Visit Excel Math in San Antonio for the AIE Conference

The 2015 AIE Conference will be held in San Antonio, Texas from November 16 - 18.

Bob and Brad will be there with the new Excel Math Texas Editions!

Stop by Booth #18 to take a look at our Texas Teacher Editions for Kindergarten through Grade 6. Be sure to ask about taking home an Excel Math executive pen.

Sign up for our occasional tips and printables while you're there (or visit this link on our website: Free Tips and Printables)

TEKS aligned and STAAR ready, these Excel Math Texas Teacher Editions include new TEKS objectives plus:

• discussion suggestions 

• new teaching ideas and hands-on activities

• quarterly test tables with the TEKS concept listed for each test question

• new manipulatives and reproducible patterns 

• various problem-solving techniques explained

• added rigor and 

• more emphasis on those TEKS concepts new to students in each grade level.

Excel Math Texas Teacher Editions—TEKS aligned, STAAR ready

Excel Math Grade 1 Texas Teacher Edition

With our new Texas Teacher Editions, Excel Math is now current with the new Texas Math TEKS. We do not have a personal financial literacy component, but we have built into the lessons lots of practice with coins, money, making change, calculating interest, budgeting, etc.

Our Grades 2 - 6 Texas Teacher Editions include a reproducible Budget Worksheet to help students develop a system for keeping and using financial records and to learn to balance a budget when expenses exceed income.

Take a look at the new Texas grade level correlations and sample lessons for Kindergarten through Grade 6.

Click on the colorful sample bars on the web page to choose your grade level(s). Scroll down the web page to see the correlations and click on the round buttons: http://excelmath.com/downloads/state_stdsTX.html

Within each grade level, we correlate the Excel Math Lessons, Stretches, Activities and Exercises to each Texas standard. You can see correlations by lesson number at the end of each correlation document.

Reserve your cost-effective 

Professional Development seminar today

Our vice-president Bob would be glad to provide you and your colleagues with a couple of hours of inservice training with Excel Math (at minimal cost to cover travel expenses), once you start using the program. One of his seminars specifically addresses best practices for Teaching to the new TEKS using Excel Math.

Additionally the in-service includes how to effectively blend Excel Math with an adopted core curriculum for maximum instruction. Feel free to call Bob, visit him in the booth or send him an email: bob@excelmath.com.

You can find more information about Bob's presentations on our website: Texas PD

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Turkey Talk: Basic Math Facts Bulletin Board

Excel Math Badges for Your Classroom

Higher Order Word Problems for Math Students

Financial Awareness for Students
 
Calming the Frenzy Over Fractions

November 16-18, 2015 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in downtown San Antonio, Texas - See more at: http://www.aieconference.net/index.html#sthash.cNkaPJ6G.dpuf

November 16-18, 2015 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in downtown San Antonio, Texas - See more at: http://www.aieconference.net/index.html#sthash.cNkaPJ6G.dpuf

Odd Day in the Math Classroom

Odd day is a day that singles out those wonderful, wacky odd numbers. It occurs when three consecutive odd numbers make up a date — something that happens only six times in a century.

The last Odd Day was 09/11/13 and this year it will occur on 11/13/15. Can you guess when the next one will take place? (Not until 1/03/2105.)

Celebrate the day by doing odd things in your classroom.

You may want to let your students do odd numbered problems on this day, count off by 3s, wear odd outfits, have a crazy/odd hair day, recite an odd poem or quote some odd trivia.

Your students could play Dominoes or Go Fish or Mancala (board games or computer games) but count up only the odd numbers left at the end.

Or let the students play board games where players can only move when the dice shows (or totals) an odd number.

Try a few odd math facts, skip-count by odd numbers, etc.

Then let your students figure out when the previous four Odd Days occurred (3/5/2007, 5/7/2009, 7/9/2011, 9/11/2013) and when they can expect to see the next four Odd Days. (1/3/2105, 3/5/2107, 5/7/2109 and 7/9/2111)

Excel Math lessons teach students how to recognize odd and even numbers, learn foundational math concepts, and retain those concepts for the long term. Excel Math can even help students develop a love for math.

For over 40 years, these proven math lessons have developed higher-order thinking skills, built proficiency, and continue to produce confidence in students of all ages and abilities.  

Excel Math was written to give teachers the tools they need to help students develop a strong foundation in math. Read more about Excel Math and its systematic spiraling process at www.excelmath.com.

New to Excel Math? Preview elementary math lessons that really work for Kindergarten through Sixth Grade on our website: www.excelmath.com.

Download sample lessons from our K - 6 Grades Common Core Teacher Editions by visiting our website.

How will you celebrate odd day with your students? Leave a comment by clicking on the word "comments" below.

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Common Core Math Success Stories—Teaching in Ways Students Learn

Professional Development Energizes & Engages Math Teachers

Orchestrating the Common Core Classroom

Visit Excel Math at the CMC South Conference in Palm Springs November 5-7, 2015.

This year the 2015 CMC Convention will be held in South Palm Springs at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Bob and Brad will be there.

The 56th Annual California Mathematics Council is focusing on the theme:

Orchestrating the Common Core Classroom

Stop by Booth #240 and see our proven  Excel Math lessons and  Common Core Teacher Editions for Kindergarten through Grade 6. Pick up a sample packet and some chocolate while you're there!

The exhibit hall for CMC opens at 8:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday in Oasis II and III of the Palm Springs Convention Center.

Visit Excel Math at CMC

You can join Bob and Brad to take a look at our Common Core Teacher Editions for Kindergarten through Grade 6 and take home an Excel Math executive pen.

Download our Excel Math grade level correlations to the Common Core Standards and view sample lessons for Kindergarten through Grade 6.

Click on the colorful sample bars on the web page to choose your grade level(s). Scroll down the web page to see the correlations and click on the round buttons: CCS Correlations

Within each grade level, we correlate the Excel Math Lessons, Stretches, Activities and Exercises to each CCSS standard.

You can see correlations by lesson number at the end of each correlation document.

Reserve your cost-effective 

Professional Development seminar today

Excel Math Professional Development

Our vice-president Bob would be glad to provide you and your colleagues with a couple of hours of inservice training with Excel Math (at minimal cost to cover travel expenses), once you start using the program.

One of Bob's seminars specifically addresses best practices for teaching to the Common Core Standards using Excel Math.

Excel Math CCS Teacher Edition

Additionally the in-service includes how to effectively blend Excel Math with an adopted core curriculum for maximum instruction.

Feel free to call Bob, visit him in the booth or send him an email: bob@excelmath.com.

You can find more information about Bob's engaging presentations on our website: Professional Development

For more information and to register for the CMC conference visit: http://www.cmc-south.org/conference-info-2015.html

You may also enjoy these articles:

Higher Order Word Problems for Math Students

Using Number Lines in the Math Class

Financial Awareness for Students
 
Calming the Frenzy Over Fractions

Excel Math Helps Students Raise Test Scores

Excel Math Badges for Your Classroom

Student Badges Chart - Click to Download

We've created some colorful Excel Math digital badges (and printable stickers) for you to give your students as they complete their lessons and tests.

Digital badges and printable templates for Homework, Tests and Lessons are included to get you started.

You can feel free to edit them with your school name, write in the Lesson or Test number or let your students sign their names. Let's get creative with custom badges!

Printable Excel Math Badges

Download our Student Badges Chart if you use the printable badges. Copy one chart for each student.

These can go on the wall (using student ID numbers) or may be kept in the child's binder.

If you prefer a digital chart, download the PDF chart file and import it into Google Drive. Open it in Google Docs and share it with each student.

We get you started with Excel Math digital badges for each lesson, test and homework assignment.

Give each student a Homework badge when they bring back completed homework, showing their work.

TIP: If you drag the badge image into the Student Badges chart (or place it as an image), the badge will automatically be sized to fit the size of the cell in the chart. So you don't have to worry about resizing the badges to fit the chart.

We also give you a set of Test badges you can award when your students finish each test or achieve a certain test score—your choice.

If you haven't gone digital yet, simply print out the badges and let your students glue them to their papers or onto a chart you provide in the classroom.

You can also print the badges onto sticker paper (Avery #6540) so they can simply peel and stick them onto the chart.

We've even included a link to walk you through the steps to create more badges yourself.

This video from Alice Keeler will show you how it's done, one step at a time. You can have a whole library of digital badges for your students in no time!

If your students enjoy getting the badges, let them create some badges of their own. They can use Google Drive themselves to design their badges.

Or print a blank template and students can color their own badges, cut them out, give them back to you in an envelope, and you can hand them out as your students complete each lesson, homework assignment, or test.

Have fun with badges!

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Turkey Talk: Basic Math Facts Bulletin Board

Turkey Talk Bulletin Board from Excel Math

Highlight positive character traits and have your students review basic math facts with this turkey bulletin board. 

Cover your bulletin board or wall with colorful paper, fabric, foil, or textured material. Cut a harvest border in a contrasting color or buy one pre-made with a harvest or fall theme.

Download the patterns from our website. Back the Turkey Pattern with a colorful paper plate. Also print a turkey for each student. Print the Feather Patterns and write a positive character trait or study habit on each feather. 

Click to download Turkey pattern

Make some math feathers such as, "addition whiz," "multiplication genius," "subtraction superstar," etc.  

Place egg or chick patterns with numbers or problems on them around the turkey.  You can also glue pieces of fringed paper, straw, sandpaper, or hay at the bottom of the board for added texture.

Give each student a turkey pattern to cut out. (Have them cut off the feathers and give them back to you or just leave them on and add more feathers as they learn math facts.) Let the students glue their turkeys to paper plates. 

Make extra feathers so you'll have enough for each student to have several. 

Click to download Feather patterns

Watch for a student who exhibits any of these traits and award that child with a feather to glue or tape onto his turkey. 

Try to make sure each student gets one or two feathers each week during the month. Students who can recite math facts can earn multiple math feathers (one for each fact family, one for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc. 

You can make up your own feather awards as students exhibit positive character traits, help each other, or make progress in math.

Then let the students add their own feathers to their turkeys. Just the act of getting to move to the bulletin board (or wall) and attach a new feather can be an incentive for some students to earn more!

Read more . . . 

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October 5 - World Teachers' Day

October 5 is celebrated as World Teachers' Day.

Here at Excel Math, every day is the perfect time to celebrate teachers and thank them for their hard work and dedication to their students.

Here are a few ways you can encourage your students to show appreciation to their teachers.

Download this Teacher Appreciation certificate and/or the tie patterns below, and copy or print one for each of your students to give to a favorite teacher.

Appreciation Certificate

Ask each student to think of one teacher or staff person at your school who has been influential in their lives thus far.

Brainstorm as a class to find adjectives that could be used to describe these special people (thoughtful, energetic, caring, wise, empathetic, supportive, encouraging, etc.).

Then have each student choose a tie pattern or award or thank-you card (or design of her choice) and write a brief note of thanks or appreciation to the chosen teachers.

Have the students draw pictures on the back or continue the note and sign their name.

Students who finish quickly can design a poster, banner or mural or other appreciation to hang in the teacher lounge or hallway.

Click on the image to download the Tie Patterns file.

Have the entire class sign their names to the poster, banner or mural.

Sort the certificates and give them out to your colleagues over the next week.

From all of us here at Excel Math: "Thank you, teachers!"

Check out our Wednesday post for Excel Math Badges you can create for your students!

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Higher Order Word Problems for Math Students 

It's Not Too Late to Get Started with Excel Math

Even though it's October, it's not too late to order Excel Math lessons.

We ship most orders in a day or two after getting your order, which means you have it when you need it.

The first few weeks of Excel Math for Grades 1 - 6 is a review of the previous year, so if you start the lessons in October, you can move quickly through the first lessons or let your students progress at their own pace.

Excel Math lessons are completely flexible!

Your students will appreciate the easy start we'll give them as they begin the new school year and get reaquainted with concepts from the previous year.

As your students gain confidence in math, Excel Math lessons become progressively more challenging, introducing new concepts on a regular basis.

However, we don't expect mastery when concepts are first introduced. Rather, those concepts are reinforced with Homework and Guided Practice before they begin appearing on tests.

Take a look at our unique spiraling process, where spaced repetition is systematically incorporated into the entire school year. Students have a chance to get concepts into their long-term memory and our lessons reinforce those concepts all year.

Excel Math is completely flexible and can be started at any time.

Get your students going with a strong foundation in mathematics.

Give us a call at 1-866-866-7026 or visit our website: http://www.excelmath.myshopify.com

Not sure which version of Excel Math to order?
Get our Sample Packet first.

The Excel Math Teacher Editions are available in the following versions:

Common Core Edition 

Texas Edition (TEKS aligned — STAAR ready) 

Standard Edition (Non Common Core) 

Sample Packets are available in each of these versions.

Unsure which grade level your students are ready to tackle? Download our free Excel Math Placement Test (available in English and Spanish).

Excel Math Placement Test Intro

   

Questions?  Give us a call at 1-866-866-7026 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (West Coast time). A friendly person will answer the phone (never a machine). Excel Math gives you service with a smile!

Excel Math Is Moving!

Excel Math is moving just down the street, after fifteen years at its present location in Poway.

Our new address as of September 22 will be 12150 Tech Center Drive, still in Poway and just four blocks away. Our new zip code extension will be 92064-7102. All other contact information including phone, email and website address will remain the same.

Come visit our new warehouse on Tech Center Drive, just down the street from the former Excel Math building. Call first, 1-866-866-7026, and we'll have your order ready and waiting!

Our former Excel Math building

We will be posting pictures of our new warehouse on our website over the new few weeks.

Check them out on our Contact Page: www.excelmath.com/contact.html

Here are a few photos of the building on Kirkham Way and our current and past employees, for a bit of nostalgia.

This is the former warehouse loaded with Excel Math materials, ready to ship out to our customers.

Shown below are the shrink-wrapped pallets of Excel Math lessons we receive from our printers.

Shrink-wrapped pallets of Excel Math materials

Excel Math is now available for Common Core Standards, Texas (TEKS aligned—STAAR ready), and our proven Standard Editions.

Celebrating 40 years of service to teachers and students, we now ship to select overseas locations as well as to the continental United States, Hawaii and Alaska.

Customers can order online from our web store:
https://excelmath.myshopify.com/

. . . or give us a call toll free at 1-866-866-7026.

When you call between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday - Friday (West Coast time), a helpful person will answer the phone, never a machine!

Graded Excel Math boxes of Student Lesson Sheets

Pictured at right are the boxes of Student Lesson Sheets organized by grade level (note the various colors of labels: Grade 1 is pink, Grade 2 is blue, Grade 3 is Green; Grade 5 is yellow) and ready to ship to you, our favorite customers.

It's not too late to order!

Orders are usually shipped out within a few days so you have your lesson materials when you need them.

Not sure which Excel Math version to use?

Sample packets are available as Free downloads from our web store: https://excelmath.myshopify.com/collections/free-excel-lmath-sample-packets

Although we're moving, we're the same friendly group of people you've come to rely on for proven math materials. Call us today or stop by 12150 Tech Center Drive in Poway. We provide service with a smile!

Excel Math employees with the owners, Brad and Janice

Pumpkin Bulletin Boards for the Math Class

As fall approaches, here are some colorful new bulletin board sets for your math classroom!

Now that school is back in session, bulletin boards can help display information and add a touch of creativity to your classroom. 

Even if you start with a basic board or just a wall, you can easily modify it every month or two to reflect the changing seasons and holidays.

You may want to place one of the the bulletin board displays on your classroom door or in the hallway just outside your room so it will catch the children's interest as they enter.

If you don't actually have a bulletin board in your classroom, use part of a wall or the side of a filing cabinet. You can even hang decorations from your ceiling. 

Some simple fall bulletin board ideas are shown below. Check back in a month or two for more. Click on the links to download patterns for each bulletin board. Use foam or small pieces of folded cardboard to give a 3-D effect to the displays.

For a tactile board, use cotton balls for clouds, fabric for the backdrop, straw under the pumpkins to form hay bales and textured borders cut from corrugated cardboard, aluminum foil and fabric. If you're short on time, purchase pre-cut borders with seasonal patterns.

With Excel Math, students learn addition and subtraction plus foundational math concepts. Our unique spiraling process helps students retain those concepts over the long term.

This long-term retention of concepts leads to mastery and prepares students for rigorous new testing. Excel Math students are well prepared for STAAR testing, Common Core testing, real-world problem solving, and critical thinking. Learn more at www.excelmath.com.

Pumpkin Bulletin Board
Design your bulletin board as a pumpkin patch of math problems for the fall season. Print out the pumpkin patterns above. On each pumpkin write math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication,
division, percentages, fractions) or whatever concepts you're studying.

Leave some pumpkins blank. You may want to enlarge some pumpkins and tape the to the wall so they appear to sit on your floor.

Laminate the blank pumpkins so students can write their answers on the blanks and then wipe them off and start again the next day.

You can create fall leaves the same way. Cut them from construction paper, laminate them and let the students write their answers on the back.

Read more . . . 

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Patriot Day Photos and Memories

My brother-in-law was a Lt. Colonel in the United States Army and stationed at the Pentagon in Washington DC on September 11, 2001. He was in his office planning to go to New York City to help with the rescue efforts at the World Trade Center when a hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon. He was lucky and survived.

However, many of his friends were killed that day. My brother-in-law was on the opposite side of the Pentagon when the hijacked plane crashed into it. See the photo below.

189 persons at the Pentagon lost their lives on 9/11. Our hearts go out to the relatives and friends of those who died at the Pentagon, in the Twin Towers and on the field in Pennsylvania on that day 14 years ago.

At 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors.

Our heart-felt thanks to the first responders, firefighters, medical staff and volunteers who assisted in the rescue efforts including guiding people to safety, treating the injured, and comforting loved ones through the days to come.

On that day, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States.

Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. See the photos of the Twin Towers at night before 9/11 at left and below.

A third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C. (see the photo at right), and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

Often referred to as 9/11, the attacks resulted in extensive death and destruction, triggering major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism and defining the presidency of George W. Bush.

Over 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., including more than 400 police officers and firefighters. Read more on www.history.com/

Here are some videos and photos from that day and beforehand the destruction happened.

For educators and others interested in history, Flocabulary has put together an educational video: https://www.flocabulary.com/week-in-rap-extra-9-11/

“Week in Rap Extra: 9/11” covers the terrorist group responsible for the attack, how the US responded and how the country and world continue to remember the lives lost that day.

What do you remember about that day 14 years ago? Leave a comment in the box below to let us know where you were on 9/11.

Here are a few more before and after photos we've collected.

North Tower Fountain at the 9/11 Memorial

Twin Towers before 9/11

Twin Towers of the World Trade Center

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Higher Order Word Problems for Math Students  

Common Core Math Success Stories—Teaching in Ways Students Learn

With all the commotion about Common Core Test Scores and 70% of students not making the grade in math, we thought some good news was in order.

Excel Math has a proven approach to teaching students math in the ways they learn best.

Students using Excel Math actually score well on Common Core tests across the nation.

For 40 years, Excel Math has produced excellent results, including improved test scores and high student engagement with math—all while giving students a solid foundation of math skills.

Let's take a look at a few success stories and test results shared with us by educators and parents using Excel Math.

"My children had been using Excel Math Standard Ed. at home for the last two years to supplement the math curriculum they have at school (which isn't very effective). This year they took the Common Core Math pretest for the first time. 

We had been warned that our children would probably not score very well on these tests. However, my fourth grader scored 83% and my third grader (who is not a math genius) scored 98%! When people asked me if he was a math whiz, I had to tell them, "Not at all. It was the Excel Math Lesson Sheets!" — Wendy Ulrich, Mom in San Diego, CA 

Granted, this was the Common Core Pre-Test, but most students across the country did not do very well on that test, so these results were outstanding.

The natural feedback loop in Excel Math gives students a chance to learn from their mistakes:

"My daughter struggled with grasping math concepts until she started with Excel Math in her new school. It just "clicked" with her and she now maintains a 99% average overall in math! Before using Excel Math, she wouldn't have cared whether she had her homework done or not. Now she completes her math homework first because the instant feedback of the 'CheckAnswers' allows her to locate and fix any mistakes on her own. She no longer has to wait for the teacher to grade her work to find out if she 'gets it'. Excel Math offers her a level of control that is often missing in other math curricula." - Mom in Bellevue, PA 

A Common Core math educator and CCSS Coach teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District saw similar results with his students and his own children:

"I believe in your Excel Math system, and promote it within LAUSD.  I presented it as the centerpiece for a large conference for gifted parents last year.  My daughters continue to use it as well.  They recently scored 96% nationally in Mathematics for 1st and 3rd grades." — Teacher and Common Core Coach in Los Angeles, California

Around the country, schools are discovering that students can succeed in math (and test scores rise) when they use Excel Math.

One excited educator wrote to tell us:

Since we started using Excel Math at Whispering Palms School, our students have increased their math scores dramatically.  On the testing in May we scored on average over two grades above grade level!

Excel Math teaches students in the way they learn best. 

And the unique spiraling process in Excel Math gives students a way to get concepts into long-term memory so they are well
prepared for real-world math and higher-level thinking skills.

Want more evidence that Excel Math works? Download a Scientifically Based Research Report showing how Excel Math increases student test scores across all grade levels.

When you're ready to order, visit our web store at http://excelmath.myshopify.com/

We also have Texas (TEKS aligned) and Standard Teacher Editions available.

If you would like to get our occasional tips and extras for math educators, simply fill in the comment box below with the grade level(s) you teach and the word "join" in the comments section. You will receive an email from us every month or two letting you know about our new printables, tips for teachers, and special offers. 

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