Helping your Child
Learn Math
with activities for children
aged 5 through 13
By Patsy F. Kanter
Foreword
"Why?"
This is the question we parents are always trying to
answer. It's good that children ask questions: that's the best
way to learn. All children have two wonderful resources for
learning--imagination and curiosity. As a parent, you can
awaken your children to the joy of learning by encouraging
their imagination and curiosity.
Helping Your Child Learn Math is one in a series of books
on different education topics intended to help you make the
most of your child's natural curiosity. Teaching and learning
are not mysteries that can only happen in school. They also
happen when parents and children do simple things together.
For instance, you and your child can: sort socks on
laundry day--sorting is a major function in math and science;
cook a meal together--cooking involves not only math and
science but good health as well; tell and read each other
stories--storytelling is the basis for reading and writing (and
a story about the past is also history); or play a game of
hopscotch together--playing physical games will help your child
learn to count and start on a road to lifelong fitness.
By doing things together, you will show that learning is
fun and important. You will be encouraging your child to study,
learn, and stay in school.
All of the books in this series tie in with the National
Education Goals set by the President and the Governors. The
goals state that, by the year 2000: every child will start
school ready to learn; at least 90 percent of all students will
graduate from high school; each American student will leave the
4th, 8th, and 12th grades demonstrating competence in core
subjects; U.S. students will be first in the world in math and
science achievement; every American adult will be literate,
will have the skills necessary to compete in a global economy,
and will be able to exercise the rights and responsibilities of
citizenship; and American schools will be liberated from drugs
and violence so they can focus on learning.
This book is a way for you to help meet these goals. It
will give you a short rundown on facts, but the biggest part of
the book is made up of simple, fun activities for you and your
child to do together. Your child may even beg you to do them.
At the end of the book is a list of resources, so you can
continue the fun.
As U.S. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander has said:
The first teachers are the parents, both by example and
conversation. But don't think of it as teaching. Think of it as
fun.
So, let's get started. I invite you to find an activity in
this book and try it.
Diane Ravitch
Assistant Secretary and Counselor to the Secretary
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
The Basics
Important Things To Know
Math in the Home
Picture Puzzle
More or Less
Problem Solvers
Card Smarts
Fill It Up
Haft Full, Haft Empty
Name that Coin
Money Match
Money's Worth
In the News
Look It Up
Newspaper Search
Treasure Hunt
Family Portrait
Mathland: The Grocery Store
Get Ready
Scan It
Weighing In
Get into Shapes
Check Out
It's in the Bag
Put It Away
Math on the Go
Number Search
License Plates
Total It
How Long? How Far?
Guess If You Can
Appendices
Parents and the Schools
What Should I Expect from a Math Program?
Resources
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Most parents will agree that it is a wonderful experience
to cuddle up with their child and a good book. Few people will
say that about flash cards or pages of math problems. For that
reason, we have prepared this booklet to offer some math
activities that are meaningful as well as fun. You might want
to try doing some of them to help your child explore
relationships, solve problems, and see math in a positive
light. These activities use materials that are easy to find.
They have been planned so you and your child might see that
math is not just work we do at school but, rather, a part of
life.
It is important for-home and school to join hands. By
fostering a positive attitude about math at home, we can help
our children learn math at school.
It's Everywhere! It's Everywhere!
Math is everywhere and yet, we may not recognize it
because it doesn't look like the math we did in school. Math in
the world around us sometimes seems invisible. But math is
present in our world all the time--in the workplace, in our
homes, and in life in general.
You may be asking yourself, "How is math everywhere in my
life? I'm not an engineer or an accountant or a computer
expert!" Math is in your life from the time you wake until the
time you go to sleep. You are using math each time you set your
alarm, buy groceries, mix a baby's formula, keep score or time
at an athletic event, wallpaper a room, decide what type of
tennis shoe to buy, or wrap a present. Have you ever asked
yourself, "Did I get the correct change?" or "Do I have enough
gasoline to drive 20 miles?" or "Do I have enough juice to fill
all my children's thermoses for lunch?" or "Do I have enough
bread for the week?" Math is all this and much, much more.
How Do You Feel About Math?
How do you feel about math? Your feelings will have an
impact on how your children think about math and themselves as
mathematicians. Take a few minutes to answer these questions:
* Did you like math in school?
* Do you think anyone can learn math?
* Do you think of math as useful in everyday life?
* Do you believe that most jobs today require math skills?
If you answer "yes" to most of these questions, then you
are probably encouraging your child to think mathematically.
This book contains some ideas that will help reinforce these
positive attitudes about math.
You Can Do It!
If you feel uncomfortable about math, here are some ideas
to think about.
Math is a very important skill, one which we will all need
for the future in our technological world. It is important for
you to encourage your children to think of themselves as
mathematicians who can reason and solve problems.
Math is a subject for all people. Math is not a subject
that men can do better than women. Males and females have
equally strong potential in math.
People in the fine arts also need math. They need math not
only to survive in the world, but each of their areas of
specialty requires an in-depth understanding of some math, from
something as obvious as the size of a canvas, to the beats in
music, to the number of seats in an audience, to
computer-generated artwork.
Calculators and computers require us to be equally strong
in math. Theft presence does not mean there is less need for
knowing math. Calculators demand that people have strong mental
math skills--that they can do math in their heads. A calculator
is only as accurate as the person putting in the numbers. It
can compute; it cannot think! Therefore, we must be the
thinkers. We must know what answers are reasonable and what
answers are outrageously large or small.
Positive attitudes about math are important for our
country. The United States is the only advanced industrial
nation where people are quick to admit that "I am not good in
math." We need to change this attitude, because mathematicians
are a key to our future.
The workplace is rapidly changing. No longer do people
need only the computational skills they once needed in the
1940s. Now workers need to be able to estimate, to communicate
mathematically, and to reason within a mathematical context.
Because our world is so technologically oriented, employees
need to have quick reasoning and problem-solving skills and the
capability to solve problems together. The work force will need
to be confident in math.
Build Your Self-Confidence!
To be mathematically confident means to realize the
importance of mathematics and feel capable of learning to
* Use mathematics with ease;
* Solve problems and work with others to do so;
* Demonstrate strong reasoning ability;,
* See more than one way to approach a problem;
* Apply mathematical ideas to other situations; and
* Use technology.
The Basics
You may have noticed that we are talking about
"mathematics"--the subject that incorporates numbers, shapes,
patterns, estimation, and measurement, and the concepts that
relate to them. You probably remember studying
"arithmetic"--adding, subtracting, multiplying, and
dividing--when you were in elementary school. Now, children are
starting right away to learn about the broad ideas associated
with math, including problem solving, communicating
mathematically, and reasoning.
Kindergartners are building bar graphs of birthday cakes
to show which month has the most birthdays for the most
children in the class. Second graders are using pizzas to learn
fractions, and measurements are being taken using items other
than rulers (for example, the illustrator of this book used his
thumb to determine how large the pictures of the pizzas should
be in proportion to the size of the words on the activities
pages).
What Does It Mean To
* Be a Problem Solver,
* Communicate Mathematically, and
* Demonstrate Reasoning Ability?
A problem solver is someone who questions, investigates,
and explores solutions to problems; demonstrates the ability to
stick with a problem for days, if necessary, to find a workable
solution; uses different strategies to arrive at an answer;
considers many different answers as possibilities; and applies
math to everyday situations and uses it successfully.
To communicate mathematically means to use words or
mathematical symbols to explain real life; to talk about how
you arrived at an answer; to listen to others' ways of thinking
and perhaps alter their thinking; to use pictures to explain
something; to write about math, not just give an answer.
To demonstrate reasoning ability is to justify and explain
one's thinking about math; to think logically and be able to
explain similarities and differences about things and make
choices based on those differences; and to think about
relationships between things and talk about them.
How Do I Use this Book?
This book is divided into introductory material that
explains the basic principles behind the current approach to
math, sections on activities you can do with your children, and
lists of resources. The activities take place in three
locations: the home, the grocery store, and in transit.
The activities are arranged at increasingly harder levels of
difficulty. Look for the circles, squares, and triangles that
indicate the level of difficulty. The means that a child in
kindergarten through 1st grade could probably play the game,
the is for those in grades 2 and 3, and the signals an
activity for a child in grades 4 through 8.
The activities you choose and the level of difficulty
really depend on your child's ability if your child seems
ready, you might want to go straight to the most difficult
ones.
The shaded box on an activity page contains the answer
or a simple explanation of the mathematical concept behind the
activity so that you can explain when your child asks, "Why are
we doing this?"
With these few signs to follow along the way, your math
journey begins.
Important Things To Know
It is highly likely that when you studied math, you were
expected to complete lots of problems accurately and quickly.
There was only one way to arrive at your answers, and it was
believed that the best way to improve math ability was to do
more problems and to do them fast. Today, the focus is less on
the quantity of memorized problems, and more on understanding
the concepts and applying thinking skills to arrive at an
answer.
Wrong Answers Can Help!
While accuracy is always important, a wrong answer may
help you and your child discover what your child may not
understand. You might find some of these thoughts helpful when
thinking about wrong answers.
Above all be patient. All children want to succeed. They
don't want red marks or incorrect answers. They want to be
proud and to make you and the teacher proud. So, the wrong
answer tells you to look further, to ask questions, and to see
what the wrong answer is saying about the child's
understanding.
Sometimes, the wrong answer to a problem might be because
the child thinks the problem is asking another question. For
example, when children see the problem 4 + ___ = 9, they often
respond with an answer of 13. That is because they think the
problem is asking What is 4+9?", instead of "4 plus what
missing amount equals 9?"
Ask your child to explain how the problem was solved. The
response might help you discover if your child needs help with
the procedures, the number facts, or the concepts involved.
You may have learned something the teacher might find
helpful. A short note or call will alert the teacher to
possible ways of helping your child.
Help your children be risk takers: help them see the value
of examining a wrong answer; assure them that the right answers
will come with proper understanding.
Problems Can Be Solved Different Ways
Through the years, we have learned that while problems in
math may have only one solution, there may be many ways to get
the right answer. When working on math problems with your
child, ask, "Could you tell me how you got that answer?" Your
child's way might be different than yours. If the answer is
correct and the strategy or way of solving it has worked, it is
a great alternative. By encouraging children to talk about what
they are thinking, we help them to become stronger
mathematicians and independent thinkers.
Doing Math in Your Head Is Important
Have you ever noticed that today very few people take
their pencil and paper out to solve problems in the grocery,
fast food, or department store or in the office? Instead, most
people estimate in their heads.
Calculators and computers demand that people put in the
correct information and that they know if the answers are
reasonable. Usually people look at the answer to determine if
it makes sense, applying the math in their heads to the
problem. This, then, is the reason why doing math in their
heads is so important to our children as they enter the 21st
century.
You can help your child become a stronger mathematician by
trying some of these ideas to foster mental math skills:
1. Help children do mental math with lots of small numbers in
their heads until they develop quick and accurate
responses. Questions such as, "If I have 4 cups, and I
need 7, how many more do I need?" or "If I need 12 drinks
for the class, how many packages of 3 drinks will I need
to buy?"
2. Encourage your child to estimate the answer. When
estimating, try to use numbers to make it easy to solve
problems quickly in your head to determine a reasonable
answer. For example, when figuring 18 plus 29, an easy way
to get a "close" answer is to think about 20 + 30, or 50.
3. As explained earlier, allow your. children to use
strategies that make sense to them.
4. Ask often, "Is your answer reasonable?" Is it reasonable
that I added 17 and 35 and got 367? Why? Why not?
What Jobs Require Math?
All jobs need math in one way or another. From the
simplest thought of how long it will take to get to work to
determining how much weight a bridge can hold, all jobs require
math.
If you took a survey, you would find that everyone uses
math: the school teacher, the fast food worker, the doctor, the
gas station attendant, the lawyer, the housewife, the painter.
Math in the Home
This section provides the opportunity to use games and
activities at home to explore math with your child. The
activities are intended to be fun and inviting, using household
items. Please note that the activities for K-1st grade are
marked with a , the activities for grades 2 and 3 with a
, and activities for grades 4 through 8 with a .
Remember,
* This is an opportunity for you and your child to "talk
math," that is to communicate about math while
investigating relationships.
* If something is too difficult, choose an easier activity
or skip it until your child is older.
* Have fun!
Picture Puzzle
Using symbols to stand for numbers can help make math fun
and easier for young children to understand.
What you'll need
Paper
Pencil
Crayons
What to do
1. Choose some symbols that your child can easily draw to
stand for 1s and 10s (if your child is older, include 100s
and 1,000s).
A face could 10s, and a bow could be 1s.
2. List some numbers and have your child depict them.
For example:
More or Less
Playing cards is a fun way for children to use numbers.
What you'll need
Coin
2 decks of cards
Scratch paper to keep score
What to do
1. Flip a coin to tell if the winner of this game will be the
person with "more" (a greater value card) or "less" (a
smaller value card).
2. Remove all face cards (jacks, queens, and kings) and
divide the remaining cards in the stack between the two
players.
3. Place the cards face down. Each player turns over one card
and compares: Is mine more or less? How many more? How
many less?
This game for young children encourages number sense and
helps them learn about the relationships of numbers (more or
less) and about adding and subtracting. By counting the shapes
on the cards and looking at the printed numbers on the card,
they can learn to relate the number of objects to the numeral.
Problem Solvers
These games involve problem solving, computation,
understanding number values, and chance.
What you'll need
Deck of cards
Paper
Pencil
What to do
1. Super sums. Each player should write the numbers 1-12 on a
piece of paper. The object of the game is to be the first
one to cross off all the numbers on this list.
Use only the cards 1-6 in every suit (hearts, clubs,
spades, diamonds). Each player picks two cards and adds up
the numbers on them. The players can choose to mark off
the numbers on the list by using the total value or
crossing off two or three numbers that make that value.
For example, if the player picks a 5 and a 6, the player
can choose to cross out 11, or 5 and 6, or 7 and 4, or 8
and 3, or 9 and 2, or 10 and 1, or 1, 2, and 8.
2. Make 100. Take out all the cards from the deck except ace
through 6. Each player draws 8 cards from the deck. Each
player decides whether to use a card in the tens place or
the ones place so that the numbers total as close to 100
as possible without going over. For example, if a player
draws two 1s (aces), a 2, a 5, two 3s, a 4, and a 6, he
can choose to use the numerals in the following way:
30, 40, 10, 5, 6, 1, 3, 2. This adds up to 97.
These games help children develop different ways to see
and work with numbers by using them in different combinations
to achieve a goal.
Card Support
Have your children sharpen their math skills even more.
What you'll need
Deck of cards
Paper
Pencil
What to do
1. How many numbers can we make? Give each player a piece of
paper and a pencil. Using the cards from 1 (ace)-9, deal 4
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 answers 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?
4+9+8+2=23
4+9-(8+2)=3
(8-4)x(9-2)=28
(9-8)x(4-2)=2
2. Make the most of it. This game is played with cards from 1
(ace) 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. One round
goes until each player has 6 cards. At that point, each
player chooses one card to throw out to make the largest
5-digit number possible.
3. Fraction fun. This game is played with cards 1 (ace)-10,
and 2 players. Each player receives one-half of the cards.
Players turn over 2 cards each at the same time. Each
player tries to make the largest fraction by putting the 2
cards together. The players compare their fractions to see
whose is larger. For example, if you are given a 3 and a
5, the fraction 3/5 would be made; if the other person is
given a 2 and an 8, the fraction is 2/8. Which is larger?
The larger fraction takes all cards and play continues
until one player has all the cards.
Players can develop strategies for using their cards, and
this is where the math skills come in.
Fill It Up
Children enjoy exploring measurement and estimation. Empty
containers can provide opportunities to explore comparisons,
measurement, estimation, and geometry.
What you'll need
Empty containers in different shapes (yogurt cups, margarine
tubs, juice boxes with tops cut off, pie tins)
Rice, popcorn kernels, or
water
Marker
Masking tape
Paper
What to do
1. Have your child choose an empty container each day and
label it for the day by writing the day on a piece of
masking tape and sticking it on the container.
2. Discover which containers hold more than, less than, or
the same as the container chosen for that day by
filling the day's container with water, uncooked rice, or
popcorn kernels; and
pouring the substance from that container into another
one. Is the container full, not full, or overflowing? Ask
your child, "Does this mean the second container holds
more than the first, less, or the same?"
3. Ask your child questions to encourage comparison,
estimation, and thinking about measurement.
4. Put all the containers that hold more in one spot, those
that hold less in another, and those that hold the same in
yet another. Label the areas "more," "less," and "the
same?
5. After the containers have been sorted, ask, "Do we have
more containers that hold more, hold less, or hold the
same? How many containers are in each category?"
The process of predicting, filling the containers, and
comparing how much each will hold, gives your child the
opportunity to experiment with measurement without worrying
about exact answers.
Half Full, Half Empty
It is helpful to explore whole numbers and fractions
through measurement and estimation. Children can see
relationships and the usefulness of studying fractions.
What you'll need
Clear container with straight sides, that holds at least 4 cups
Masking tape
Marker
Measuring cup with 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 cup measures on it
Uncooked rice, popcorn kernels, or water
Other containers with which to compare
What to do
1. Have your child run a piece of masking tape up the side of
the container so that it is straight from the bottom to
the top.
2. For younger children, use a 1-cup measure. For older
children, use a 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 cup measure. Pour the
chosen amount of a substance listed above into the
container.
3. Mark the level of the jar on the masking tape by drawing a
line with a marker and writing 1 for one cup or 1/2, 1/4,
or 1/8 on the line.
4. Follow this procedure until the container is full, and the
tape is marked in increments to the top of the container.
Now, the jar is marked evenly to measure the capacity of
other containers.
5. While filling different containers, ask your child
"thinking" questions.
How many whole cups do you think this container will hold?
How many 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8 cups do you think the container
will hold?
How many 1/2 cups equal a cup?
How many 1/4 cups equal a 1/2 cup? A cup?
How many 1/8 cups equal a 1/4 cup? A 1/2 cup? A 1/8 cup?
This activity provides a "hands-on" opportunity for
children to experience fractions while making connections to
the real world.
Name that Coin
Children love to look at coins but sometimes cannot
identify the coins or determine their value.
What you'll need
Penny
Nickel
Dime
Quarter
What to do
1. Look at the coins and talk about what color they are, the
pictures on them, and what they are worth.
2. Put a penny, nickel, and dime on the floor or table.
3. Tell your child that you are thinking of a coin.
4. Give your child hints to figure out which coin you are
thinking of. For example, "My coin has a man on one side,
a building on the other."
5. Let your child think about what you have said by looking
at the coins.
6. Ask, "Can you make a guess?"
7. Add another clue: "My coin is silver."
8. Keep giving clues until your child guesses the coin.
9. Add the quarter to the coins on the table and continue the
game.
10. Have your child give you clues for you to guess the coin.
This guessing game helps young children learn to recognize
coins and develop problem-solving and higher level thinking
skills.
Money Match
This game helps children count change. Lots of repetition
will make it even more effective.
What you'll need
A die to roll
10 of each coin (penny, nickel, dime)
6 quarters
What to do
1. For young players (5- and 6-year-olds), use only 2
different coins (pennies and nickels or nickels and
dimes). Older children can use all coins.
2. Explain that the object of the game is to be the first
player to earn a set amount (10 or 20 cents is a good
amount).
3. The first player rolls the die and gets the number of
pennies shown on the die.
4. Players take turns rolling the die to collect additional
coins.
5. As each player accumulates 5 pennies or more, the 5
pennies are traded for a nickel.
6. The first player to reach the set amount wins.
7. Add the quarter to the game when the children are ready.
Counting money, which involves counting by 1s, 5s, 10s,
and 25s, is a challenging skill and usually does not come
easily to children until about the third grade.
Money's Worth
When children use coins to play games, it may help them
use coins in real life situations.
What you'll need
Coins
Coupons
What to do
1. 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. 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.)
2. Clip and save. Cut out 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 that savings? A
pack of school 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 that savings? A book? A movie ticket?
Counting money involves thinking in patterns or groups of
amounts: 1s, 5s, 10s, 25s. Start these activities by having
your child first separate the coins or coupons by types: all
the pennies together, all the nickels, all the dimes, all the
quarters; the coupons for cereal, the coupons for cake and
brownie mixes, the coupons for soap.
In the News
Young children love to look at the newspaper. It is fun
for them to realize that there are things for them to see and
do with the paper.
What you'll need
Newspaper
Glue
Paper
Scissors
Pencil or crayon
What to do
1. Newspaper numbers. Help your child look for the numbers
1-100 in the paper. Cut the numbers out and glue them in
order onto a large piece of paper. For children who cannot
count to 100 or recognize numerals that large, only
collect up to the number they do know. Have your child say
the numbers to you and practice counting. 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.
2. Counting book. Cut out pictures from the newspaper and use
them to make a counting book. Page one 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 pages 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 dictate a story to you
about what is on the page.
Being able to read and understand the newspaper involves
more than just the ability to read the words and understand
what they say. It also involves the ability to read and
understand numbers.
Look It Up
These activities help children understand how items can be
organized and grouped in logical ways.
What you'll need
Newspaper
Paper
Scissors
Glue
What to do
1. Section selection. Show your child that the paper is
divided into different sections and explain that each
section serves a purpose. Show him that each section is
lettered and how the pages are numbered.
2. Ad adventure. Provide your child with grocery store ads
from the newspaper. Help him see how many items are listed
and the prices. Compare the prices at different stores.
Ask which store has the best bargain and why. Talk about
the difference in prices between items bought at regular
price, items on sale, and items bought with coupons. What
happens when an item is bought on sale and bought with a
coupon?
3. Solid search. Look at the store ads or coupons for
pictures of all the cylinders, boxes, or cubes you can
find. What are their different uses? Paste the pictures on
paper and make a "book of geometric solids." Have one page
for each solid.
Understanding that there is a logical order to the way
things are arranged in the newspaper, and in the book of
solids, helps show that math skills can be used in organizing
written material. Comparing information, such as the sale
prices at stores, also helps children see logical relationships
that can be applied to writing.
Newspaper Search
Search through the newspaper for mathematical data.
What you'll need
Newspaper
What to do
1. Numbers in the news. Find the following things in the
paper:
a graph
a number less than 10
something that comes in 2s, 3s, 4s
a number more than 50 the days of the week
a number more than 100
a number that is more than 100 but less than 999
a symbol or word for inches, feet, or yards
a schedule of some kind
a triangle
a weather symbol
a percent sign
sports statistics
2. List it. Provide your child with the grocery section of
the newspaper in order to make up a list of food that will
feed the family for a week and meet a budget of a certain
amount of money. Have your child make a chart and use a
calculator to figure the cost of more than one item. If
the total for the groceries is too great, 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?.
3. For a fraction of the cost. Give your child a few coupons
and grocery ads from the paper. Help your child match the
coupons to some of the grocery items in the ad. What
fraction of the cost is the coupon? For example, if an
item costs 79 cents and the coupon is for 10 cents off,
what fraction of the cost can be saved? (About 1/8.) What
percent are you saving on the item? (About 12 1/2
percent.)
One of the main ways people use numbers is for planning.
Knowing how to plan how much things will cost before going to
the store and how to read schedules and weather information
from the paper will help your child understand the world.
Treasure Hunt
Everyone's house has hidden treasures. There is a lot of
math you and your child can do with them.
What you'll need
Buttons
Screws
Washers
Bottle caps
Old keys
Sea shells
Rocks
or anything else you can count
What to do
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 three 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. 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. This may also provide
an opportunity to talk about fractions: 7/21 or 1/3 of the
screws are long.
Finding a container to hold the treasures gives your child
practice in spatial problem solving. The treasures may help you
to explain the concepts of addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division because they can be moved around
and grouped together so your child can count the items.
Family Portrait
Have your child get to know members of your family by
collecting information and picturing it on a graph.
What you'll need
Paper
Pencil
Crayons
What to do
1. Choose an inherited family characteristic: hair colors,
for example.
2. Count how many people in the family have the different
hair colors.
3. Make a graph. For example, if 5 people have brown hair,
draw 5 heads side by side to show these five people. Do
the same for the other hair colors.
Graphs help everyone, including adults, understand
information at a glance. By looking at the lengths of the lines
of heads, your child can quickly see which hair color, for
example, is most common.
Mathland:
The Grocery Store
The grocery store is one of the best examples of a place
where math is real. Since trips to the grocery usually affect
everyone in the family, the following activities include
various levels of difficulty within the activity. Look for the
symbols to determine which parts of the activities are for
which ages:
for grades K-1
for grades 2 and 3
for grades 4 through 8.
All of these activities can take place over many visits to
the store.
Get Ready
Getting ready to go shopping can help parents and children
share their thinking strategies about math with one another.
What you'll need
Paper
Pencil
Coupons (if you use them)
What to do
1. Involve the family in making a list. List each item and
mark with checks or tallies to indicate the number needed.
2. Look at the price of an item you bought last week and
intend to buy this week. How much did it cost last week?
How much does it cost this week? Do you want to
Pay this week's price?
Wait until the price comes down?
Or, stock up if it is on sale?
3. Involve the group in deciding how much milk or juice will
be needed for a week. You might decide to estimate by
cups, explaining that 4 cups are equal to a quart and 4
quarts are a gallon.
4. If you collect coupons, organize them. Choose the coupons
that match the items on the grocery list. Discuss how much
money will be saved on various items by using coupons.
Practicing measurement and estimation will help improve
your children's ability to predict amounts with accuracy.
Scan It
Shopping is a part of life which really necessitates our
being mathematically informed to be good consumers.
What you'll need
Prices
What to do
1. Notice whether the grocery store has prices on the items
or whether the pricing is dependent on scanners.
2. If there are no prices on the items, notice the prices
listed on the shelves.
3. Assign each child the job of remembering the price of a
few items, particularly those listed on sale.
4. Being aware of the prices of items will help you verify
that the scanners are working properly and that the total
is accurate when you go to check out.
The ever increasing use of technology in the grocery store
puts the burden on you to beware. Your protection lies in
having strong mental math skills.
Weighing In
One fun place to try out estimation and measurement skills
in the grocery store is the produce section where everyone can
have the opportunity to participate.
What you'll need
The grocery scale
What to do
1. Help your child examine the scale. Explain that pounds are
divided into smaller parts called ounces and 16 ounces
equal a pound.
2. Gather the produce you are purchasing, and estimate the
weight of each item before weighing it.
3. Use sample questions to foster thinking about measurement
and estimation. You might Want to ask your child,
How much do you think 6 apples will weigh? More than a
pound, less than a pound, equal to a pound? How much do
the apples really weigh? Do they weigh more or less than
you predicted? How about the potatoes? Will 6 potatoes
weigh more or less than the apples? How much do potatoes
cost per pound? If they cost ___ cents per pound, what is
the total cost?
Some grocery stores have scales that tell all the answers
to these questions, so in that case, estimate using the
same procedure to make sure the machines are accurate.
Activities like this help children develop number sense
for weight and foster the ability to compare items when
measuring.
Get into Shapes
The grocery store is filled with geometric shapes.
What you'll need
Items at the store
What to do
1. Show your child the pictures of the shapes on this page
before going to the store. This will help to identify them
when you get to the store.
2. At the store, ask your child questions to generate
interest in the shapes.
Which items are solid? Which are fiat?
Which shapes have fiat sides?
Which have circles for faces? Rectangles?
Do any have points at the top?
3. Point out shapes and talk about their qualities and their
use in daily life.
Look to see what shapes stack easily. Why?.
Try to find some cones. How many can you find?
Look for pyramids.
Determine which solids take up a lot of space and which
ones stack well.
Discuss why space is important to the grocer and why the
grocer cares about what stacks well.
Boxes, cans, rolls of toilet paper or paper towels, ice
cream cones and cones that hold flowers, plus produce such as
oranges, grapes, and tomatoes are all geometric shapes.
Recognizing these shapes helps children connect math to the
real world.
Check Out
The check out counter is where we commonly think about
math in the grocery store. It's where the total is added up,
the money is exchanged, and the change is returned.
What you'll need
All the items you intend to buy
What to do
1. Have your child estimate the total.
2. Ask, if I have 10 one-dollar bills, how many will I have
to give the clerk? What if I have 20 one-dollar bills? 5?
How much change should I receive? What coins will I get?
3. Count the change with your child to make sure the change
is correct.
One way to make estimating totals easy is to assign an
average price to each item. If the average price for each item
is $2 and if you have 10 items, the estimate would be about
$20.
It's in the Bag
Here's some fun estimation to do with bags full of
groceries.
What you'll need
Bags of groceries
What to do
1. Have your child guess how many objects there are in a bag.
Ask: Is it full? Could it hold more? Could it tear if you
put more in it? Are there more things in another bag of
the same size? Why do some bags hold more or less than
others?
2. Estimate the weight of the bag of groceries. Does it weigh
5 pounds, 10 pounds, or more? How can you check your
estimate? Now, compare one bag to another. Which is
lighter or heavier? Why?
This activity exposes children to the experiences of
counting items and comparing qualities, as well as to judging
spatial relationships and capacity. It shows how to estimate
weight by feeling how much the bag weighs, comparing it to a
known weight (such as a 5-pound bag of sugar), or weighing it
on a scale.
Put It Away
Now, the sorting begins as you put away the groceries.
What you'll need
Your bags of groceries
Counter top or table to group items on
What to do
1. Find one characteristic that is the same for some of the
products. For example, some are boxes and some are cans.
2. Put all the items together that have the same
characteristic.
3. Find another way to group these items.
4. Continue sorting, finding as many different ways to group
the items as you can.
5. Play "Guess My Rule." In this game, you sort the items and
invite your child to guess your rule for sorting them.
Then, your child can sort the items, and you can guess the
rule.
Sorting helps children develop classifying and reasoning
skills and the ability to examine data and information.
Math on the Go
In this busy world, we spend a lot of time in transit.
These are some projects to try while you are going from place
to place.
While you're moving, have your children keep theft eyes
open for:
* street and building numbers;
* phone numbers on the sides of taxis and trucks;
* dates on buildings and monuments; and
* business names that have numbers in them.
Number Search
The object is to look for numbers around you: on cars,
buses, subways, and on foot.
What you'll need
Some type of transportation or
A place from which to observe
Paper
Pencil
Ruler
What to do
1. Create a chart that lists the numbers from 1-50.
2. Write down each number as family members locate that
number on a car, a sign, a building.
3. Write down words that have numbers in them such as
"one-stop shopping," "two-day service," or "Highway 20."
This is a great challenge for family members of all age,
because even young children can learn to recognize numbers.
License Plates
License plates have numbers and are fun to use to play
games while on the go.
What you'll need
License plates
Paper
Pencil
What to do
1. Copy down a license plate. Read it as a number (excluding
the letters). For example, if the license is 663M218, the
number would be six hundred sixty-three thousand, two
hundred eighteen.
2. Find other license plates and read their numbers. Is the
number less than, greater than, or equal to yours?
3. Estimate the difference between your number and another
license plate. Is it 10, 100, 1,000, or 10,000?
4. Record the names of the states of as many different
license plates as you see. From which state do you see the
most? Which has the fewest? Prepare a chart or graph to
show your findings.
These activities encourage reading, recognizing numbers,
noticing symbols, writing, counting, and graphing.
Total It
This is a good game for practicing quick mental
computation.
What you'll need
License plates
What to do
1. Call out the numbers on the license plate.
2. See who can add the numbers up correctly. What strategies
were used? (Were the numbers added by 10's like 2+8; were
doubles like 6+6 used?)
3. Try different problems using the numbers in a license
plate.
For example, if you use the plate number 663M218, ask,
"Using the numbers on the plate, can you:
make a 1 using two numbers? Yes, 3-2=1.
make a 1 using three numbers? Yes, 6-(3+2)=1
make a 1 using four numbers? Yes, (6+6)-8-3-1
make a 1 using five numbers? Yes, 3-[(6+6)-8-2]=1
make a 1 using six numbers? Yes, 8x2-(6+6)-3=1
make a 2 using 1 number? Yes, the 2.
The problem solving and computation going on in your
child's head is very important. It helps your child be creative
with numbers.
How Long? How Far?
Many times when you are on the go, you are headed
somewhere that requires you be there by a certain time.
What you'll need
Information about how far you're traveling and how long
it will take
What to do
1. Ask your children how far they think you are traveling.
Yards? Blocks? Miles?
2. Talk about how long it takes to get there. If it is 3:15
now, and it takes 45 minutes to get there, will we make it
for a 4:15 appointment? How much extra time will we have?
Will we be late?
These types of questions help children see the usefulness
of understanding distance and time.
Guess If You Can
When children practice asking questions about numbers,
they can develop an understanding of the characteristics and
meanings of numbers.
What you'll need
Questions about numbers
What to do
1. Let your child think of a number between a stated range of
numbers while you try to guess the number by asking
questions. Here is a sample conversation.
Child: I am thinking of a number between 1 and 100.
Parent: Is it more than 50?
Child: No.
Parent: Is it an even number?
Child: No.
Parent: Is it more than 20 but less than 40?
Child: Yes.
Parent: Can you divide this number up into 3 equal parts?
And so on ...
2. After you have guessed your child's number, let your child
guess a number from you by asking similar questions.
The questions asked demonstrate many different levels of
math. They can serve as learning tools for explaining concepts.
For example, you can take the opportunity to explain what an
even number is if your child does not know.
Parents and the Schools
Here are a few ideas that might help you support a
positive math environment in your child's school:
1. Visit the school and see if the children:
* Are actively engaged in math;
* Are talking about mathematics;
* Are working together to solve math problems;
* Have their math work on display;
* Use manipulatives (objects that children can touch and
move) in the classroom.
2. Explore the math program with your child's teacher,
curriculum coordinator, or principal. Here are some
questions you might ask:
* Are there manipulatives in the classroom?
* Are you familiar with the National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics standards (see next page)?
* How are the standards being used in this school?
* What can I do to help foster a strong math program where
children can explore math concepts before giving the right
answer?
3. If you would like to help out, here are some suggestions
for parent groups:
* Make games for teachers;
* Help seek out sponsors who believe in a strong math
program for the school and who might provide materials and
resources;
* Support math classes for families at your school.
4. Keep a positive attitude even if you don't like what you
see. Work to improve the math curriculum by doing some of
the things mentioned throughout this book.
5. Share this book with your child's teacher.
What Should I Expect from a Math Program?
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has
recently endorsed standards by which math should be taught in
the elementary and middle grade years. The powerful nature of
these standards is that they not only have the endorsement of
the academic community, but they are also heavily endorsed by
corporations. These endorsements, together with the
technological advances of our society and the lack of math
confidence in our work force, have combined to produce
tremendous support for the standards.
These standards make some assumptions about the way math
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