Math Problem of the Week for the Entire Year

I am ECSTATIC to share with you my newest product: Math Problems of the Week  (For the Year)

 Not only am I excited to incorporate these into my weekly lesson plans but it is PERFECT for common core and getting students to become Problem Solvers who Persevere!

     This past I went to a Common Core 4th Grade Math Training at our District Office and came out with a lot of ideas and ways to foster an excitement for math in a Common Core way. One of the ideas I came up with  was to make a permanent bulletin board in my classroom that will display the Problems
of the Week (P.O.W).  I plan on using the P.O.W in a variety of ways: 

1) as a May do activity 

2) as part of my Math Center Rotations 

3) for Table Challenges

 4) for Partner Practice 

5) as an Independent Assessments

   I designed the Problem of the Week to be an in class activity rather than a handout that goes home with each student.  This encourages the students to critically solve these on their own, or with a partner/group, rather than take it home and have a parent or sibling help.  

These 28 P.O.W are based off of
the first
standard of Mathematical Practice from the

Common Core State Standards which challenges
students to “Make sense of problems and to persevere in
solving them.” Each of these P.O.Ws were created to challenge the students across the
various common core Math strands: Operations
& Algebraic Thinking, Number & Operations Base Ten/Fractions,
Measurement & Data and Geometry and they vary in level of difficulty.

    For every Problem of the Week there is a corresponding Student Think
Sheets that they will submit their answers on.
The think sheet requires them to not only give the answer, but also to show
work and defend their answer in writing. By defending their answer and showing their work they are required to do more and process their thinking.  At the end of the week, when we go over the POW it will be so beneficial for the students to explain their rationale and steps they took as they attacked the problem.  This processing and sharing will show the struggling students ways that their peers persevered and solved the problem in a variety of ways and will hopefully help them to build confidence and make connections for next week’s problem.  In addition, requiring them to show their work and explain their answer is a skill that is aligned with the Smarter Balance
test example, which is what our state will be using when we start testing with Common Core.

I also needed to create some cute signage for my new bulletin board.  So, I made a P.O.W
Bunting Sign and 6 Math Strategy
Posters that will help the students strategize and solve.

I get to work on my classroom tomorrow and set it up, so I will post pictures of my new P..O.W bulletin board when I am done.  I hope you consider getting this pack on sale today in the giant TpT Sale!!! You can get it for 28% off here: