Shaped

A community-driven blog supporting educators, building lifelong learners,
and shaping the future of education.* 

Latest Posts

Teaching about classifying polygons

Teaching about Classifying Polygons

Teach students about the different types of polygons in mathematics, which can be described as flat, closed figures with three or more sides.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

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Teaching with Math Place-Value Charts

A place-value system is one in which the position of a digit in a number determines its value, and a place-value chart is a way to make sure digits are in the correct places.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

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Teaching Flat Plane Shapes and Solid Shapes

Teach students about plane shapes, or closed, two-dimensional figures, and solid shapes, which include many of the everyday objects with which students are familiar.

Shaped Staff

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Teaching Product of Prime Factors

In this lesson, use factor trees to teach students the concept that a composite number is written as a product of all of its prime factors.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

iPad with image of Shaped blog content

Free Teaching Resources: Fun Classroom Activities and Lesson Plan Ideas

Find free teaching resources. Explore fun classroom activities, lessons plans, downloadables, and videos for Grade K–12 kids to keep learning and growing at grade level.

Shaped Staff

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Teaching Rational Numbers: Decimals, Fractions, and More

Use this lesson to teach students about rational numbers, including decimals, fractions, and integers.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

illustrated image with multiplication problems in text

Multiply or Add First? Teaching Order of Operations Rules

Use this lesson to teach students about the order of operations: complete operations in parentheses, multiply and divide from left to right, and add and subtract from left to right.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

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Financial Literacy Lesson Plans and Activities for Middle School Students

Use these financial literacy lesson plans and activities for middle school to teach students about topics ranging from salaries to wages to creating a personal budget.

Shaped Staff

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Video: Teaching Math with Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Use this video to teach numbers and expressions in math class by investigating how different numbers look around the world and throughout history at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

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Teaching Prime Factorization of 36

When a composite number (like 36) is written as a product of all of its prime factors, we have the prime factorization of the number.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

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Teaching Dividend, Divisor, and Quotient in Division

When teaching students about dividend, divisor, and quotient in division, introduce algorithms that will allow them to divide larger numbers.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

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Teaching Absolute Value of a Number in Math

Teaching absolute value can help students understand the distance of a number on the number line from zero, regardless of the direction from zero that the number lies.

Shaped Staff

Nutrition Activities Elementary And Middle School

8 Nutrition Activities for Elementary and Middle School Students

Use these nutrition activities for elementary and middle school students to teach them about healthy eating, regular exercise, and self-care.

Jordan Friedman
Former Shaped Editor

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

illustrated image with math equation

Teaching Ratios and Unit Rates in Math

Students learn the answer to "What is a unit rate?" in math class. Learn about ratios, rates, unit rates, and unit prices, and teach lessons where students solve real-world problems about rates and unit rates.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

WF1289060 Shaped 2020 Revamp Elementary

Elementary School Learning Activities

Use these educational activities for elementary school to explore different topics in reading, math, and science and add an element of fun into your lessons.

Shaped Staff

Hero IR

Pi Day Scavenger Hunt for Middle School Students

Celebrate Pi Day with a Pi Day scavenger hunt for middle school students. Have students scour the classroom for objects relating to the number pi.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

WF1309635 Shaped 2021 Blog Post Math at The Met Hero

Teaching Math Through Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Here are three specific ways that teaching math through art from The Met can enhance your students' learning experience.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

Challenge your students with these 100th Day of School math activities

6 100th Day of School Math Activities: Challenge Your Students

Download these 100th Day of School math activities for your classroom. These printables are suitable for students in Grades 2-5 and beyond.

Richard Blankman
Shaped Executive Editor

*The views expressed in our blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.