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Category: Problem-Solving

Time Capsule – A Family Math Night Activity

Time Capsule – A Family Math Night Activity

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We are living through a historic moment in history that has brought about some major changes to our lives. As an elementary math educator, I wanted to figure out a way for students to capture this moment through a math activity. That’s when I came up with the idea of creating a time capsule.

I presented the activity a few weeks ago as a webinar for a homeschooling consortium but when we lost the video of the presentation, I decided to film it again and am including it for you below.

It’s a simple but fun project that the whole family can do. With a little adaptation, it would work in the virtual classroom, as well.

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Developing Math Minds at Home Parent Guide

Developing Math Minds at Home Parent Guide

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I’m happy to announce that our parent guide Developing Math Minds at Home is now complete.

The guide was designed to help families support math learning at home. As parents work on reinforcing math skills, it’s also important that we show them how to help their children develop a strong math mind. As we describe in the guide, “Children with a strong math mind are comfortable using math. They understand that math is a useful part of our everyday lives and are confident using it to solve problems.”

The guide underscores what the current research says about how children learn math and includes topics such as:

  • Fostering a Growth Mindset
  • Supporting a Positive Attitude Towards Mathematics
  • Promoting Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills
  • Developing Number Sense
  • Solving Problems a Variety of Ways
  • Embracing Mistakes
  • Encouraging Positive Self-Talk

We also have a Spanish version of the booklet.  For a sample page, check out our website.

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Family Math Night Home Edition

Family Math Night Home Edition

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Family Math Nights are usually done at school but I created one that families can do at home. This comprehensive resource includes video tutorials, check lists, materials lists, and activity sheets for four home-friendly activities for grades K-5. I’m including the video below.

My goal was to design the Family Math Night/Day to be different than simply doing a math activity at the kitchen table. It’s their own personal event and I walk them through how to do it step-by-step. Watch the video below for tips on making it a special event.

Here is the link so you can access all the activity PDFs:
https://familymathnight.com/resources/mathathome.php

Here is the link so you can access the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GknJtgZ47KQ

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What Do You Notice? Lego Blocks

What Do You Notice? Lego Blocks

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Skills:
K-2: counting, subitizing, geometric shapes
3-5: skip counting, repeated addition, multiplication, beginning algebra

Although there are no numbers represented, this What Do You Notice? poster is filled with number concepts. Young students should be able to quickly recognize that there are 4 circles on each square (subitizing). From there, they can decide how they want to count circles. Maybe they want to count just the circles on the pink squares or blue squares. Or maybe they want to count all the circles to arrive at the total number. Others may notice the squares and decide to count how many squares there are all together.

Older students can use repeated addition to determine the total number of squares (4 + 4 + 4 or 3 + 3 + 3 + 3) or they can multiply 3 x 4 or 4 x 3.

There are a variety of ways these students can determine the total number of circles: skip counting by fours; determining the total number of circles in a row and multiplying that by 3; multiplying the total number of squares by 4, multiplying 6 circles x 8 circles, etc.

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Grid Dots: A Family Math Night ‘What Do You Notice?’ poster

Grid Dots: A Family Math Night ‘What Do You Notice?’ poster

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Grid Dots

Skills:
K-2: subitizing, counting, colors, shapes, pattern
3-5: counting, shapes, even, odd, addition, subtraction, multiplication

Subitizing, being able to quickly recognize the total amount without having to count each member of the group, is an important part of developing number sense. In the primary grades, students who subitize are able to count on from the subitized number. In upper elementary, students can use subitizing to break a larger group into smaller equal groups to find the total. In this 10 x 10 grid, I used colored sticky dots to create opportunities for students to subitize.

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