Throwback Thursday: If I had a million dollars, ok $1000…

Over the summer, We thought it would be fun to run some of the most popular posts from the past. When I re-read a post from the past I always take away something different because I am in a different place with my own experience. Perhaps you are as well!

I updated the cost of the materials to current 2017 prices (in bold) for the US Edition of Primary Mathematics, which are higher but include shipping on orders over $50. That puts us over the original $1000 threshold, but not bad…

For students that struggle, I would now recommend a recently published series: Visible Thinking in Mathematics with A & B titles at most grade levels that run from $12.80 to $14 each.

If I had a million dollars, ok $1000…

Originally published 6/20/2013

Recently, I received a question from an excited teacher who had just received a grant to spend on her classroom: “If you had a $1000 dollar grant and taught second grade, what would be the most important pieces of Singapore Math you’d buy?”

If I had a million dollars, ok $1000… here are two scenarios.

#1 Using the curriculum in 2nd grade as your main curriculum

A classroom set of the 1B & 2A textbooks @ $9.00 each, so if you had 24 students + 1 for teacher: 25 x $18 = $450 ($735)
Possibly a set of the 2B textbooks: 25 x $9 = $225 ($367.50)
A Teacher Manual for 1B, 2A & 2B: 3 x $21 = $63 ($88.50)
A workbook for reference and problem ideas for 1B, 2A & 2B = 3 x $9 = $27 ($44.10)
Challenging Word problems level 1 & 2: 2 x $8.50 = $17.00 ($29.40)
Intensive Practice: 1B, 2A & 2B: 3 x $8.80 = $26.40 ($38.40)
Process Skills in Problem Solving L2: $10.70 ($12.80)
Math Sprints Masters, Levels 1 & 2: 2 x $31 =$62 ($68)
Elementary Mathematics for Teachers by Parker & Baldridge: $29 ($33)
Place Value Strips: $12.50 ( $13.95)

That’s $625.80 (Currently: $1430.65 including shipping)

I’d spend the rest on linking cubes, base-10 blocks, place value disks or other manipulatives and containers to keep them organized.

Keep in mind that for Number Disks/Place Value Disks you’ll need about 20 each of ones, tens and hundreds disks per student or pair of students sharing. Many companies sell these:

Place Value Disks, 100 Ones Disks

Place Value Disks – 100 Tens Disks

Place Value Disks – 100 Hundreds Disks

#2 Using Singapore Math to Supplement another core curriculum:

Start a library at your school with one set of the textbooks and workbooks for every grade level at the school as reference (4 per grade level) x $9.00 each book – k-6 would be $36 x 7, k-5 would be $36 x 6 ($14.70 x 4 per grade level for grades 1 – 4 and $15 x 4 for grades 5 and 6)
A Teacher Manual for each level: $21 each book, 2 books per grade level = $42 per grade level ($24.50 – $31.50 each)
Challenging Word problems are $11 each and there are 6 levels (1-6) ($14.80 and $15.20)
Process Skills in Problem Solving vary in cost from $10.20 to $12.80 – levels 1-6 ($12.80 – $14.80)
SpeedMaths Level 1 – 4: $8.20 each (no higher than level 4!) ($12.80)
Math Sprints Masters, Levels 1 -5: 5 x $31 ($34)
Elementary Mathematics for Teachers by Parker & Baldridge: $29 several copies for staff ($33)
The Singapore Model Method for Learning Mathematics: $29 for grades 5 & up ($32)
Teaching of Whole Numbers by Dr Yeap Ban Har, Singapore’s renowned math educator, $30.50 ($32)
Bar Modeling A Problem-solving Tool also by by Dr Yeap Ban Har, for lower elementary. $30.50 ($32)
Place Value Disks: get plenty of ones, tens and hundreds. $15.95 per 100 disks ($7.95 per 100 disks)
Place Value Strips: $12.50 and other manipulatives (if you don’t already have them on campus). ($13.95)