 Brick Math has just started a Pinterest site, with lots of great images that show how Brick Math works. There is a Pinterest board for each the different math topics covered in Brick Math, including Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Fractions, Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, and Decimals.
We continue to add to Pinterest all the time, so check it out today, and make it one of your favorites so new Brick Math pins will show up on your feed. And share this with your friends so everyone can find out about Brick Math!
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 Whether you are a longtime LEGO® fanatic or new to the wonders of the plastic brick, it’s not hard to understand how well LEGO bricks work as a tool to teach fractions. The bricks can easily show concepts of benchmark fractions (½, ¼, 1/8, etc.), and since many students are familiar with them as a toy, they really enjoy using them in math class. Brick Math’s Basic Fractions Teacher Edition has a full curriculum for teaching fractions using LEGO® bricks. It starts with activities to answer the question “What is a fraction?” and moves through all the fraction topics – benchmark fractions, adding and subtracting fractions, factors, equivalent fractions, finding common denominators, and mixed numbers. Benchmark fractions (½, ¼, 1/8, ¾) are important for students to learn early on in their exploration of fractions. These are fractions they will see often, and understanding their value will help them make estimates in real-life situations. Benchmark fractions will also help students recognize that fractions are made from different-sized wholes. This is key to understanding fractions.  Here’s how to teach benchmark fractions using the Brick Math technique: 1. Start by placing a 2x4 LEGO® brick on a baseplate to represent the whole. Make sure students know that because there are 8 studs on this brick, it represents the whole of 8, and that is the denominator of the fraction.  2. Have students find a brick that shows ½ of this whole. Have them look for two bricks that are the same size and together take up the same space as the whole 2x4 brick when placed together. They should find either two 2x2 bricks or two 1x4 bricks. Explain that one of these bricks represents ½. The 1x4 or 2x2 brick has 4 studs, so the brick shows the numerator 4 of the fraction modeled here – 4/8 (or ½).  3. Ask students to find ¼ of the whole of 8 in the same way, with four bricks that take up the same space as the 2x4 brick. They should find four 1x2 bricks, and understand that one of these bricks shows ¼. With 2 studs on this brick, it models the numerator of the fraction 2/8 (or ¼).  4. Have students do the same process to find the brick that represents 1/8.  Then have students place these benchmark fractions bricks next to each other, to show the whole, ½, ¼, and 1/8 – and that each fraction is half of the one preceding it.  5. To show ¾, have students look for the brick that shows ¼, then find three of them and put them next to the whole. See if your students make the connection to the 6 studs on these bricks as the numerator of the fraction 6/8. They’ll do this by showing that the three ¼ bricks are equivalent to one 2x3 brick. Brick Math is a complete K – 6 curriculum that uses LEGO® bricks to teach math. Besides Basic Fractions, Brick Math topics include: Counting, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Basic Measurement, Fraction Multiplication, Fraction Division, Advanced Measurement and Geometry, and Decimals.
Try Brick Math with your students with a FREE Brick Math lesson every month! You'll be able to download a PDF that includes the teacher instructions for a lesson, plus the student pages that go along with the lesson. It's a great way to test out the Brick Math program with your students. Once you've signed up, you'll receive a new Brick Math lesson every month.
Click here to sign up now for the monthly free lesson plans and student pages to build your Brick Math library! We'd like to get feedback about Brick Math from people who have tried the curriculum. If you're a teacher, administrator, or parent who has used Brick Math with a student, please take a few moments to complete our short survey.
Thanks for your help!  New year, new FREE Brick Math Lesson of the Month!
For January 2020, the lesson is from Subtraction Using LEGO® Bricks Teacher and Student Editions. The lesson teaches students about subtracting within 20, and utilizes the modeling technique of ten-frames to help students begin to understand the power of our number system that is based on 10. The ten-frame is built with a 2x5 configuration of bricks. Two easy ways to build a ten-frame are to use either a 2x4 and a 1x2 brick, or to use a 2x3 and a 2x2 brick. Just make sure those bricks are the same color, so the 2x5 configuration of the ten-frame is all one color. Then the subtraction is modeled on top of the ten-frame. There are two examples in this lesson to demonstrate subtraction using this method: the first one shows 6 - 4 = 2; the second one, which uses two ten-frames to model, shows 12 - 8 = 4. Try this lesson with your students who are learning the concept of subtraction. You'll only need a few LEGO® or compatible bricks to model both problems, and you'll help your students "see the math"! Sign up here for the FREE Brick Math Lesson of the Month for January and you'll automatically receive a new lesson every month.  We hear from teachers all the time who tell us that Brick Math is very effective for their students who weren’t learning math through the established school curriculum. Often the reason is because the Brick Math methodology appeals to all kinds of learners.
Obviously, kinesthetic learners take to Brick Math because they can manipulate the bricks, and actually touch the math content. Auditory learners learn from Brick Math through the process of explaining in words why their models show the math. Visual learners enjoy the highly visual nature of brick models, both through seeing completed models and through building and drawing their own models. And reading/writing learners respond particularly well to the component of the program that asks students to explain their thinking in writing. When Brick Math was being developed, author Dr. Shirley Disseler recognized the creative nature of the program. Often there is not just one right way to model a problem, but a variety. She continues to be surprised by new ways that students find to use the bricks to explain the underlying math concepts. The flexibility of Brick Math for all types of learners helps many students find success with math!  Happy holidays to all! Here's our present to you: A brand-new Brick Math Lesson of the Month! For December, we have a lesson from Addition Using LEGO® Bricks. The lesson helps students learn two important concepts: 1. How to model place values with bricks 2. How to model addition using those place value models This is a great way to teach students about place values. The lesson models the ones with 1x1 bricks, the tens with 1x2 bricks, and the hundreds with 1x3 bricks. Once students understand how to model numbers using place values, it’s a short step to learning how to add using place values. The lesson of the month gives the step-by-step lesson from the Teacher’s Edition first, and then shows the corresponding pages in the Student Edition that students will complete as they learn. To receive this Lesson of the Month and be registered to get a new one every month, click here.
 LEGO® bricks are a very versatile manipulative for math. In fact, Brick Math author Dr. Shirley Disseler has developed a method of teaching students to tell time using bricks!
The technique is called a “linear clock,” which models the numbers 1 through 12 with bricks. It works well to teach students how to tell time and how to find elapsed time. Baseplates are joined together to make the clock, and each stud on the baseplate models a five-minute increment. Naturally, when using bricks to teach the concept of time, it’s important to also relate the linear clock to both an analog clock and a digital clock, so students learn how to tell time through conventional means. Here’s an example of using bricks on the linear clock to show elapsed time (from Basic Measurement Using LEGO® Bricks): Using the linear clock model, place a red 1x1 brick at 2:00 pm on the baseplate. Count forward 65 minutes, and mark the new time on the baseplate with another red 1x1 brick. What time is it now? Write a math sentence for your model. Answer: The new time is 3:05 pm. Math sentence: 2 hours + 65 minutes = 3 hours 5 minutes or 3:05 pm  The second edition of Basic Fractions Using LEGO® Bricks has just been published! This edition has even more ways to teach students about fractions than before.
The first edition of Teaching Fractions Using LEGO® Bricks was the very first book written in the 22-book Brick Math series. Author Dr. Shirley Disseler went back to this best-selling book and thought it was time for an update. The second edition has lots of new illustrations of the brick models as well as several new chapters with content that was not included in the original book. Here's what's new in this second edition:
Right now, until December 15, the Brick Math FREE Lesson of the Month is from the Basic Fractions book, and it shows how to teach students to compare and order fractions, using the fantastic "fraction train" method. To download the free lesson, click here.  What do you do when you want to try an innovative curriculum like Brick Math, but your school doesn’t have the budget for it? Look for a grant!
A number of orders for Brick Math curriculum and materials have been funded from grants. Many foundations that fund grants for educational programs, materials, and professional development target STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and math). Here’s a list of some grants you can apply for if you’re interested in funding for Brick Math:
And each state has its own grants; for example, this one in North Carolina: Bright Ideas Educational Grants http://www.ncbrightideas.com/Home.aspx Find grants in your state at this site: https://grantsalert.com/grants/ We’ll be happy to help you figure out what you need for your classroom or school when you’re writing your grant for Brick Math. Just contact neil@brickmathseries.com or call 802-751-8802. |
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