Kickstart Operations | Math Intervention Grades 3–5 Skills

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Accuracy, Flexibility, and Fluency With Operations

Kickstart: Operations is a systematic, small-group intervention program that helps students build conceptual understanding of place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division using both whole numbers and decimals. It was developed for students who need additional support to access their core math curriculum in grades 3–5.

**The Kickstart Approach to Math Intervention**

Kickstart: Operations leverages a spiraled concrete-representational-abstract progression, evidence-based teaching strategies, and an embedded motivational structure to advance students to grade-level proficiency and build positive associations with math.

Kickstart: Operations At a Glance

Student-focused

Hands-on materials, partner talk, and cooperative games create a positive, safe, and engaging intervention experience.
Conversation-based assessment reduces test anxiety and places students exactly where needed within the program.

Teacher-friendly

Scripted 20-minute lessons and explicit, embedded teaching support boost teacher confidence and capacity.
Integrated assessment and progress monitoring tools help place students, differentiate instruction, and signal readiness for core curriculum.

Inclusive

Print materials are available in English or Spanish.
Engaging, confidence-building lessons help all students develop positive math identities.

Measurable Student Impact

Foundational math skills including the ability to apply operations procedures flexibly, efficiently, and accurately are among the strongest predictors of later academic success—not only in math but also in reading.

“Building strong conceptual foundations early ensures that students can navigate increasingly complex mathematical ideas with confidence and competence.”
(Manci et al., 2012)

Kickstart: Operations benefits students in both the short and long term.

Short-Term Wins

Kickstart: Operations engages students physically, mentally, and emotionally to build conceptual understanding of place value and operations, advance to proficiency, and develop positive math identities.

Students actively participate in collaborative lessons with hands-on materials, partner talk, and cooperative games—building math vocabulary as well as confidence and curiosity for math learning.

Increasing student engagement may be a key strategy for improving outcomes, particularly for students most at risk.
—Headden & McKay, 2015; Finn & Zimmer, 2012

Students develop deep conceptual understanding of place value and operations through meaningful practice with manipulatives, visual models, and real-world problems and stories—seeing operations as interconnected number relationships rather than isolated procedures.

Students working with teacher in classroom

Students advance to grade-level proficiency with procedural fluency and reasoning skills through intentionally sequenced practice that progresses cyclically from concrete to representational to abstract.

[Procedural fluency] involves not only applying procedures correctly but also adapting them to new situations and recognizing when one strategy is more appropriate than another.

—National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2020; National Research Council, 2001

Students develop confidence and grow to see themselves as mathematicians, taking ownership of their math learning and celebrating mistakes as a valuable part of learning.

Long-Term Gains

A solid foundation in place value and operations prepares students for success in advanced mathematics and fosters community, curiosity, and confidence in the classroom.

Community

Students expand math vocabulary and skills to communicate and collaborate effectively.

Curiosity

Students develop curiosity about numbers and math, increasing their willingness to tackle difficult math problems and make connections within—and beyond—math.

Confidence

Students grow confident in their ability to succeed in grade-level math, replacing negative perceptions of math learning.

Children sitting at table across from eachother playing.

Research-Based Math Intervention for Operations

Kickstart: Operations is research based, aligned to ESSA levels, and based on a solid instructional model. Download the complete research paper to explore

why procedural fluency and understanding of operations is important.
how theoretical and empirical evidence inform the program’s design.
how Kickstart: Operations meets the characteristics of effective operations intervention.

Download Research Paper

Kickstart: Operations Program Sampler

Kickstart: Operations provides small-group intervention for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills students need to access the core math curricula in grades 3–5. View the Program Sampler to see

assessment and placement options.
sample lessons.
program components.
progress monitoring tools.

View Program Sampler

**Give Their Operations Understanding a Kickstart!**

Help students who struggle with operations build deep conceptual understanding of number relationships and confidence in math—to access their grade-level core curriculum now and in the future.

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Add Interactive Number Line Activities for More Number Sense

Make important math concepts visible by building interactive number lines on a real or imagined clothesline. Using predesigned tasks and cards in Kickstart: Number Line Activities, students place numbers or expressions on a number line to build number sense, foster mathematical reasoning, and encourage discussion about relationships between numbers. Complements any math curriculum.

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