The FREE Brick Math Lesson of the Month for December 2023 is all about a tricky subject: Fraction Division. It comes from Fraction Division Using LEGO® Bricks and helps students understand a math subject area typically taught in grades 4-6. To get the December 2023 Brick Math Lesson of the Month, "Understanding Fraction Division," plus a new lesson each month, click here.  Each Lesson of the Month includes the Teacher Lesson Guide as well as the Student Workbook Pages that correspond to the lesson. 

The Lesson of the Month comes from Chapter 1 of Fraction Division. It's a great way to demonstrate the meaning of dividing fractions. Often students don't understand what dividing by a fraction really is, even if they can handle the mathematical algorithm of multiplying by the reciprocal. This lesson clearly shows the concept and relates it to division by whole numbers.

The lesson starts with a review of division by whole numbers, reminding students that "16 divided by 8" means breaking 16 into 8 groups , with 2 in each group. Then the lesson moves to an example with fractions, using the same terminology so students easily make the connection. The brick models help to demonstrate the concept. And this lesson includes two fraction division problems to help your students solidify the learning.

Brick Math is a K-8 math curriculum that uses LEGO® bricks to model 13 different math subjects: 
Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions,   Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, Decimals, Data and Statistics, and Pre-Algebra.
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The October 2023 FREE Brick Math Lesson of the Month comes from Addition Using LEGO® Bricks. It helps students understand that there are many ways to combine numbers. To get the October 2023 Brick Math Lesson of the Month, "How Many Ways to Make 6?" plus a new lesson each month, click here.  Each Lesson of the Month includes the Teacher Lesson Guide as well as the Student Workbook Pages that correspond to the lesson. 

In the lesson, students model all the different ways numbers can be combined that total 6: 6 + 0, 5 + 1, 4 + 2, etc. Building a tower of bricks, students begin to understand what addition really means. It's a foundational skill that early learners need to have, and this Brick Math lesson turns the numbers from abstract to concrete.

If you are a math teacher or a parent with a student at home who is learning K-8th grade math, check brickmath.com. The website includes videos for both teacher training and direct instruction of students. You can learn more about how Brick Math improves students' math test scores and hear what people who are using Brick Math have to say about the program. 

The lesson on mixed numbers first shows that a whole number can be divided into equal parts, and then shows how one more of that fractional part is added to the whole to make the mixed number. It's a very effective way to teach the concept of mixed numbers. It also shows the power of the Brick Math program, which makes math concepts visual and tactile so all students can learn them.

If you are a math teacher or a parent with a student at home who is learning K-8th grade math, check brickmath.com. The website includes videos for both teacher training and direct instruction of students. You can learn more about how Brick Math improves students' math test scores and hear what people who are using Brick Math have to say about the program. ​

The Brick Math FREE Lesson of the Month for August 2023, "Absolute Value,"  is from our brand-new book, Pre-Algebra Using LEGO® Bricks. It's a great way to demonstrate the meaning of absolute value when you begin to introduce the concept. To get the August 2023 Brick Math Lesson of the Month, "Absolute Value," plus a new lesson each month, click here.  Each Lesson of the Month includes the Teacher Lesson Guide as well as the Student Workbook pages that correspond to the lesson. 

The lesson demonstrates absolute value using a number line built from bricks. Each stud represents a number, with a blue 1x1 brick in the center of the line to represent zero. Green bricks represent positive values on the number line, and red bricks represent negative values. The lesson teaches the vocabulary of absolute value, showing the "integer value" of numbers. Once students understand the concept of absolute value, they can move on to performing arithmetic operations with them.

​Brick Math is a K-8 math curriculum that uses LEGO® bricks to model  13 different math subjects: 
Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions,   Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, Decimals, Data and Statistics, and Pre-Algebra.
Data and Statistics and  Pre-Algebra expand the Brick Math curriculum to include grades 7 - 8. Brick Math works in many applications: for homeschooling, math intervention, enrichment, and as a whole-school program. Materials are simple and affordable.
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If you are a math teacher or a parent with a student at home who is learning K-8th grade math, check brickmath.com. The website includes videos for both teacher training and direct instruction of students. You can learn more about how Brick Math improves students' math test scores and hear what people who are using Brick Math have to say about the program. 

The June 2023 Brick Math Lesson of the Month shows how to teach early learners the very basics of understanding square numbers. It's part of the  Counting and Cardinality Using LEGO® Bricks curriculum. To get the June 2023 Brick Math Lesson of the Month, "Square Number Concepts," plus a new lesson each month, click here.  Each Lesson of the Month includes the Teacher Lesson Guide as well as the Student Workbook pages that correspond to the lesson. ​

In the lesson, students build 2-stud, 4-stud, and 9-stud configurations with bricks. They are encouraged to see that 4-stud and 9-studs can be modeled in the shape of a square, and that there are 2 and 3 studs on each side of the square. In this way, the concept of square numbers is introduced, and will be returned to later when students learn multiplication.

The importance of building skills in math over time can't be stressed enough. This lesson is a great example of how to start from the earliest years, using mathematical terminology to teach concepts young students can grasp. Incorporating bricks to make the lesson visual helps students build math knowledge that will last a lifetime. 

This year, the program will expand to include grades 6 - 8, with the additional subjects Data and Statistics, Pre-Algebra, and Ratios and Proportions. Brick Math works in many applications: for homeschooling, math intervention, enrichment, and as a whole-school program. Materials are simple and affordable.

If you are a math teacher or a parent with a student at home who is learning K-8th grade math, check brickmath.com. The website includes videos for both teacher training and direct instruction of students. You can learn more about how Brick Math improves students' math test scores and hear what people who are using Brick Math have to say about the program. 

"April showers bring May flowers." April's Lesson of the Month on Decomposing Numbers in Addition brings May's Lesson of the Month on...Decomposing Numbers in Subtraction!

To get the May 2023 Brick Math Lesson of the Month, "Decomposing Numbers / Place Value," plus a new lesson each month, click here.  Each Lesson of the Month includes the Teacher Lesson Guide as well as the Student Workbook pages that correspond to the lesson. ​
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This lesson, from Brick Math's Subtraction Using LEGO® Bricks, models decomposing one ten into ten ones for the purpose of solving a subtraction problem. It also helps students understand the concept of place value, clearly showing bricks that represent both the tens and the ones places. It's a great way to explain what it actually means to subtract 8 from 22, which can be a difficult idea for some students to grasp when they start learning to subtract.

If you are a math teacher or a parent with a student at home who is learning K-8th grade math, check brickmath.com. The website includes videos for both teacher training and direct instruction of students. You can learn more about how Brick Math improves students' math test scores and hear what people who are using Brick Math have to say about the program. ​

The Brick Math Free Lesson of the Month for April 2023 comes from the book Addition Using Lego® Bricks. It's a great way to show young learners the meaning of ones and tens, and how to transform 10 ones into 1 ten. 
To get the April 2023 Brick Math Lesson of the Month, "Decomposing Numbers," plus a new lesson each month, click here. ​

This concept is foundational to mathematics, and will appear again and again as students learn about place value throughout the elementary and middle school math curriculum. This simple method of showing how to decompose from ones to tens using LEGO® bricks will help every student fully grasp the concept.

Brick Math is a K-6 math curriculum that uses LEGO® bricks to model  11 different math subjects: 
Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions,   Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, and Decimals.

​This year, the program will expand to include grades 6 - 8, with the additional subjects Data and Statistics, Pre-Algebra, and Ratios and Proportions. Brick Math works in many applications: for homeschooling, math intervention, enrichment, and as a whole-school program. Materials are simple and affordable.

If you are a math teacher or a parent with a student at home who is learning K-8th grade math, check brickmath.com. The website includes videos for both teacher training and direct instruction of students. You can learn more about how Brick Math improves students' math test scores and hear what people who are using Brick Math have to say about the program. ​

This Brick Math Lesson of the Month is from a new book not yet out — Data and Statistics Using LEGO® Bricks. The book will be published this spring as part of the expansion of the Brick Math curriculum into grades 6 - 8. 

​To get the March 2023 Brick Math Lesson of the Month, "Representing Data," plus a new lesson each month, click here. 

This lesson is the first one you'll use to teach students what data sets are and how to represent them graphically and with bricks. This is part of the K-2 math curriculum in most schools. The lesson introduces the terms data point, data set, and analyze, which are all important vocabulary words to understand when learning about data.  The lesson uses three different colors of bricks to represent attributes of the data, and it uses the studs on the bricks to track the number of data points within each category of data.

The lesson also connects to the math symbols <, >, and = . As soon as they are introduced to the subject, students learn to analyze data both in words and through math sentences. 
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February's Lesson of the Month is on multiplying unit fractions by fractions. Unit fractions are those that have a 1 in the numerator. This lesson shows how to model the multiplication of any unit fraction by any other fraction. It's key to understanding what it actually means to multiply fractions together. The lesson is from Brick Math's Fraction Multiplication Using LEGO® Bricks.
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The lesson starts with a discussion of the term unit fraction, along with a discussion about how to determine which unit fraction is largest: 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4. The lesson then moves on to modeling two multiplication problems.

Most 4th - 6th grade math teachers would agree that multiplying and dividing fractions is a very tricky subject for students to understand. The methods in Brick Math help make clear to students what is actually happening when two fractions are multiplied together -- not simply the process of multiplying the numerators and denominators together. This kind of deep understanding gives students a strong foundation in math that they can build on as they progress into middle school math and beyond.

Brick Math is a K-6 math curriculum that uses LEGO® bricks to model  11 different math subjects: Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions,   Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, and Decimals. This year, the program will expand to include grades 6 - 8, with the additional subjects Data and Statistics, Pre-Algebra, and Ratios and Proportions. Brick Math works in many applications: for homeschooling, math intervention, enrichment, and as a whole-school program. Materials are simple and affordable.
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If you are a math teacher or a parent with a student at home who is learning K - 6th grade math, check brickmath.com. The website includes videos for both teacher training and direct instruction of students. You can learn more about how Brick Math improves students' math test scores and hear what people who are using Brick Math have to say about the program. ​

​The August 2021 Lesson of the Month comes from the Decimals book. To get the August 2021 Lesson of the Month, plus a new lesson each month, click here. 

​For the first time, we’re showing you Part 2 of a lesson, or “Show What You Know.” This comes after the teacher has demonstrated the skill in Part 1 of the lesson (“Show Them How”), with the students working along with their own bricks. In Part 2, the teacher poses a problem for the students to work out while the teacher observes and coaches.

​In Part 1, students have learned how to model decimals in a 100 x 100-stud decimal grid.  In Part 2, students are first asked to model 0.42 in a decimal grid with bricks. Next, they are asked to try modeling any combination of studs that adds up to 0.30. In the Decimals book, the example illustrated is 0.14 + 0.16. The 100 x 100 decimal grid is a very useful tool to explain the concept of decimals to the one-hundredth place.

​Author of the Brick Math series, Dr. Shirley Disseler, demonstrates how to teach this decimal addition lesson in a one-minute Brick Math video, which is also part of the August 2021 Lesson of the Month. Watching the videos on the website really helps a teacher or parent understand how to guide a student through the Brick Math curriculum.