, Power Up Workbook, and Homeschool Testing Book.
Each lesson begins with “Power Up” activities. These are a bit more involved than the “Warm Up” activities that begin each lesson in Math 54 and Math 65. Power Up activities include four categories of problems each time: math fact review, count aloud or “jump start,” mental math, and problem solving. Math Intermediate 3 labels the second category “jump start.” Whatever the label, this second category might include oral counting by increments, drawing hands on a clock, thermometer reading, writing a fact family for three numbers, etc. The count aloud category is dropped from some of the Power Up sections in Math Intermediate 4 and 5 since by fourth and fifth grades students should be able to skip count fairly proficiently and will need only occasional review. The separate Power Up Workbook is used for the written activities for the Power Up section of each lesson with one page to accompany each lesson. The top half of each page is for math fact review problems. Then sections for each of the other three type activities might each contain some content (e.g., clock face in jump start) or simply provide blank space for students to write their responses. I suspect that some students will need assistance in completing some of these activities, especially at the beginning of the school year.
After the Power Up activities, a new concept is introduced along with sample problems that are completely worked out. The series includes some work on conceptual understanding as new skills and concepts are taught. However, concepts are taught with written or pictorial explanations rather than manipulatives (aside from fraction manipulatives used a few times in fourth grade), and conceptual development is not as strong as in Singapore Math or Math-U-See. After the new concept is presented, some lesson practice problems provide students with practice only on the new concept. “Written Practice” problems follow with 15 to 20 problems per lesson for third grade that review previously taught concepts. The number of written practice problems increases to 30 per lesson in fourth and fifth grades. The Written Practice problems are wide ranging in approach, really challenging students’ thinking skills as we see in Singapore Math. Occasionally, students encounter an open-ended question that asks for both an answer and an explanation. Some lessons add an extra problem for “Early Finishers.” These are usually word problems that make real-world connections that are either more time-consuming or more challenging than the other lesson problems. These aren’t the only real-world word problems, since lessons generally have quite a few of them.
Students will need to work in a notebook or on other paper to complete lesson practice and written practice problems. They will not be writing in the hardcover textbook.
After every ten lessons there is an “investigation” lesson. Each of these will likely take an entire class period. For example, one investigation in Math Intermediate 3 teaches about bar graphs then directs students to collect survey data by asking questions then create their own bar graph. Investigations will require parental/teacher oversight or direction.
Instead of a teacher manual, the Solutions Manual for each course has answers and complete solutions (when applicable) for all textbook problems. There is no need for a teacher’s manual in addition to this since the text is self-explanatory. There is no answer key for the Power Up Workbook, although parents/teachers should be able to check the answers fairly easily without a key. (It appears that there is a CD with a Power Up answer key available in the school edition for each course but which has been omitted from the homeschool kits.)
The Homeschool Testing Book for each course has tests that follow every five lessons beginning after lesson 10....
The Intermediate series is totally in alignment with the Common Core Standards. On the publishers website they identify which lessons meet each of the standards for each grade level. Math Intermediate 4 a