Got lots of left-over greeting cards? Here’s one fun way I found to use them with kindergarten and first graders. I sort the cards into two categories and the students try and figure out my rule. In the example above, I sorted the cards into pumpkins and hearts. It was pretty easy for students to figure that one out. But, after that, they can get pretty tricky and student really need to look carefully for similarities within groups: cats vs…
Above are the two estimation jars we used at a recent family math night event. Below are the estimation slips students filled out. Click on the image to print a copy.
Here’s a great way to give students practice adding coins. Use the date as their target number and then have them come up with all the different combinations using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. To turn this into a problem-solving activity, ask them to prove that they found all the combinations. A good way for students to learn how to organize their work is to have them use a table. At first, most kids fill in the table haphzardly which…
This is a fun project I do with fifth graders where students take on the role of Senior Designer at Packagings R Us. They will need to design the perfect box (rectangular prism) for an item that they will be bringing in. Their box will be “shipped” to Australia so they will need to consider the fragility of their item when designing the box and determine appropriate packing material. An extension is to have students do a cost analysis for…
What a great group of volunteers! These are the station facilitators and family math night coordinator for one of our latest Math Medley Family Math Night events. By the way, notice how two of them are students…one middle school and the other high school. I like how most of them are wearing the school spirit t-shirt. It’s a great way to show support of the school but it’s also a great way for participants to know who is the station…