Algebraic Thinking Teaching Resources

Bring algebraic thinking to life in your elementary classroom with thousands of teacher-created teaching resources designed to save you lesson planning time so you can spend more time actually teaching.

You can use these educational games, pattern activities, math worksheets, posters, printables, and more to teach students how to think algebraically. Each resource in the collection is curriculum-aligned to help students meet Common Core and state-level standards, and each has also undergone a rigorous review by the teachers on the Teach Starter team to ensure they're student-ready.

What Is Algebraic Thinking?

Are you tackling algebraic thinking in your math classes for the first time in a long time? The members of the Teach Starter teacher team have all been through the years of learning a new curriculum because they've had to change a grade, and we're here with all you need to know about this concept!

While students won't take Algebra I or Algebra II until middle or high school, we provide the building blocks for success in those classes in elementary school by teaching our students algebraic thinking.

In pre-K and kindergarten, students start with patterns — identifying patterns in colors and in shapes before moving on to letters and numbers. This is the very beginning of algebraic thinking! Soon elementary school students move on to making generalizations about patterns that seem to be the same or different — once again part of algebraic thinking.

As students learn to use addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, they'll make use of their understanding of patterns to learn the various facts of each operation and understand the relationships among facts.

The primary algebraic thinking skills that students will learn during their elementary school career include: