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Investigations 3

@inv3math.bsky.social
387 followers 614 following 268 posts

The Investigations Center for Curriculum and Professional Development supports users of Investigations, the K-5 math curriculum developed at TERC. investigations.terc.edu

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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Listen to past participants. Sign up today!
"It was helpful to see the progressions of student learning from K-5 to see how the curriculum builds upon lessons in previous grades. Using the games and tools also gave me a sense of how students will interact with the curriculum and seeing the videos of the curriculum in action gave me a sense of what to expect in the classroom. I could see the way the curriculum promotes accuracy, efficiency, and flexibility for student mathematicians."
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
One week left to sign up for Implementing Investigations in the K-5 Classroom! investigations.terc.edu/professional...
Implementing Investigations 3 in the K-5 Classroom
7-Week Asynchronous Online Course
June 17 - August 4, 2026
• develop a solid understanding of the curriculum
• explore key mathematical concepts K-5
• consider how to effectively support student learning
Graduate Credit Available
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Looking for summer PD? Our 7-wk asynchronous online course, Implementing Investigations 3, focuses on the content and pedagogy of Investigations 3, and how math ideas grow over the course of K-5. tinyurl.com/ye479nn9
“I would highly recommend this course to my colleagues who want to learn more about Investigations. The course truly gave me time to absorb the curriculum and have a better grasp of the concepts.”
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Come learn with us this summer! As one teacher said: “I appreciated the collaborative nature of the workshop–working with other teachers, hearing different perspectives, and analyzing student work together." Learn more: investigations.terc.edu/professional...
The image lays out three summer PD options:
A 2-day, synchronous workshop, Going Deeper with Investigations
And two 7-week, asynchronous courses, Implementing Investigations 3 and Supporting Math Learning
Details here: https://investigations.terc.edu/professional-development/
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
"Math anxiety & negative perceptions of math can impact students’ ability to use their 'thinking brain.'” Asking about & "being attentive to [their] emotional states & needs can help teachers negotiate & transform aspects of the learning environment that may be prohibiting" full participation.
NEW BLOG 
Emotions in Math Class: How Student Reflection Can Build Awareness and Resilience
How can student reflection help students and teachers recognize and navigate emotions that interfere with learning in math? See how one teacher used reflection to better understand students' views on mistakes and how those views affected their learning.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Make 10-15 sets of 4 cards -- showing the multiplication equation (or fraction) and 3 different representations. Then play Concentration! #GamesAsMeaningfulPractice
4 cards/one set for 2x6=12. One shows the equation. One shows 2 circular groups of 6 circles. Another shows a bar model for 12, with one part labeled 6. Another shows a 2 by 6 array.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Our staff is reading Learning Together right now, by Elham Kazemi et al. Highly recommended for thinking about how to achieve the vision you describe!
A book cover shows two girls working together. One with the pencil, one gesturing. "Learning Together: Organizing Schools for Teacher and Student Learning" by Elham Kazemi, Jessica Calabrese, Teresa Lind, Becca Lewis, Alison Fox Resnick, and Lynsey K. Gibbons
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
We love seeing Investigations students' representations of data in this new framework re Early Childhood Data Science! www.terc.edu/early-childh...
An image of the Early Childhood Data Science website home page. It shows representations from young students that show:
1) "us and all the people visiting today" as faces or circles, arranged in what appears to be a sketch of classroom 
2) a bunch of smiley face stickers that says "This is the people in my class"
3) a representation showing that 4 people in this class are 6 and 15 people are 7 with a hand-sketched table. There are two columns, one for 6 and one for 7 year olds. Each row is numbered from bottom to top and responses are shown with a hash mark in the appropriate row. There is also an equation 4+15=19 with arrows showing that the 4 represents 6 year olds, the 15 represents 7 year olds, and the 19 represents all of the students "all together".
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
This post, by Kristin Gray, feels like an illustration of what we mean in the Teacher-Student-Curriculm Partnership essay that appears in the Implementation Guide at every grade level.
A column of text. The highlighted portions read:
Mathematics teaching and learning, at its best, is a collaboration
among teachers, students, and the curriculum. Both the teacher
and the curriculum contribute to this partnership in important
ways. The curriculum materials provide a coherent, carefully
sequenced core of mathematics content for students and
supportive professional development material for teachers.
Teachers are active partners in learning the curriculum, in
understanding how each mathematical focus is developed, and
in implementing the curriculum in a way that accommodates
the needs of their particular students.
The collaboration of the teacher is essential. Only the teacher can understand and support the particular learning needs of a particular class of students in a particular school year. Only the teacher is present every day in the classroom, observing students work, listening to their discourse, and developing an understanding of their mathematical ideas by analyzing what they say and do. In mathematics, as in any subject, only the teacher can continually
assess students’ strengths and needs and think through how
best to accommodate differences to involve all students in
substantive and challenging work.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
SO looking forward to Session 2! (And all of the Sessions!)
2025-2026 Speaker Series
Reasoning: The Essential Foundation for Building Students' Understanding of Mathematics
Marilyn Burns
12/10/25, 7-8p EST
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Come learn with Megan Murray and Arusha Hollister tomorrow morning (9:40) to learn about Excursions, sequences of K-5 math activities designed to connect students with their interests, families, and communities! #ATMNE25
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
If you're curious what a conversation like this might sound like, check out this Dialogue Box that shows how it went in a 2nd grade field test classroom.
p1 of a Dialogue Box showing how one grade 2 conversation about Near Doubles wentp2 of a Dialogue Box showing how one grade 2 conversation about Near Doubles went
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Later, kids get Fact Cards for this set of facts. These cards focus on using what you know to solve the ones you don't yet know. Kids sort them into envelopes of Facts I Know and Facts I'm Still Working On.
An image of a "Fact Card" for 6+7 and 7+6 where a child has filled in the clue line: "6+6+1"
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
After working through two sets of related problems, they talk about what they might call them, and generate other examples.
An image from the Investigations curriculum showing more of the conversation about Near Doubles, how the class comes to name them, and generate more problems that might count as Near Doubles or Doubles Plus or Minus 1.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
The teacher models kids' thinking with cubes.
An image from the Investigations curriculum that shows how kids might see and use the relationship between 4+4 and 4+5 and how the teacher might show those ideas with cubes.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
In Investigations 3, students encounter the Near Doubles after they've worked with the Doubles facts. The focus, as throughout, is on using what you know. The teacher posts and the class discusses a set of related problems like 4+4 and 4+5 and then 4+3.
A screenshot from the Investigations curriculum, showing how students first encounter the Near Doubles, as a class of problems.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Read @martamath0901.bsky.social on "co-creating...clear, actionable classroom agreements that help foster mathematical learning & equitable participation" & learn how Investigations 3 supports the same. investigations.terc.edu/role-of-clas... investigations.terc.edu/developing-n...
4 images of classrooms surrounding the text "Starting the School Year: Establishing Agreements for Math Class"
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
That is why Investigations focuses on making sense of the problem via a routine that asks kids to: picture the story in their mind, retell it in their own words, act it out with kids or objects. The focus is on what is known & unknown and the actions eg joining, separating, combining, removing.
The image shows the steps of this routine, as presented to the teacher in a sidebar of a curriculum unit:
Teaching Note: Story Problem Routine
• Tell students a story. Encourage them to visualize what is happening in the story.
• Ask several students to retell the story.
Occasionally, have students retell the story to a partner.
• Ask whether the ending amount will be more or less than the initial amount.
• Students solve the problem and then share their strategies.
• Model methods of recording each strategy.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
A few spaces remain in our July 30-31 online synchronous workshop, Going Deeper with Investigations 3. Learn more and sign up today! investigations.terc.edu/professional...
Going Deeper with Investigations 3. Two-Day Synchronous Online Workshop. July 30-31, 2025. 9am-3:45pm EDT.
Explore key features of Investigations 3:
Math Learning Community
Discussions
Math Workshop
Differentiation
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Do you wonder about how to help students in grades 2-5 make sense of fractions? Join our 7-week asynchronous online course starting 6/18. Learn about how to make sense of, compare & compute with fractions using representations & reasoning. investigations.terc.edu/making-sense...
Quote from a course participant: "This course has truly been eye opening. I learned fractions through memorizing procedures. Fractions are no longer scary to me, but a topic that will be fun and engaging to teach."
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Looking to learn more about Investigations 3? Our 7-week asynchronous online course starts 6/18. Engage in interactive activities & discussions w/ colleagues & facilitators. Develop a solid understanding of key K-5 math concepts & consider how to effectively support learning. tinyurl.com/II3course
A course participant quote: "I think this may be my eighth online course and I have never had one so interactive and well set-up. I loved the way I could view and interact with student work. Very cool."
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Join a virtual discussion of data science skills in the early childhood years - sponsored by @wgbh.org and @terc-stem.bsky.social - on April 14th 12-2 ETD or May 8th 5-7 ETD. To participate or learn more, sign up here: tinyurl.com/yc6wzcxx
• What are developmentally appropriate data skills for children ages 3–7?
• What are effective strategies for nurturing data skills for these young children?
• What should be the focus for an early childhood data science learning framework?
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Recording posted! www.terc.edu/mathequityfo...
An ad for Elham Kazemi's talk for the Forum for Equity in Elementary Mathematic's Speaker Series. "Developing Equitable Participation Through Reciprocity and Relationship."
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
His partner tells me "I would use 3 5s." Me: I agree, 3 5's would make 15. But there are no 5's left. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Him: (staring/glaring at the remaining cards) Me: What if you start with 3 and 2? The light bulb pops & he pulls out two more sets of 2+3. #DotAddition #FirstGrade #MTBoS #ITeachMath
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
This student needed to make 15. He took 2 5's and a 4 and counted on from 10 to 14. He sighed and told me, "There are no 1s. It would be great if there was a 5." Me: It would be nice but you already used it. Do you know another way to make a 5? #DotAddition #FirstGrade #MTBoS #ITeachMath
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
How would you make 12 from 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s? Can you find two different ways? #DotAddition #FirstGrade #MTBoS #ITeachMath
A recording sheet has rows for ways to make 9, 12, 12, and 15. In the first row, a pair has written 5 + 4= 9 and drawn dot images of 5 + 4 = 9. Next to the sheet are cards with dot images for 5, 5, and 2, and in the first of the rows for 12 they have written 5+5+2=12.To the right there is an array of 5x4 cards. The cards show dot images for 2, 3, 4 or 5, and some are missing. One the left, there is a recording sheet with rows for ways to make 9, 12, 12, and 15. In the first row, a pair has written 5 + 4= 9 and in the second row they have written 5+5+2=10. Next to the sheet are cards with dot images for 3, 2, 2, and 5.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Another image. This one was more challenging! #TeamWork
An image made of 6 red square tiles. It looks like a chair.Two kids work together to recreate the tile image. One places a tile the other points to the place another tile should go.Two sets of hands work to recreate a tile image.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Shown the image on the left, very briefly, can you and your partner build it? #QuickImages #Kindergarten #WorkingTogether
An image made of 6 red square tiles. It looks like a capital T laying on its side, with 3 stacked vertically and 3 jutting out horizontally from the middle tile in the first group.The hands of 2 or 3 students work together to try to recreate the tile image. One finger is pointing to an empty space where a tile is still needed.The hands of 2 or 3 students work together to try to recreate the tile image. A hand is moving to place a tile to the spot a finger is pointing to.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
How many ways can you #TossTheChips? #seven #kindergarten
A child's hand, holding a pencil, which he is using to count how many red (3) and how many yellow (4) counters he has spilled out of his cup.A recording sheet for the game Toss the Chips. This child is playing with 7 chips. The child records the number of red counters in the left column and the number of yellow counters in the right column.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
3 kids are playing #DoubleCompare. Who has more? Do you have to count? How do you know? #kindergarten
3 pairs of cards: 7 and 8, 7 and 9, and 7 and 10
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Look at all these #MatchingFaces in #kindergarten 😍
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Matching faces. Attempt one on the left. A second attempt on the right. A block with a triangular face can match a block with only rectangles! #kindergarten
In the first image, a triangular prisms sits atop a rectangular prism, making a house shape where the roof overhangs the walls. In the second image, the same triangular prism sits atop the same rectangular prism with faces exactly matching.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Reminds me of @tracyzager.bsky.social's
The cover of the book Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had by Tracy Zager. Shows a teacher smiling at a student at work on a math problem.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
Take a look at our colleagues' Excursions, particularly the ones about Quilts and also the one about Buildings. www.terc.edu/mathequityfo...
Images from The Forum for Equity in Elementary Math's new free excursions. Top left two images of student-made quilts. Top right: a student's 3D building and a 2D image they drew of it. Bottom left: 4 images of children's literature that's incorporated in various excursions. Bottom right: an image of Matthew Henson and his crew, from the Temperature excursion.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
In terms of complexities, I think of students who think the way a problem is presented dictates how you have to solve it, and the compactness of the notation for the std algorithms (and how that can mask big ideas for kids). Neither of which have to be true as in this image from g2.
52+39 is written/stacked vertically. Beneath the line a student has recorded 80 and 11 beneath that and then drawn a horizontal line and written their answer, 91.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
In Investigations, we introduce it alongside horizontal notation for example, in the beginning of g1. /1
An excerpt from the Investigations 3 curriculum. It reads: "For each, ask students to help you write an equation that represents the problem and then ask a volunteer or two to share how they would solve the problem. Because you'll be writing the same problem several times use this as an opportunity to expose students to a variety of formats." Then several formats are shown: 4+3 = box, 4+3 = ? and 4+3 stacked vertically above a horizontal line.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
We ask kids to think about related problems (3x4 and 3x40) and to use a context or representation to show the relationship (the multiplying by 10).
On the left, 3 ovals with 4 cubes in each, labled "3 groups of 4 cubes, 3x4). On the right, 3 ovals with 40 cubes in each, labeled "3 groups of 40 cubes, 3x40) On the left, a 3 by 4 array, labeled "3 by 4 array, 3x4." On the right, 10 3by 4 arrays creating a 3 by 40 array, labeled "3 by 40 array, (3x4)x10"On the left, 3 squares with 4 circles in each, labeled "3x4, 3 groups of 4 ones." On the right, 3 squares with circles labeled "10" in each, labeled "3x40, 3 groups of 4 tens".
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Session 2 is Thursday! Come hear Susan Jo Russell and Deborah Schifter talk about and discuss video of examples of interweaving deep and rigorous mathematics and equitable participation. www.terc.edu/mathequityfo...
Images of the presenters of Session 2, Interweaving Deep Mathematics & Equitable Participation. 12/12/24, 7-8pm EST
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
From Elham Kazemi & co.
The cover of the book Learning Together: Organizing Schools for Teacher and Student Learning by Elham Kazemi, Jessica Calabrese, Teresa Lind, Becca Lewis, Alison Fox Resnick,and Lynsey K. Gibbons
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
We talk about the implementation of the curriculum being a partnership between teachers, students, and the curriculum.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
It is hexagonish! Might it be a dodecagon?
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Quick Images encourages students to see and use groups, rather than counting by 1s. There are many ways to see an image, and to use numbers and notation to represent it, so this routine also builds flexibility, scaffolds strategies (make a 10), and supports the development of fluency. #subitizing
Two "Quick Images". The first shows 8 dots in one ten frame and 9 dots in another (for grade 1). The second shows 4 groups of 7 dots, used when students are working on multiplication and division.
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
An interesting sequence of problems about placing 1/3 on a number line, given another fraction, already placed. Courtesy of @profsmudge.bsky.social How would your students answer? #FractionsOnANumberLine satisfry.blogspot.com
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
For more about Storytelling Math, including a link to the session they did for @mathequityforum.bsky.social's Speaker Series, see www.terc.edu/mathequityfo...
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Our colleagues at Storytelling Math just won NSTA's best math fiction picture book published in 2024! Check out Yumbo Gumbo by @keilavdawson.bsky.social and Katie Crumpton. www.nsta.org/best-stem-bo...
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Also, TERC's Adult Numeracy Center has a blog with a monthly post, Will This Be on the Test?, which features a "question similar to something adult learners might see on a HS equivalency test & a discussion of how one might go about tackling the problem conceptually." www.terc.edu/adultnumerac...
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Investigations 3 @inv3math.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
We write blogs about teaching and learning mathematics in K-5 classrooms (using Investigations 3). Our focus in the last few years has mainly been on developing and sustaining equitable math learning communities. For example: investigations.terc.edu/establishing...
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