Karyn's Blog

Family Math Night Project Series: Go-Go Games

May 29, 2018 Karyn Comments 0 Comment

I’m very excited to share with you the latest in our Family Math Night Project Series: Go-Go Games.

Everybody loves to play games! They’re engaging, motivating, and fun. And when kids have a hand in designing the games, they’re even more fun.

In this Family Math Night Go-Go Games station, participants choose from three game boards and then add detail and action space stickers to personalize their boards. When done designing, they play their game with a partner and practice important numbers skills in a way where kids actually want to do math.

Participants will walk away with their very own game board which they get to take home and play with others.

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What Do You Notice? Scales

April 10, 2018 Karyn Comments 0 Comment

Skills:
K-2: counting, number recognition, comparing, addition/subtraction, logic/reasoning skills, geometric shapes
3-5: logic/reasoning skills, addition/subtraction, beginning algebra

This scale weight problem is a fun way to introduce algebraic thinking. Although for the young students, simply recognizing numbers and counting the animals is good enough. They can even describe the geometric shapes used to make the scales.

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What Do You Notice? Number Theory

March 30, 2018 Karyn Comments 0 Comment

Skills:
K-2: counting, skip counting, patterns, even/odd numbers
3-5: even/odd numbers, patterns, multiples, factors, multiplication, common multiples, prime/composite numbers

When students learn to skip count* they are reciting the multiples of the number they started with. It’s a great early introduction to multiplication. This poster is a horizontal representation of some of the multiples for numbers 1 – 23 which are represented by different colors. For example, multiples of 1 are magenta; multiples of 2 are yellow; 3 are green, etc.

Factors are the numbers multiplied together to arrive at another number. For example, 2 and 3 are the factors that, when multiplied, result in the product 6. This poster shows the factors of each number vertically. The factors of 6 are: 1 (magenta), 2 (yellow), 3, (green), and 6 (blue).

1 x 6 = 6 and 2 x 3 = 6

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What Do You Notice? Gumballs

February 20, 2018 Karyn Comments 0 Comment

So this was a super fun What Do You Notice? poster I created for my last Family Math Night event. Not only is it colorful, but who doesn’t like gumball machines?!

Skills:
K-2: counting, even numbers, skip counting by twos, comparison
3-5: probability, fractions, money

This is a fun one simply because of the fun gumballs and gumball machine. That said, there is still a lot of math going on. Young students can count the number of different colored gumballs. They can compare colored gumballs to see which color has the least and which color has the most. They can even count all the gumballs to arrive at a total.

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Family Math Night Project Series: Bug Box

January 16, 2018 Karyn Comments 0 Comment

I’m very excited to share with you our newest Family Math Night product line designed around hands-on projects in math. We’re calling it our Project Series and the first one, just released, is Project: Bug Box.

Hands-on and super fun, this Family Math Night Bug Box station will get the creative juices flowing! Participants choose one of their favorite (plastic!) bugs and use 2- and 3-dimensional geometry along with number skills to create a rectangular prism. Participants will walk away with a custom designed box for their bug which they get to bring home and share with others.

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