Guide No. 06 · The K-12 Series
Lesson Planning: Maths, Grades 1–5
Concrete to abstract — plan maths lessons where every child does the thinking.
Primary maths planning has one job: every child manipulates, draws, or reasons in every lesson — nobody just watches. This guide builds your plans around that principle, from the fluency starter to the final problem.
Each chapter includes manipulative lists by topic, modelled worked examples, and the misconception alerts that save you a week of reteaching.
What's inside
- 01
Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract — In Order
Planning the CPA journey for every topic, with manipulatives that earn their place.
- 02
The Fluency Starter
Five-minute number routines that build automaticity without worksheets.
- 03
Worked Examples That Teach
I-do, we-do, you-do design — and where most plans release too early.
- 04
Problem-Solving Lessons
Planning for productive struggle: low-floor, high-ceiling tasks and the reveal.
- 05
Misconception Alerts
The predictable errors by topic and grade — plan for them before they happen.
- 06
Same-Day Intervention
Structuring plans so the children who wobble get help before home time.
Read an excerpt
Chapter 5 — Misconception Alerts
Children do not make random errors in maths; they make predictable ones. A Grade 3 class learning fractions will, with near certainty, believe one-quarter is bigger than one-half because four is bigger than two. This is not a surprise to be discovered — it is an event to be planned.
Write the misconception into your plan before the lesson: the example that will trigger it, the question that will expose it, and the sentence you will say when it arrives. Teachers who plan for the error look like mind-readers. Teachers who don't spend the following week undoing it.
More in the series
No. 01
The Lesson Planning Field Guide
$12
No. 02
The Calm Classroom Handbook
$14
No. 03
The Worksheet Design Manual
$9
No. 04
The Strategy Playbook
$12
No. 05
Lesson Planning: English, Grades 1–5
$8
No. 07
Lesson Planning: Science, Grades 1–5
$7
No. 08
Lesson Planning: English, Grades 6–12
$9
No. 09
Lesson Planning: Maths, Grades 6–12
$10
No. 10
Lesson Planning: Science, Grades 6–12
$9
No. 11
Preparing for a Lesson Observation
$12
No. 12
Answering Inspection Questions
$15
No. 13
Prepping Lessons After School Vacations
$5
No. 14
Handling Teacher Burnout: UAE Edition
$10
No. 15
How to Handle Subject Coordinators
$6
No. 16
How to Thrive in a Subject Department
$6
No. 17
Managing School Expectations
$7