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Activities: Math
in the Home
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Learning math and
science begins at birth and is especially important when children
enter school--like preschool. Parents and teachers can help
encourage children's interest and curiosity in the world around
them. This resource offers many ideas to use at home and school to
encourage the young to enjoy math and science. |
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The following is an excerpt from Helping
Your Child Learn Math.
Activities: Math
in the Home
Math in the Home
Fill it Up
Fractured Fractions
Money’s Worth
In the News
Treasure Hunt
Activities
Math in the Home
Your home is full of opportunities to explore math with your child and, at the same time, build his or her self-confidence and understanding of mathematical ideas. This is a chance for you and your child to "talk math" that is, to communicate about math while discovering relationships between numbers. Being able to describe mathematical patterns and relationships, such as those between "addition and subtraction" or "odd and even numbers," is important to later success in math.
The activities in this section are intended to be enjoyable and inviting and use items that can be found in your home. While doing the activities, keep in mind that an understanding of math and a sense that math is enjoyable will help children develop skills that they will need for success their entire lives.
Fill It Up
Grades K-2
What you'll need
A measuring cup, 4 glasses of equal size, and water
What to do
- Pour water at different levels ( 1/3 cup,
1/2 cup, 3/4 cup and 1 cup) in each glass. Put the glasses next to
each other. Ask your child: Are all the water levels the same or
different?
- Ask your child questions to encourage comparison, estimation, and thinking about measurement. Which glass has more water? Which has less? How many glasses of water do you estimate it will take to fill the container?
- Pour more water into one of the glasses
to make it equal to the amount of water in another glass. Move the
glasses around so that the glasses that have the same amount of
water are not next to each other. Ask your child: Which glasses do
you think have the same amount of water?
- As your child begins to understand more, do activities using different-shaped containers that hold the same amount of a substance (water, rice, and popcorn kernels). This helps your child see comparisons, as well as the various capacities of different-sized and -shaped containers.
Parent Pointer |
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Filling empty containers provides opportunities to explore comparisons, measurement, volume, estimation, and geometry. |
Fractured Fractions
Grades K-3
What you'll need
Clear container, masking tape, marker, measuring cups ( 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4 cup measure), uncooked rice or popcorn kernels, and water
What to do
- Have your child stick a piece of masking
tape straight up one side of the clear container from the bottom
to the top.
- For younger children, use a 1/2 cup
measure. For older children, use a 1/3 or 1/4 cup measure. Choose
the unit of measure and fill the measuring cup. Then let your
child pour the substance from the measuring cup into the clear
container. Continue to pour the same amount of the substance into
the container.
- As each equal amount of the substance is
poured, mark the level on the container by drawing a line on the
tape. Write the cup size or appropriate fraction on each line. The
fraction for one-third cup would be 1/3.
- Follow this procedure until the container
is full and the tape is marked in increments to the top of the
container.
- Fill the container again and again using
different measures each time. Ask your child "thinking" questions.
- How many whole cups do you think this
container will hold? How many 1/2 cups, 1/3 cups, or 1/4 cups do
you think the container will hold?
- How many 1/2 cups equal a cup?
- How many 1/4 cups equal 1/2 cup? A cup?
- How many 1/4 cups equal 3/4 cup?
Parent Pointer |
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This hands-on activity explores whole numbers and fractions by using measurements your children can see. Your children also will learn to guess or estimate quantities. |
Money's Worth
Grades 1-3
What you'll need
Coins, grocery store coupons, and a pencil
What to do
- Coin clues. Ask your child to gather some change in his or her
hand without showing what it is. Start with amounts of 25 cents or
less (for first-graders, you can start with pennies and nickels).
Ask your child to tell you how much money and how many coins there
are. Guess which coins are being held. For example, "I have 17
cents and 5 coins. What coins do I have?" (3 nickels and 2
pennies).
- Clip and save. Cut out grocery store coupons and tell how much
money is saved with coins. For example, if you save 20 cents on
detergent, say 2 dimes. Ask your child what could be purchased
using the savings from the coupon. A pack of gum? A pencil? How
much money could be saved with 3, 4, or 5 coupons? How could that
money be counted out in coins and bills? What could be purchased
with those savings? A pack of notebook paper? A magazine? How much
money could be saved with coupons for a week's worth of groceries?
How would that money be counted out? What could be purchased with
those savings? A book? A movie ticket? What percentage of the
original price is the coupon worth?
- Count the ways. How many ways can you make 10 cents, 25 cents, 30 cents, 40 cents, or 50 cents? You can help your child add the coins in various ways to get different answers.
- Try playing the coin games with coins from another country.
Parent Pointer |
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Coin games help children to learn the value of coins. They also teach counting, addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Coupons can help teach children money management, as well as subtraction and percentages. |
In the News
Grades K-2
What you'll need
Newspaper, scissors, pencil or crayon, glue, and graph paper
What to do
- Newspaper numbers. Help your child look for numbers 1 to 100 in the newspaper. Cut the numbers out and glue them in numerical order onto a large piece of paper. For children who cannot count to 100 or recognize numbers that large, only collect up to the number they do know. Have your child say the numbers to you and practice counting up to that number.
Or
- Collect only numbers within a certain
range, like the numbers between 20 and 30. Arrange the numbers on
a chart, grouping all the numbers with 2s in them, all the numbers
with 5s, and so on.
- Counting book. Cut out pictures from the newspaper and use them to make a counting book. Page 1 will have one thing on it, page 2 will have 2 things that are alike, page 3 will have 3 things that are alike, and so on. All the things on the each page have to be the same. At the bottom of each page, write the number of items on the page and the word for the item. Have your child tell you a story about what is on the page.
Parent Pointer |
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This newspaper activity helps children read and understand numbers and charts. |
Treasure Hunt
Grades K-2
What you'll need
Large container, buttons, screws, bottle caps, old keys, anything else you can count, and graph paper (can be hand-drawn)
What to do
- Find a container to hold the treasures.
- Sort and classify the treasures. For
example, do you have all the same-sized screws or keys? How are
they alike? How are they different?
- Use these treasures to tell addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division stories. For example, if
we share 17 buttons among 3 friends, how many will we each get?
Will there be some left over? Or if we have 3 shirts that need 6
buttons each, do we have enough buttons?
- For older children, you can organize the
treasures by one characteristic and lay them end to end. Compare
and contrast the different amounts of that type of treasure. For
example, there are 3 short screws, 7 long screws, and 11 medium
screws. There are 4 more medium screws than long ones. Make a
simple graph showing how many of each type of screw there are.
This activity may also provide an opportunity to talk about
fractions: 7/21 or 1/3 of the screws are long.
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"Activities: Math in the Home." ED/OIIA. Helping Your Child Learn Math. 2004. English.
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