Fill-In Math Word Problems

I just wanted to give a big "HUZZAH!" to Scholastic's Fill-In Math Word Problems. While they are ultimately math problems, they also reinforce grammar and build reading comprehension skills. I use these as a fun supplement to do with my child, one on one, for extra practice. These are especially great if you have a child who struggles with story problems.

Posts from the Past - The October Homeschool

It's been years since I posted these.  I thought I'd pull 'em out and dust 'em off for anyone who missed them before.  Happy October!


October Unit Factory - Ideas for Octoberish unit studies

Mood Music for October - Suggested musical selections for listening enjoyment in October

Tricks with Treats--A Bag Full of Math - Practical, fun math problems with Halloween candy

Math in Units - Biotic and Abiotic Dimensional Shapes

It is torture to spend gorgeous autumn days stuck at desks (or tables) especially when learning can (and often should!) take place outside. Here is an outdoor math AND science lesson I created for our BIO studies.  (A question I often get regarding unit studies is, "What about math?" We do have a separate math program we use daily, but I am always looking for ways to incorporate math into every single unit. It's important for children to see real world applications of math and to see that math is literally in everything.)

Above is the first page of the scavenger hunt I created. Download the full Biotic and Abiotic Dimensional Shapes Scavenger Hunt Worksheet here. Obviously, the science aspect is determining biotic (living) things from abiotic (nonliving), and the math is identifying shapes and their dimensions. 

Below are a few photos from our scavenger hunt. We were actually able to find most shapes.

Parallel and perpendicular lines

Oval

Sphere

Cylinder

Oval

Trapezoid

Circle, or octagon, if you draw a line to connect every 3 petals

Rectangle

Homeschool--the world is our classroom!

Laughing at Math

Today we had a math crisis in our homeschool. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we had a math grade crisis when it came time for assessment and reckoning. At any rate, some... stuff... hit the fan. Afterward, we needed some comic relief.

Art for a Snowy Day

I have loved doing resist art since I was in the 2nd grade and we made crayon and water color resist pieces to go with our unit study on oceans. (Resist means that the wax of the crayon will repel the water color away from it. There are other mediums of resist art as well, but simple crayon and watercolor is the cheapest and handiest.) When I saw That Artist Woman's January Pocket Project, it reminded me that it had been too long since the last resist art project I did with my kids, so I took a cue from her snowflake ATC for a project of our own.

First, though, we read Snowflake Bentley, one of my favorite picture books. I read it to them every winter because I think Bentley is inspiring and I hope that just once my kids will catch his passion and dedication to something he loved and believed in and internalize it.

(If it is snowing outside the day you do this, bundle up and take some black paper outside with you to catch snowflakes on. Bring a magnifying glass and see the amazing intricacy of snowflakes for yourself. Kids love this!)

Then I read a few scientific paragraphs out of The Snowflake:  Winter's Secret Beauty, but mostly we looked at the amazing photographs and talked about shape and symmetry. We then used the photographs of real snowflakes to guide us in our art.

Step 1:  Draw snowflakes on white paper with a white crayon. It's tricky to see what you're doing, but if you push hard with the crayon and use the light right, you can see where you've drawn. We used regular printing paper, but you could also use other white paper. Try to copy the 6-sided or hexagonal pattern most often found in snowflakes, and make them symmetrical, but make each one you draw different from all the others, just the way nature does it.

Step 2:  Using blue water color, paint over the entire paper. Your snowflakes will resist the paint and "pop" out at you.

Step 3:  Let it all dry out.

Step 4:  Embellish. We all used a silver Sharpie marker to add some sparkle, just making dots with it. I just put dots on the blue background, while my kids put dots on their snowflakes. I glued shimmery sequins to the center of my snowflakes.

Step 5:  Add a cardstock backing to stabilize, frame, and finish your masterpiece.

Step 6:  Display!

Mineralogy #1 - Crystals & Gems

By definition, all minerals have a crystal shape. Geology meets Geometry when you study the crystal shapes of minerals. Atoms make elements, elements make minerals, and minerals make rocks; the definite regular, repeating patterns of the atomic arrangements in crystalline solid matter is what makes minerals (and crystals) so unique.

Here are the resources we used for learning about crystals and gems inside the world of minerals.

These 3D cut-and-assemble mineral shapes were perfect for getting hands on with 3D mineral shapes.

Fun crystal facts with worksheet and video was a good independent assignment.

Crystalline structure and gems activities and worksheets was packed with good stuff for really understanding it all.

I used this Cuts of gemstones page for information for a notebooking page, including the graphic of the different cuts. I pulled out some jewelry and we matched cuts and shapes.

History, photos, information galore on gemstones was super helpful for learning about mineral gems vs. organic gems and anything and everything we wanted to know and see about gemstones. I used it for information for notebooking pages as well as for just looking and matching stones, cuts, etc.

We also made a page for our notebooks using the scriptures Proverbs 8:10-11, Proverbs 3:13-15, and Proverbs 31:10. I gave the kids lots of sparkly, glittery fingernail polish to embellish their pages with.

She painted a book of scriptures as one of her embellishments.

Experiments:


Making Borax crystal snowflakes is easy and very cool. As you can see, I let my kids use whatever color pipe cleaner they wanted and they could make it into whatever shape they wanted as well. Each child did their own, including mixing their own solution.

It didn't take long at all for the solution to begin crystallization. 

When they were finished I hung them in a sunny window.

I love that the crystals were so large and sparkly in the sunshine.

We did other crystal experiments with Epsom salts, as well as making rock candy, and we did a few cheap kits with other minerals we found at the dollar store. Unfortunately I can't share photos of all the fun because these particular pictures are on a crashed hard drive.  :(  When playing with all these crystals it is important to make sure that your kids understand that sugar crystals are organic, not mineral.  

Tricks with Treats - A Bag Full of Math

The candy countdown is on!  Soon the children of America will be squealing with delight as they dump the sugary contents of their trick-or-treat bags onto living room floors everywhere. Besides creating tummy aches and the need for more toothpaste, what else can all that Halloween candy do for us?  Help us learn math, of course!

For the “newer” mathematicians, try these tricks:

*Separate candy into like groups (suckers, candy bars, Tootsie Rolls, etc.).  The criteria can            change and so can the groups.  You can also separate by flavor, brand and size.

*Count the numbers in each group and say which has more or less than another.

*Create simple patterns with the different kinds of candy.  With smaller colored candies, you make a pattern (red, blue, orange, red, blue, orange) and then have your child continue it.  Do a pattern of sucker, sucker, gum, candy bar and keep it going until all of those types of candies are included in a long line.

*Describe the basic shape of the candies.  Are they round, square, long, wide?

For the next level of thinking:

*Talk about 2 and 3 dimensional shapes.  Candy is perfect for introducing or reinforcing cylinders, cubes, cones, spheres, discs, etc.

*Practice basic addition and subtraction with the children’s candy.  For younger children, “3 Snickers plus 4 Milky Way equals how many candy bars?”  For older children, “Sister has 23 candy bars and Brother has 27.  How many candy bars are in the house?”  Then, “How many more candy bars does Brother have than Sister?”  

*Make a pretend price list for the various candies (gum costs 15 cents, Tootsie Rolls are 5 cents, etc.).  Make random piles of the different candies mixed together and have the children figure out how much their pile would cost.  You can also tell them they have X amount of money and have them decide what candy they could afford with it.   

*Make fractions come alive with Halloween candy by asking all sorts of questions.  What fraction of your candy is in suckers?  What is the fraction of your candy bars that contain nuts?  What is the fraction of your candy bars that don’t?  What is the fraction of your candy bars that were made by Nestle?   What is the fraction of red suckers?  

Try these math tricks with the more experienced learners:

*Convert the candy fractions to decimals and percentages.

*Read package details and discuss calorie counts and candy weight.  Figure out how many ounces are in each mini candy bar and then how many you’d need to eat to equal a pound.  Compare the calories of the different candies, the weights and sizes, and then discuss why a smaller piece of candy might contain more calories than a larger one.

*Again with the package labels, determine which candies contain the most sugar.  Actually measure the amounts in teaspoons, tablespoons, and even cups, comparing the candy to the more visual sugar measurement.  Figure out how many suckers equal a full cup of sugar, etc.

This list is just the beginning.  I’m sure you can think of more ways to introduce, practice and/or reinforce mathematical concepts.  So instead of groaning at the sight of all that candy when your youngsters come home, squeal in delight with them and get thinking!

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"Tricks with Treats" has been published and republished by The Sentinel.

M&M Multiplication

Memorizing math facts is essential, but some personalities don't enjoy the drilling. I like to find a variety of ways to practice and memorize math facts, especially with games.

The newest ways we'll be working on memorizing multiplication this week will include M&Ms and some autumn-themed templates.

Autumn Bingo Cards - Each picture on the bingo card will be equated with a product.  The caller will say a multiplication problem aloud and when the players know the answer, they will cover the picture on their bingo card that represents that answer (with an M&M).  When someone gets a BINGO, they get to eat the M&Ms in that row.

M&M Autumn Tree - Players will roll two dice and multiply the numbers shown.  If the player gets the answer correct, he or she will get to place a fall-colored M&M in place. The first person to fill a tree wins.

Math is sweet!

Halloween Houses--One Project, Three Subjects

Real life math applications are so much better than worksheets, and anytime you can find one project to employ multiple subjects you’ve got yourself a deal.  Give it seasonal appeal and it’s a bonus project with extra purpose.  Additionally, combining art and math is a fantastic whole-brained exercise that draws on and develops the strengths of both cerebral hemispheres.*

This past week I presented just such a project to my children.  I spent less than $3.00 for all 5 kids to complete an assignment that qualified as both math and art, and which also added to festive Halloween decorations.  Even better--it got them excited.  This was a developmental pursuit in geometry, measurement, creativity, aesthetics, association, and coordination.  It took right-brained thinking to have an imaginative vision of the whole, and left-brained mathematics, logical analysis, and attention to detail to make it.  It was hands-on, 3D, and real.

The mission was to make Halloween Houses.  I purchased several 12”x12” pieces of Halloween scrapbook paper at a discount, put it in the middle of the table, and told the kids they were using this paper and Scotch tape to make small model houses.  Helping my youngest, who was concentrating on cutting, taping, choosing paper, naming shapes, and learning to use a ruler, I showed everyone a basic format of 4 main walls of squares of equal sizes, rectangle pieces for the pitch of the roof, attached to triangles whose bases were the same length as the square walls.   The kids were free to use whatever measurements they wanted (within reason, considering there was only so much paper, and also to be considerate as to not use all of one particular pattern) as well as whatever building design and/or embellishments they wanted. 

The project isn’t going to end with math and art, however.  Each of the kids had a different vision. For some, I sensed a story behind the creation—that the artistic and architectural vision came from thoughts of plots and characters that might as yet be subconscious but nonetheless there. One child did a half-open creepy door cutout.  One child put holes in his roof and added sinister stairs inside that could be seen through a doorway under the ominous porch.  One child added an attic, and his triangles did not match his squares, giving the house a more traditional aged and threatening look. Because we have a theme in our homeschool this year of “Everyone Has a Story,” in the next week the children will each be writing “the story” of their Halloween House.

If you don’t like Halloween, you can adopt the idea simply for autumn, or you could do something similar at Christmastime.  Since this was my kids’ first go at it and we were on a bit of a time schedule when we did it, most of the kids kept it simple to get it finished.  I suspect if given another opportunity and more time they’ll be faster at the fundamentals and want to add on to and enhance the basic concept.  Maybe it’ll become a new October tradition.  

Whatever you do this week, try to find some creative, real-world applications for new-found knowledge and skills.  Take notice of left- and right-brained thinking and see how many activities you can find to employ both.

*For a quick test of hemispheric dominance,go here.

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I wrote this in 2011. It was originally published as "Halloween Math Art" in The Sentinel.

War Games in Math

This is not what you think... this is math!  Today my daughter was bored as we waited for her brothers' baseball game to get started.  Luckily I happened to have a deck of cards with me and so we worked on math facts  played several rousing rounds of War variations to happily pass the time.

War.  You know, the old game where each player flips a card and whoever has the card with the highest number value wins the hand.  This is a great game for teaching young ones numbers and higher and lower values.  But you can also put several twists on this game to help children practice basic functions and/or memorize math facts.  My daughter was having so much fun she didn't even think of it as math.

A big thanks to Joslyn Postma for sharing all these War variations at an LDSHE Enrichment Seminar last year in Virginia:

Addition War - Players turn up two cards for each skirmish.  The highest sum wins.

Advanced Addition War - Turn up three (or four) cards for each skirmish and add them together.

Subtraction War - Players turn up two cards and subtract the smaller number form the larger.  This time, the greatest difference wins the skirmish.

Product War - Turn up two cards and multiply.

Advanced Product War - Turn up three (or four) cards and multiply.

Fraction War - Players turn up two cards and make a fraction, using the smaller card as the numerator.  Greatest fraction wins.

Improper Fraction War - Turn up two cards and make a fraction, using the larger card as the numerator.  Greatest fraction wins.

Integer Addition War - Black cards are positive numbers; red cards are negative.  The greatest sum wins.  Remember that -2 is greater than -7.

Integer Product War - Black cards are positive numbers; red cards are negative.  The greatest product wins.  Remember that two negative numbers make a positive product.

Wild War - Players turn up three cards and may do whatever math manipulation they wish with the numbers.  The greatest answer wins the skirmish.

Advanced Wild War - Black cards are positive numbers; red cards are negative numbers.  Players turn up four cards and may do whatever math manipulation they wish with the numbers.  The greatest answer wins the skirmish.

Reverse Wild War - Players turn up three cards (or four, or five) and may do whatever math manipulation they wish with the numbers.  The answer with the lowest absolute value (closest to zero) wins the skirmish.

Multi-Digit War - Turn up two or three cards and create a 2-digit or 3-digit number.

Multi-Digit Subtraction War - Turn up three cards.  Make two of them into a 2-digit number, then subtract the third.  Example:  Suppose you turn up 3,4, and 5.  Should you arrange them as 54-3 or 45-3 or 35-4 or ... ?

Multi-Digit Product War - Turn up three cards.  Make two of them into a 2-digit number, then multiply by the third.  Example:  Suppose you turn up 3,4, and 5.  Should you arrange them as 5x43 or 4x53 or 3x54 or ... ?

NOTE:  These games work best if there is a full deck of playing cards per player (minus the face cards which don't come into play in these games).  Since a deck of cards is small, it fits easily into a purse or bag or glove compartment to have on hand for whenever you "need" them.

P.S.  The LDSHE Conference is my fa-fa-favorite.  If you get (or can make) the opportunity to go--DO!


And now a little math humor: