First grade mathematicians will be working this year on number sense in order to improve their understanding of the relationship between numbers and their ability to do mental math. This guided lesson will help strengthen this important skill with targeted instruction and plenty of real-world practice problems. Once the lesson is finished, you can extend learning with the suggested number sense worksheets.

Multiplication is essentially repeated addition, or growing numbers by doubling, tripling, quadrupling, and so on. This unit presents mental models and strategies that help students learn and review the concept of multiplication. Students explore multiplication using arrays, partial products, doubling methods and the standard algorithm to solve numerical and word problems. Students will multiply whole numbers and simple decimals by base ten exponents (i.e. .3 x 103).

First graders' fluidity with comparing numbers is an important building block for the higher-level math concepts to come in the later grades. You can give first graders a leg up with this lesson, featuring guided instruction and practice problems in comparing numbers. Once kids get through this lesson, you can download and print the suggested comparing numbers worksheets in order to provide even more opprotunities for practice.