HELPING YOUR CHILD LEARN MATH

Index of course materials Course designed by Gail Gruber, WNMU, Silver City, NM

"HELPING YOUR CHILD LEARN MATH" features dozens of activities parents can use to help children (K-5th grade) have *fun* learning geometry, algebra, measurement, statistics, probability & other important mathematical concepts.

The activities in this booklet relate math to everyday life & complement math lessons that children are learning in school. The activities use materials that are easy to find, & they can be done in the home, at the grocery store, or while traveling.

You'll also find tips & resources for helping your child achieve in math, including...

* math websites (great links for parents & children)
* math computer software websites
* math books for parents & math books for children
* & magazines.

The 44-page booklet is available at: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Math/

(Single paper copies may be requested at http://www.ed.gov/pubs/edpubs.html or by calling 1-877-4-ED-PUBS.)

Below are an excerpt & several activities.

This booklet is among many efforts aimed at one of the Department's 7 priorities: To help all students master challenging mathematics, including the foundations of algebra & geomentry, by the end of 8th grade. For more information on this priority, please see the America Counts website: http://www.ed.gov/inits/Math/index.html

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An Excerpt from Secretary Riley's Foreword.
"Helping Your Child Learn Math." Second Edition, June 1999.
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Today, math includes much more than arithmetic. Even in elementary school, children should be learning beginning concepts in algebra, geometry, measurement, and statistics. In addition, they should be learning how to solve problems by applying a knowledge of math to new situations, to understand math concepts, to reason mathematically, and to communicate mathematical ideas by talking and writing about math.

Demand for skills in mathematics, science, and technology are continually increasing. To be successful in college and the workplace, students should take at least three years of rigorous high school math, aiming for calculus and even Advanced Placement mathematics. We now believe that by the end of the eighth grade, students should have mastered the fundamentals of algebra and geometry to be ready for high school and on track for college and the workforce.

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A Few Activities from "Helping Your Child Learn Math."

By Patsy F. Kanter with Linda B. Darby.
Supported by the Office of Educational Research &
Improvement (OERI). Second Edition, June 1999.
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Newspaper Search (Grades 3-5)
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What you'll need:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Newspaper, calculator, pencil, paper, and graph paper (can be hand-drawn)
What to do
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1. List it. Give your child the grocery section of the newspaper in order to make up a list of foods that will feed the family for a week and also meet a budget of a certain amount of money. Have your child make a chart and use mental math or a calculator to figure the cost of a few items. If the total for the groceries is more than you have budgeted for, talk about which items can be eliminated. Could the list be cut down by a few items or by buying less of another item? What will best serve the needs of the family?

2. Shop around. Have your child search for advertisements in the newspaper for an item they have been wanting, such as a piece of clothing or tennis shoes, in order to find the lowest price for the item. After your child finds the best buy, have him or her compare the best buy to the rest of the advertised prices. Are this store's prices lower for everything or just items in demand?

3. Highs and lows. Have your child search the newspaper for daily temperatures and create a graph showing weekly trends.
Ask your child for the differences in temperature from day to day.

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Treasure Hunt (Grades K-2)
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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
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1. Find a container to hold the treasures.

2. 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?

3. 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?

4. 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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Ease on Down the Road (Grades 2-5)
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What to do
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1. A gallon of gas costs $1.24 a gallon. What does it cost for 5 gallons? 10 gallons? 15 gallons? 20 gallons? What is an easy way to figure this out? How can you estimate the cost by rounding the cost per gallon?

2. The speed limit is 55 miles per hour. How far will you go in 1 hour? Two hours? Three hours? How long will it take to go 500 miles?

3. Use a calculator to check your answers.

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What Are the Coins? (Grades 2-5)
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What you'll need: Some coins
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What to do
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Ask your child the following questions:

1. I have three coins in my pocket. They are worth 7 cents. What do I have? (a nickel and 2 pennies)

2. I have three coins in my pocket. They are worth 16 cents. What do I have? (a dime, a nickel, a penny)

3. I have three coins in my pocket. They are worth 11 cents. What do I have? (2 nickels and 1 penny)

4. I have three coins in my pockets. They are worth 30 cents. What do I have? (3 dimes)

5. I have six coins in my pocket. They are worth 30 cents. What could I have? (1 quarter and 5 pennies or 6 nickels). This problem has more than one answer. It is challenging for children to experience problems like this.

6. I have coins in my pocket, which have a value of 11 cents. How many coins could I have?

You get the idea! Give your child a few coins to figure out the answers.

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Card Smarts (Grades 3-5)
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What you'll need: Number cards, pencil, and paper
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What to do
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1. How many numbers can we make? Give each player a piece of paper and a pencil. Using the cards from 1 to 9, deal four cards out with the numbers showing. Using all four cards and a choice of any combination of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, have each player see how many different numbers a person can get in 5 minutes. Players get one point for each answer. For example, suppose the cards drawn are 4, 8, 9, and 2. What numbers can be made?

2. Make the most of it. This game is played with cards from 1 to 9. Each player alternates drawing one card at a time, trying to create the largest 5-digit number possible. As the cards are drawn, each player puts the cards down in their "place" (ten thousands, thousands, hundreds, tens, ones) with the numbers showing. Once placed, a card cannot be moved. The first player with the largest 5-digit number wins. For example, if a 2 was drawn first, the player might place it in the ones' place, but if the number had been an 8, it might have been put in the ten thousands' place.

The Copernicus Education Gateway has lesson plans and internet ideas for math, the Olympics, and many subjects. Learning Network.

Index of course materials Course designed by Gail Gruber, WNMU, Silver City, NM

****************************************************** A Few Activities from "Helping Your Child Learn Math."

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A Few Activities from "Helping Your Child Learn Math."