Act Like an Architect: Fourth Graders

Act Like an Architect: Draw Your Bedroom

How you can help at home: In this math activity, your child draws his bedroom to scale.
By Miriam Myers , GreatSchools Staff


Have your child explore measurement by drawing his bedroom to scale.
What you'll need
•Paper

•Pen or pencil

•Ruler or tape measure

•Graph paper preferably with one-inch squares

How to do it
Discuss how an architect uses math to draw up plans for a house. Explain that the plans need to be to scale. Tell your child he is going to take measurements of his bedroom and make a smaller scale of his room on paper. Have your child measure the length and width of the room in feet. Then have him measure two pieces of furniture, such as his bed and dresser, in feet. He does not need to measure every item in the room as this may be too overwhelming a task. Have him write the measurements on paper. Using a scale of one inch to one foot have him draw the bedroom to scale on graph paper. Talk about how he could rearrange the furniture in his bedroom by using the scale drawing to see how things would fit before physically moving the furniture. Discuss other reasons and jobs, such as an interior design or mapmaking, in which scale models are used.

Weather Graph: Third Graders

Weather Graph: Third Graders

How you can help at home: In this activity your child observes the weather and makes a bar graph.

By Miriam Myers , GreatSchools Staff

Have your child observe the weather and make a bar graph of the results. This activity combines math and science to build your child's graphing and observation skills. Your child will observe the weather for a week or more, keep track of weather patterns on a chart and then display the results in a bar graph.

What you'll need:

•Paper

•Pen or pencil

•Graph paper or lined paper for making the bar graph

•Colored markers or crayons

Here's how to do it

Discuss with your child the weather patterns where you live. Talk about the weather at different times of the year and the changes in the weather on a weekly basis. Come up with a list of the types of weather with your child such as sunny, cloudy, snowy and rainy. Have your child make a chart with the types of weather listed on the left with room on the right to tally the weather type. Designate a period of time that your child will tally the weather, such as a week or a month. Each day at about the same time, have your child record the weather. When the designated time is up, have your child tally each weather type.

Review bar graphs with your child. Then have her make a graph to display the weather information. Have her draw a large L. On the vertical line have her write the number of days and write a label such as "Number of Days." On the horizontal line have her write the types of weather and a label such as "Types of Weather." Have her fill in the bars with different colors. Then come up with a title for the graph such as "Daily Weather." Discuss the data with her, asking questions such as, "What type of weather did we see the most and the least? "Is the information easier to read in the bar graph or the tally sheet?"

Beach Ball Math: Second Graders

Beach Ball Math: Second Graders

How you can help at home: Try this game to help your child with basic addition and subtraction facts.
By Linda Eisenger, Consulting Educator


This game reinforces the skill of quickly recalling basic addition and subtraction facts.

What You'll Need:
•An inflated beach ball

•Permanent marker (black or dark blue)

Here's How to Do It

Divide the ball into large sections with the permanent marker. In each section write a numeral. Toss the ball to another player or up in the air and catch. Locate the sections in which the player's thumb has landed, and remember the numeral. Toss the ball again and note where the catcher's thumb lands. Add or subtract these numerals. Keep playing!

Extensions of the game
Increase the difficulty by using larger numbers to add and subtract, or by multiplying the numbers.

Numbers Sense: First Graders

Numbers Sense: First Graders

How you can help at home: This number-sense game played with dice helps your first grader build math concepts such as greater than and less than.

By Nicola Salvatico, Consulting Teacher

This game reinforces number sense, one-to-one correspondence, graphing, the concepts of "greater" and "less than," and simple addition.

First grade is a year of problem solving, which can be done cooperatively in a group or individually. It is important that the first grader becomes a student who is willing to take a risk in a non-threatening environment to further her learning.

What you'll need:

•Two dice-preferably two different colors

•Graph paper with one-inch squares

•Pencil or crayon

•Highlighter

Here's how to do it

Your child can play this game on her own, with you or in a group. Ask your child to roll the dice. Have her add the two dice together and write the two numbers and the total (sum) on the piece of paper. Using graph paper with big squares will keep the number sentences organized (For example: 2 + 3= 5).

Next, you roll your turn and do the same. The person who gets the highest number wins. That person can highlight her number sentence with a yellow highlighter or crayon to show the win. But, if someone rolls "Alien Eyes," or 1 and 1, then that person is automatically out and must begin again.

Extension of the game

Tally the amount of wins each player gets to keep a running total. (But if one gets alien eyes, the player's tally goes to zero.) Graph the sums for each person as you take a turn; then see the overall "greater than" or "less than" number. (For example: If I roll a total of five, then I can color in five squares on my graph. Continue that pattern until the first person to fill her entire graph is finished).

Math for Young Kids: Four Games to Play With Your Child

Math for Young Kids: Four Games to Play With Your Child

Four ways to improve your child's math skills
By the College Bound team


To help your kindergartner improve math skills, here are some easy games to play:

Sorting beans
What this teaches: Sorting, counting, and patterns

What you need: A mixed cup of dried beans

Math activities: Have your child

1) sort the cup of mixed bean into piles by color,

2) count each pile of beans, and then

3) mix the piles together and make a row of patterns using the different colors (like: pinto, black, black, navy; pinto, black, black, navy).

Counting coins
What this teaches: Counting, coin values

What you need: A pile of mixed coins

Math activities: Have your child

1) separate pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters into separate piles,

2) tell you what each coin is worth (or listen while you explain),

3) add up the total value of pennies, nickels, and dimes, and then

3) count the pennies by ones (1, 2, 3 . . .), the nickels by fives (5, 10, 15 . . .), and the dimes by tens (10, 20, 30 . . .).

Shape walk
What this teaches: Counting, coin values

What you need: A sharp eye!

Math activities: Do a shape-hunting game in the house or outdoors, looking for squares (bathroom tiles, windowpanes, sidewalk squares), rectangles (doors, refrigerators, trucks), circles (round kitchen tables, door knobs, round traffic lights), octagons (stop signs).

Fruit fractions
What this teaches: Fractions

What you need: An apple

How it works: Your kindergartner won’t be learning about fractions in school yet, but you can give her a head start by helping her understand them now. In the kitchen, take an apple and show your child that it’s one apple. Then cut it in half. Show her that now you have two halves. Have your child put the two halves together to make a whole. Then have her take it apart again for the two halves. This shows your child that two halves make a whole. Once she gets that concept, you can cut each half in two, and talk about quarters.

Make kitchen music
What this teaches: Counting and patterns

What you need: Kitchen “instruments” like pots, pans, and spoons

How it works: Beat and rhythm teach about counting and patterns, so put together a kitchen band with your child. Put on some music with a strong, steady beat and play with your child to find the beat.

Learning to Love Math: Preschoolers

Laundry Sort

How you can help at home: Make doing laundry with your child fun and educational!
By Miriam Myers , GreatSchools Staff

Teach your preschooler early math skills by having him/her help you sort laundry. He'll be using color recognition, categorizing and counting skills.

What you'll need
•Dirty laundry of various colors

Here's how to do it

Before you put the laundry in the washer have your child help you sort the whites from the darks. Explain why mixing white and dark colored clothing can cause the dark colors to come off on the white colors. You could even make this more fun by sorting more colors (blues, reds, etc.)

When the laundry is clean have your child focus on a particular task. You might ask him to make a pile of shirts, pants or socks. You could also have him count the number of shirts in the pile. Another time you can have your child sort the socks by color or size. Who knew doing the laundry could be so fun!

Happy Easter

I truly hope you are all blessed on this Easter Day.  My wish for each of you is that every child in your reach will get the "Best Education Possible" and you live in peace, health, and prosperity!  Have a blessed Resurrection Day!

From: Best Education Possible, LLC

Debra West