other programs. Check BrickMath.com to learn more!  The uncertainty around funding education is growing around the US. If the federal Department of Education is eliminated or greatly reduced, many educators are questioning whether Title I and other funds will be affected. At a time when budgets are tight, we’re pleased that Brick Math remains a very affordable curriculum for supplemental math instruction in grades K – 8. The program teaches math by utilizing plastic building bricks as manipulatives. It’s easy to teach and fun to learn!  The components of Brick Math are simple: For each of the thirteen math subjects, the teacher uses a Teacher Edition book of lesson plans, and each student uses a Student Edition workbook. Brick sets curated for the entire Brick Math program can be used by one student or shared between two students.  That’s it. There are no other materials to purchase. Paperback Teacher Editions cost $19.95 each and Student Editions cost $14.95 each. PDF versions of the books cost $4.95 each. The Brick Set costs $60. We offer the materials at a discount when grouped in “bundles” for grades K-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8. We also offer discounts for schools for large purchases. Even when money is tight, schools still need to find the best ways to help their students learn. We think you’ll find that Brick Math is a very effective, as well as a very affordable program to help your students build math success.
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