Transition Guides
This Guide, and its accompanying worksheets, is a resource for teachers to help students transition to the Dimensions Math® curriculum.
The Dimensions Math curriculum closely follows the syllabus used in Singapore. The sequence is different in some areas from most U.S. math curricula. Some topics or concepts are introduced earlier than they are in U.S. math curricula to allow a foundation that is built on in later grades. This difference in sequence makes the transition into Dimensions Math from a typical U.S. math curriculum somewhat challenging. Dimensions Math includes some review of concepts covered previously between levels, but this review is not always adequate for students who have not yet encountered the topic. In addition, there are more mental math strategies in the Dimensions Math curriculum and the word problems tend to be more challenging than those in other curricula.
This Guide is not a reteach resource for all topics. It focuses on areas where there is a potential for gaps in student understanding. To add the least amount of additional material to the school year, it includes suggestions for how to incorporate topics in the existing Dimensions Math lessons where feasible. It should be used in conjunction with the Dimensions Math Teacher’s Guides.
This Guide starts with a general overview of the topics that will likely cause the most difficulty for transitioning students.
The Overview is followed by Teaching Notes and Suggestions, organized by grade level, chapter, and lesson. These may be as simple as suggestions on how you can expand on the lesson in the Textbook, or they may provide a specific transition lesson. Read them ahead of time as part of your preparation for the lesson, along with the material in the Teacher’s Guide.
Specific transition lessons themselves come after the notes and teaching suggestions.
The worksheets for the transition lessons are available to print as you need.
Use this Guide and the worksheets as a resource, only following the suggestions and doing the transition lessons that are useful in your situation.
- Overview
- 2A
- 2B
- 3A
- 3B
- 4A
- 4B
- 5A
- 5B
