Everyday Mathematics
This guide provides a single, unified lesson plan for teaching the core concepts of Level 4. The activities are designed to be hands-on, practical, and directly tied to the skills measured on the test. Use your workbook to source additional practice problems for each section.
Supplies 🛠️
Regular Classroom Supplies: Whiteboard or chalkboard, markers or chalk, student worksheets (from your workbook).
For all lessons: One dry-erase board with a marker per student or group, a calculator, and a stopwatch or timer.
For "Fractions, Ratios, and Proportions": Measuring cups and spoons, a few empty containers, a ruler or tape measure, and a roll of blue painter's tape.
For "Averages, Percentages, and Rates": Toy money (bills and coins), colored blocks or linking cubes, and a balance scale.
For the Rates Activity: A bucket or container with a small hole in the bottom and a measuring cup.
Estimated Time: 45-55 minutes
Concepts: Adding/Subtracting Fractions, Multiplying Mixed Numbers, Ratios, and Proportions.
Objective: Teach students to add and subtract fractions with a common denominator.
Activity: "The Ingredient Mixer." Present a problem like: "Your recipe calls for 1/4 cup of milk. Then you add another 2/4 cup. How much total milk have you added?" Have students physically measure out the amounts using the measuring cups and water.
Hands-On Application:
The "How-To":
a. Tell students: "We're going to use these measuring cups to represent our fractions."
b. Have a student pour water into a measuring cup until it reaches the 1/4 cup mark.
c. Then, have the student add another 2/4 cup of water to the same container.
d. Tell them: "What is our new total? You can see that you have 3/4 cup of water. The physical act of pouring the water together visually proves that 1/4 + 2/4 = 3/4."
Guided Practice (from workbook): After they find the total, present a subtraction problem: "You now have 3/4 cup of milk. If you use 1/4 cup, how much is left?"
Independent Practice (from workbook): Have students solve problems from the workbook, such as: "You need 3/8 cup of flour, but you only have 1/8 cup. How much more do you need?" or "A recipe for a fruit smoothie calls for 2/3 cup of strawberries and 1/3 cup of blueberries. How many total cups of fruit are in the smoothie?"
Objective: Teach students to multiply a mixed number by a whole number.
Activity: "The Catering Order." Present a scenario: "You need to cut several ribbons, each 2 and 1/2 feet long, to decorate dessert boxes. How much total ribbon do you need for 4 boxes?" Have students use a ruler or tape measure to mark a line on a piece of paper for one ribbon. Then, have them calculate the total length needed (2 and 1/2 x 4 = 10 feet). Students can lay out their marked pieces to physically confirm the total length.
Hands-On Application:
The "How-To":
a. Tell students: "To see how this works, we're going to use our ruler to measure the length of one ribbon on a piece of paper."
b. Have a student measure a length of 2 and 1/2 feet and mark it on the paper.
c. Now, have the student repeat this process three more times, laying out the pieces of paper end-to-end to represent the four boxes.
d. Tell them: "When we measure the total length of all four ribbons laid out, we see that it is 10 feet. The physical layout of the four separate pieces proves our calculation was correct."
Guided Practice (from workbook): "Each serving of a pasta salad requires 1 and 1/4 pounds of pasta. If you are making 3 servings, how much pasta do you need?"
Independent Practice (from workbook): "A bakery has a recipe that makes 4 and 3/4 dozen cookies per batch. If they need to make 5 batches for a large order, how many dozen cookies will they have in total? How many individual cookies is that?"
Objective: Teach students to set up and solve ratios and proportions.
Activity: "The Icing Mixer." Present a scenario: "The recipe for a special icing has a ratio of 2 parts blue to 3 parts red." Have students use blue painter's tape to mark a line on the floor that is 2 feet long and a red tape line that is 3 feet long. This creates a visual ratio. Then, pose a proportion problem: "If you have 12 gallons of red icing, how many gallons of blue icing will you need?" Have them set up the proportion (2/3 = x/12) on their board, solve it, and then check their answer with the tape by laying down additional segments to see that for every 3 feet of red, they need 2 feet of blue.
Hands-On Application:
The "How-To":
a. Tell students: "We have our visual ratio here: 2 feet of blue tape for every 3 feet of red tape."
b. Tell them: "Our problem is, if we need 12 gallons of red icing, how many gallons of blue do we need? Let's use our tape to model this."
c. Have students lay down another 3-foot strip of red tape and another 2-foot strip of blue tape next to it. Repeat this process until there are four total red tape strips (3 feet x 4 = 12 feet).
d. Now, have them count the total number of blue tape strips. There will be four of them, each 2 feet long, for a total of 8 feet. Tell them: "Just as our model shows that we need 8 feet of blue tape for 12 feet of red tape, our proportion shows we need 8 gallons of blue icing for 12 gallons of red icing."
Guided Practice (from workbook): "A car travels at a ratio of 200 miles on 10 gallons of gas. How many miles can it travel on 15 gallons of gas?"
Independent Practice (from workbook): "The ratio of new cars to used cars on a lot is 5:3. If there are 25 new cars, how many used cars are there?"
Estimated Time: 40-50 minutes
Concepts: Calculating Averages, Finding Percentages, and Calculating Rates.
Objective: Teach students how to calculate the average of a set of numbers.
Activity: "The Production Report." Use colored blocks to create a tangible representation of finding an average. Give three groups of students a different number of blocks, like 6, 8, and 10. Have them write the number of blocks on their dry-erase boards. To make it hands-on, have them combine all the blocks into a single pile (24 total) and then redistribute them equally among the three groups. Each group will get 8 blocks, visually demonstrating the concept of a mean.
Hands-On Application:
The "How-To":
a. Tell students: "Group A has 6 blocks, Group B has 8 blocks, and Group C has 10 blocks."
b. Tell them: "Let's find the average number of blocks each group would have if they all had the same amount. The only way to do that is to put them all together and then split them up evenly."
c. Have one student gather all the blocks into a single pile. Tell them: "Now we have a total of 24 blocks."
d. Have the student redistribute the blocks one by one to each of the three groups. Tell them: "We're going to give one block to each group, until we run out."
e. When they are finished, each group will have 8 blocks. Tell them: "We can see that the average is 8 because if we had an equal amount, each group would have 8 blocks."
Guided Practice (from workbook): "A salesperson sold 15, 22, 18, and 25 units over four days. What was the average number of units sold per day?"
Independent Practice (from workbook): "Five boxes have the following weights: 12 lbs, 15 lbs, 10 lbs, 18 lbs, and 20 lbs. What is the average weight of a box?"
Objective: Teach students how to find a percentage of a number.
Activity: "The Budget Tracker." Use a balance scale to demonstrate percentages as parts of a whole. Place 100 small blocks on one side of the scale to represent 100% of the budget. Then, on the other side, place 75 blocks to represent 75%. This allows students to physically see and feel the difference between the whole and the part.
Hands-On Application:
The "How-To":
a. Tell students: "We are going to use this scale to represent percentages. Let's say that 100 blocks represents 100% of our project budget."
b. Have a student place exactly 100 blocks on one side of the balance scale.
c. Now, tell them: "Our problem is, 'What is 75% of our budget?' We can see this physically." Have a second student place 75 blocks on the other side of the scale.
d. Tell them: "When we compare the two sides, we can see that 75 blocks is less than 100 blocks. The scale visually shows that 75% is less than 100%."
Guided Practice (from workbook): "A factory's total sales for the day were $1,500. If 75% of the sales came from a special promotion, what was the amount of money earned from the promotion?"
Independent Practice (from workbook): "An item that normally costs $80 is on sale for 20% off. What is the new price of the item?"
Objective: Teach students how to calculate a rate using real-world data.
Activity: "The Draining Barrel." This activity will use the provided supplies to create a tangible example of a rate.
The Task: "We are going to find the rate at which liquid drains from a container. We'll measure the rate in cups per second."
Hands-On Application:
The "How-To":
a. Tell students: "First, we need to know two things to find a rate: the amount of something and the time it takes."
b. Have a student use the measuring cup to pour a specific amount of water (e.g., exactly 4 cups) into the bucket.
c. Have a second student use the stopwatch to time how long it takes for the water to drain completely from the hole in the bottom of the bucket. Let's say it takes 16 seconds.
d. Now, tell students to set up the rate as a fraction on their dry-erase boards: 4 cups / 16 seconds.
e. Have them simplify the fraction to a single number by dividing: 4 / 16 = 0.25. Tell them: "Our rate is 0.25 cups per second. We just found a rate using real-world data from our experiment."
Practice Problems (from workbook):
Guided Practice: "Based on the rate you just calculated, if we need to drain a container with 12 cups of water, how long will it take?"
Independent Practice: "A machine produces 59 units per hour. How many units will it produce in a 12-hour shift? If the machine produces 708 units, how many hours has it been running?"