Math Archives - Page 17 of 19

{Kids Math} Fact Family Learning Tool

January 31, 2014 By Deirdre

Fact families are a hard thing for some children to wrap their brains around. JDaniel and I recently put together some kids math activities that work on fact families. Yes, he helped me put them together. Part of having him understand tools we would need to do the activities was to help create them. I have made many activities and learning tools for him. He has helped make a number of them too. The ones that he has helped to make he was the most excited about.

I put out a bunch of pipe cleaners and star shaped threading beads sorted by color for us to work with. The beads were sorted by color to make it easier to group them on the pipe cleaners for the number facts.

“We are going to come up with number sentences that equal ten,” I told him.

“Let’s start with 1+9. Pick a star in one color and then select nine stars of another color. Then we will thread them onto a pipe cleaner. The single color goes first and then the nine other stars.” I said continuing to explain the activity.

He slowly threaded on the bead for 1+9 and then started in on 2+8. This process continued until he had pipe cleaners displaying 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6 and 5+5 arranged in a column.

Then I pulled out a large piece of construction paper with number sentences on the front and back. We started with the number facts on the front. I had JDaniel arrange the number fact pipe cleaners above the number fact that they displayed. We counted the beads on each pipe cleaner to make sure that they really did match. ( I think it is important for kid math activities to use various learning styles. This one uses oral written communication and hands on learning.)

When we had worked on the front of the paper, I turned the paper over to the back. The number sentences on the back were the ones from the front turned around. Instead of 1+9 the fact 9+1 was displayed. We talked about how we could turn the pipe cleaner display of 1+9 to get 9+1. The use of a visual display really helped him get it.

JDaniel decided we need to work parallel on number facts together to extend the activity. We both took turns writing number fact sentences on index cards. JDaniel took some pictures of me, but I decided they weren’t going to go in the post. I will share those lovely pictures on Facebook instead.

How else can you use these pipe cleaner number sentences?

The beads slide up and down the pipe cleaner and counted.
The pipe cleaner sentences are arranged with even numbers on the red pipe cleaners and the odd numbers on beige pipe cleaners. You can talk about how even number plus even numbers equal even numbers and odd numbers plus odd numbers equal even numbers. That is so cool!

How else could be use these pipe cleaner kids math number sentences?Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as a elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5 year old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on her blog’s FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

Kids Activities- Olympic Themed Graphs and Charts

January 15, 2014 By Deirdre

I decided to create some kid’s activities with an Olympic theme that feature graphs and charts. Since JDaniel started kindergarten, we have been working more and more with them. They are being emphasized a lot at this school. Providing JDaniel with opportunities to explore them while interacting with some of the sports he will see during the Olympics was my goal for creating this unit. These kid’s activities could be done in at home or in a classroom. If you were doing them at home, you may need to gather data from friends or neighbors for some of them. You could also ask your Facebook friends what they would pick.Let me walk you through each of the Olympic Themed Charts and Diagrams for Kids.

Learning About An Olympic Sport (Lotus Diagram)

olympic_themed_chart_learning_about_an_olympic_sport

Children are invited to select an Olympic sport and describe various aspects of it. If they don’t know much about the sport they selected, they can research it at the library or online. This chart focuses on the basic aspects of a sport. Other circles could be added to cover more specific aspects of the sport.

Olympic Venn Diagram

This kid’s activity asks children to compare and contrast skiing and skating. The center area focuses on the ways that both sports are the same. Skiing and skating are vastly different sports. It may take some higher level thinking to figure out of they are the same.Olympians Can Have Are Chart

This is a new chart for me. I found Can Have Are Charts while searching for charts for kindergartners. Children are asked to brainstorm thing that Olympians can do. Things like march into an area with athletes from around the world, win Olympic medals, and live in dorms with athletes from around the world. Then they are asked to have thing that Olympians have like team uniforms and the chance to win a gold medal. Finally,they are asked to come up with things that Olympians are like the best in their sport.

Olympic Medal Count

Rather than select four countries for children to follow the medal count of our medal count recording chart has the countries blank. Children can select any countries that they would like to follow. Each day of the Olympics they can record the number for bronze, silver and gold medals that those countries have won. They can record each medal with a tally mark or a circle. We will be using tally marks at my house.

Olympic Sport Spin and Graph

The Olympic Sport Spin and Graph allows children to record on a bar graph each time they spin a particular sport. Skating, skiing, bobsledding and hockey are pictured on the spinner.

Children will need a pencil and a paper clip to create a spinner. They simply put the end of paper clip in the center of the spinner. Place a pencil in that end of a paperclip. Push the paper clip with their fingers and watch it spin. The sport it lands on will be recorded on the bar graph.

Favorite Sport Graph

Children can ask friends, neighbors, parent’s Facebook friends what their favorite Olympic sport is and record it on the graph with a circle .

Skiing or Skating Medal Count Chart

There are so many Olympic sports that use skate or skis. Children will need to learn a little about the sports at the Olympic to know whether they use skates or skis. Then they can record whether a country has won a medal or medals in a skiing or skating sport each day.

Would you like the whole collection of Olympic Themed Charts and Graphs ? Just click on Olympic Themed Charts and Graphs link and your will be able to download them for free.

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as an elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5-year-old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog’s FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

{Homemade Giant Tangrams} Exploring Tangrams

January 14, 2014 By Deirdre

Homemade Giant Tangrams from a Pizza Box

I recently served store bought pizza to my family that came in a huge cardboard box and decided the box would be great for making homemade giant tangrams. Although the bottom of the box wasn’t a perfect square shape, I decided to try to cut out the tangram shapes without trimming it down to a square. Some of the shapes ended up a little wonky and did end up being trimmed down. All in all the shapes in the tangram are not perfect, but worked out well for building some really cool tangram designs I found online.

We are going to keep this set, but I may try to make another set using a ruler to actually make sure each piece is just right. I did use a ruler to draw lines for each shape before I cut it out of the giant square. I didn’t paint or color each of the tangram pieces either. Instead, I opted to leave them brownish cardboard colored. It might be fun to have JDaniel have me paint another set of them. Colored shapes seem to help the designs pop out a little more.

(The link below is an affiliate link that will take you to Amazon.com.)

JDaniel hasn’t been big on exploring tangrams. The fact that these are giant seemed to make them interesting and more fun. There is just something wonderful about learning tools being super-sized. I think selecting a pattern that he might enjoy helped too. There are hundreds of different design patterns available online and in books. Grandfather Tang’s Story (Dragonfly Books) is a book that I have used in the past with students. It would be just wonderful to read the book and create the tangram designs that it shares in its illustrations.

What designs did JDaniel like the best?

Homemade Giant Tangrams from a Pizza Box- Sunrise Pattern

We both really liked this sunrise design. I think it is a sunrise. I guess it could be a sunset design too.

Homemade Giant Tangrams from a Pizza Box- Rocket Pattern

JDaniel has always liked rockets and space. Creating a rocket design was right up his interest alley. It was a little challenging to fit the rocket on the table. The homemade giant tangrams took up most of the length of the table. We may have to move to the floor to make long tangram designs in the future.

Do you have a favorite tangram pattern, design or book?

{Number Recognition} Do You Know Five?

January 4, 2014 By Deirdre

When you encounter a new concept or skill for the first time, your mind may need several experiences with it to find meaning and understanding in it. Numbers are one of those concepts. Children need to experience them through various modalities (tactical, visual, and auditory) before they have number recognition. They also need to view them with concrete (hands-on), semi-concrete (displayed in pictures) and abstract displays (numbers).

A number concept bag like the one displayed above can be filled with objects that will help children explore numbers. This bag explores the number five in many, many ways.

Let me share with you the learning tools placed in the bag and how to use them.

Wooden Blocks

Blocks can be used to explore the number five in various ways. A mighty tower of five can be built with the blocks. Children could create an imaginative way to display the blocks horizontally and then tracings can be done around the display of five. To bring in auditory learning the blocks can be dropped one at a time so children can hear what the number five sounds like.

Die

Beyond finding the five dots on the die there are several other ways the die can be used to get to know the number five. Children can find combinations of dots on the die that equal five and record them on paper. Another activity could be to keep track of the number of times it takes to roll the number five. They number of rolls could be recorded on paper with tally marks.

Glue Outline of Five

A number five can be created using glue on an index card or piece of cardstock. Children can rub their fingers over the shape of the number. They could also place a paper on top of the glue outline. A crayon can be rubbed over the paper to create a rubbing of the number.

Bean Outline of Five

A number five can be created using glue and beans can be placed on the glue number. Children can rub their fingers over the number five times to help create a tactile memory of the number. The bean outline could also be used to create a rubbing if the rubbing was done carefully.

Stickers on a Card

A card can be created displaying five stickers. The children can create the cards on their own or the card can be created ahead of time. Counting the stickers on the card gives children the opportunity to work with a number in a semi-concrete manner. There are still objects to count, but they are not movable once they are on the card.

Beads on a Pipe Cleaner

Placing five beads on a pipe cleaner could be done by the children or done ahead of time. The idea is that the pipe cleaner is bent to create a bracelet that students can wear once the beads are on it. They can move the beads forward on the bracelet when they count up to five. Moving the beads backward and counting backward from five to one would also be a great way to visualize five in a very concrete way.

Number Recognition- Tooth Pick Tally Marks

Toothpick Tally Marks Toothpicks can be arranged in play dough to display the number five in tally marks. Children can push the toothpicks into the play dough one at time counting as they go. Creating the gate across the four toothpicks to create the number five can be challenging. Children will really have to push down on the fifth toothpick unless they create a thick area of play dough.Popsicle Tally Marks

Popsicle stick tally marks are super easy to count with. Four blue sticks were selected for this activity along with one red. The four blue sticks would be displayed vertically. The red stick would place over them going diagonally. Giving the stick that will be displayed diagonally a different color helps it stand out visually.

Pentagon Puzzle Piece

If you have a shape puzzle, the pentagon puzzle piece from it makes the great tool for learning the number five. Children can see and feel the five sides and five angles that make up a pentagon. They can also trace an outline of that puzzle piece onto paper. The tracing of the pentagon can then be labeled with the numbers 1 to 5.

Five can be explored and understood when this Do You Know the Number 5 bag is shared during circle time or at your the kitchen table. It contents could be further explored in a center or work table. Leaving the materials out to be explored would be a wonderful invitation to learn more about the number 5 and work on number recognition.

{Christmas Math} Candy Cane Counting

December 10, 2013 By Deirdre

$Christmas Math-Candy Cane Counting$

Candy canes and Christmas just seem to go together. Construction paper candy canes created for counting and number matching made a wonderful Christmas math activity.

Constructing the Christmas Math Game

Each candy cane counting creation was given a different number of stripes. It was a little bit of a challenge to get ten stripes on the final candy cane. I had originally thought about having JDaniel help me draw the stripes on the candy canes. After narrowing the stripes greatly to get them all on a cane, I realized it might have been really hard. I barely got the tenth stripe on the cane for this Christmas math activity.

A simple work mat created on the computer using fun and a little funky font made a great place to match the candy canes to their numeral.It was easy to place the first few numbers. As the number of stripes on the counting candy canes grew, so did the challenge. It wasn’t easy to eyeball the cane and know how many stripes it had. Counting the stripes with a pointed finger was needed.

Playing the Christmas Math Game

Having to count with a pointed finger helped me work on one-to-one correspondence. I think children sometimes jump from concrete objects representing numbers with objects children can hold and touch to abstract numerals too quickly. The stripes on these counting canes give children a semi-concrete representation of numbers.Semi-concrete representations of numbers give children something they can touch to count. I think children young and old benefit from using concrete objects and semi-concrete representations. My students used them through third grade. JDaniel and I will probably continue to use all representations and hands-on learning for at least that long. Maybe will use candy canes for counting in another Christmas math activity.

Here is a copy of the number page: Candy Cane Counting

Do your children use hands-on learning tools for math? What tools do they enjoy?

{Christmas Math Activity} Number Tally Match

December 9, 2013 By Deirdre

$Christmas Math- Activity Number Tally$ JDaniel’s school is focusing the Common Core. One the Common core math skills he has been working on recognizing numbers via tally marks. Since gingerbread cookies are favorites at my house around the holidays, we recently worked on a Christmas math activity that has us matching numbers on pretend gingerbread cookies.

How to Put Together This Christmas Math Activity

I placed numbers on several brown cookie shape cutout I made by tracing the outline of cookie cutters. I then outlined the shapes with white crayon to create a frosting like edge. Several paper cut outs were made of each shape. I placed a set of tally marks on one of each shape. Various numbers were placed on the remaining cutouts of that shape. Only one of the numbers matched the one with the tall marks.

$Christmas Math- Activity Number Tally$

We placed foil on a old cookie tray and the matching started. It look a little bit of time to sort through the numbers. Once the number cookies had been laid out, he quickly matched them.

JDaniel is now five and in kindergarten. Young children would probably have found this more challenging. What he and I both worked on with this activity verbally explaining why the numbers matched. I just love to hear how he explains things. He was able to explain how each stick represents a part of the number. The total number of sticks equals the whole numberWhen we had finished matching cookies, I had him put them in number order from the biggest number to the smallest. Then we arranged the numbers in reverse.

The number cookies with both numeral and tally mark displays could be used in many other ways.

Sort even and odd numbers
Create addition sentences
Create subtraction sentences
Play “I Spy The Number”
Show me the number before
Show me the number after

You will find this Christmas math activity and many more on my Early Learning Math board on Pinterest.

$Christmas Math- Activity Number Tally$
How else could I use these number cookies?

Acorn Math Activities

November 8, 2013 By Deirdre

Last fall we were down on the main street in the town we live in. The local bank had a sea of acorns all over the parking lot. I remember slipping my feet across the ground so I could push the acorns out of my way. A couple of weeks ago I remembered the plethora of acorns and headed back to the bank parking lot to gather some to use for math acorn math activities.

I set out several math activities for JDaniel to do and then let him explore and work with the acorns to complete them. The first activity was to move one acorn at a time using chopsticks with a rubber band around them. (The rubber band makes the chopsticks easy to use.) I asked him to count by ones as he moved them. He later tried counting by 5’s and 10’s as he moved them. The numbers he was counting when we counted by 5’s and 10’s weren’t represented by the appropriate number of acorns. It was a great way though to work on skip counting.

$Acorn Math Activities$

The second activity I shared was to count on by ones and put one more acorn into the next cup and then the cup before it had. We discovered that the cups would only hold five acorns. Rather than continue to do this activity using the ice cube tray we moved on to another type of container.

$Acorn Math Activities -Even and Odd Numbers$

The containers we moved to were cupcake liners. The cupcake liners had a lot more room and were able to hold a lot more. We were able to count to 10. Every acorn was moved with chopsticks.

Why did we use chopsticks for the math activities? Holding and manipulating the chopsticks uses the same muscles as holding a pencil. Using chopsticks is a great way to work on fine motor skills.

$Acorn Math Activities -Counting$

For the last of the math activities, we used two different patterned cupcake liners and acorns. I asked JDaniel to arrange the cupcake liners in an ab pattern.

Then I asked him to put one acorn in the first liner, two in the second liner, and so on. When he had ten acorns in the last cup, I explained to him that all the cups with spider webs on them were odd numbers. That means that 1,3, 5, 7, and 9 are odd numbers. The even numbers were in the liners with the leaf design. That means that 2,4,6, and 8 are even numbers.

I wanted him to get the idea that the even and odd numbers follow an ab pattern. After looking at the cups carefully, he was able to explain to me which cups were even and which were odd and why. In the event nut cups, each nut has a buddy. In the odd nut cups, one nut is leftover.

$acorn-math-activities-collage$

A Book with a Nut Theme

It is fun to share a book that features the same theme or concepts as the activity you have just completed. We used nuts for these math activities so, I picked a book that featured nuts. What did we read? We read the book, Earl the Squirrel. Earl is a squirrel without the desire to find nuts on his own. He has befriended a young girl who supplies him with nuts. (She even provides him with a red scarf. ) Earl’s mom thinks he is spoiled and needs to learn to take care of himself.

Earl decides he needs to prove his mom wrong and that he can do it on his own. By the end of the book, he does learn to find nuts on his own. It isn’t easy. There is a large bull in a field that contains a tree with nuts. Earl has to figure out a way to get the nuts poured down and get past the bull.

Earl the Squirrel is a book filled with adventure, challenges, and tender moments. We loved this fun tale by the author Corduroy and I bet you will too.

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I have decided to ask you to link your posts to the Read.Explore.Learn. Facebook page instead of running a link-up. I hope you will stop by and share your children’s book-related activities there

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How to Make Halloween Treat Bags

October 16, 2013 By Deirdre

Sponsored by Global Influence With Products Supplied by Hershey’s

I have been going to my son’s class to share a book and the do an activity with them once a month. I was planning on sharing to book T.Rex Trick or Treats this month. When I was contacted about sharing Hershey’s and their Celebrate with Hershey’s campaign with you, I thought I could do an activity with his class that featured Hershey’s chocolate in Halloween treat bags. Dinosaurs, trick or treating, kindergartners, and chocolate just seem to go together.

How to Make Halloween Treat Bags

Creating the treat bags to hold the treats was so much fun. I hopped onto PicMonkey and created a label that I could print out on blank index cards. It was a blast to work on the labels layout. I probably spent more time than I needed to working on its design. JDaniel was at school and I lingered for the fonts for while.

When he came home, I had him punch a hole in the left-hand corner of each index cards. He was in hole punch heaven. I think using a hole punch is something most kids like to do too. We folded down the top of each paper bag and he punched two holes in the folded down area.

The bags and hole punch were then set aside and the fun began. We focused on putting the candy without peanuts into the bags. (I wasn’t sure if everyone was allowed to have peanuts.) That left us with five out of the six Hershey’s candies to put in the bags. The goal was to put one or two of each of the candies into each bag.

When finished distributing the candy into the bags, we folded the flaps of the bags down and lined up the holes we had punched. With the holes lined up, we both worked on placing orange ribbons through the holes. Then we placed a card onto one end of the ribbon. Finally, I tied a bow with the ribbon. We both thought the bags looked great.

What activity do I plan to do?

The children having been talking about shapes lately in math. I decided to create a shape activity for them to do using the Hershey’s candy. Each child would be given a bag of candy treats.

The children will be asked to trace the outline of all the candy in the bag with a crayon. They can trace the shapes onto a piece of white paper. The outlines can be placed anywhere on the paper they would like to place them. I am going to call this creating a shape map.

Then the kids will be given a half sheet of paper to record the number of each shape they had in their bags. Each bag will not have the same amount of everything. So each child will have to record what is in their own bag and not look at what their neighbors have done. The kids can count the actual candy or the shapes they have traced on the paper.

By the end of the activity, they will have a shape map, a recording sheet, and a bag of treats to take home. I hope they will enjoy it. I have had fun putting it together.

Wait! What about the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups?

They are not going to waste. No, they will go with the remaining candy into some treat bags I am putting together for some of the teachers at my son’s school. I am hoping to start substitute teaching at his school this fall. Putting together treat bags that contain candy and a magnetic business card with ways to contact me seemed like a good way to get their attention.

Disclaimer: I was sent the candy for this post by Global Influence with products provided by Hershey’s. All the activity thoughts are my own.

Counting Hands- Math Activity

October 14, 2013 By Deirdre

$Counting Hands- Math Activity$

When you are learning to count on or as we called it when I was little adding, it is helpful to have hands on math tool to work with. Counting hands make a math activity fun and are really fun to make. They also look a little Halloween like which is great for this time of year.

Materials:

plastic gloves
1 bag of mixed beans
rubber bands
Measuring spoon (Tablespoon size)

Directions for Making Counting Hands:

$Counting Hands- Math Activity$

Use a tablespoon sized measuring spoon to scoop the beans into the gloves. You may need someone to hold open the gloves for you so the beans won’t spill all over the table.
Lay the gloves filled with beans on the table and make sure that the gloves will lay flat. You don’t want to overfill them.
Hold the wrist end of the gloves closed and loop a rubber band around it. Don’t wrap the rubber band to tightly just yet.
$Counting Hands- Math Activity$
You will need to test out the fingers to make sure that they will be able to be folded backwards when you are trying to count. You don’t want them to be too floppy or too rigid. When you have them just as you want them, make sure the rubber bands are looped tightly.

Let’s Explore Addition

Now that you have the counting hands made you can work on adding with them. We put our hands on a black work mat and took out some dice with dots. (Dots are easier for children to add with then dice with numbers, but dice with numbers will help children visualize math facts as they will see them in their math books.)

$Counting Hands- Math Activity$

JDaniel is just learning to add at school. We have used math tools with plus and equal signs, but for this activity we didn’t use them. We just rolled the dice. Then we bent down the correct number of fingers and added up the bent fingers on each hand.

Additional Ways to Use the Counting Hands

If you like the idea of a plus sign and equal sign, you could use the hands on a white board or chalkboard. You could just draw them on the black work mat if you wanted to with white crayon or chalk. Adding the symbols will help kids see this math activity as more like a real math equations.
These hands could easily be used for working on subtracting or the nines table in multiplication.
You could place plastic rings on the odd or even number fingers of the hands.
Another math activity you can do with the counting hands is count by twos. Children can easily push the fingers together into pairs and count by twos.

If you like this math activity, here are some more you might like:

Roll and Cover Ocean Animal Mats

Free Printable Interactive Math Mats

Measuring Chalk Drawings

What other math activities can you think of to do with the counting hands?

Disclaimer: We used gloves that are rather thin. You may want to put one pair of gloves into another to make them thicker. It will make the beans harder to see, but may keep the beans in the gloves.

Corn Maze- Math Activity

October 13, 2013 By Deirdre

$Corn Maze Numbers Math Activity$

We will be walking through a full-size corn maze when we go to the pumpkin patch until then we have small corn maze math activity in our backyard. It doesn’t have any dead ends or twists to it. It is a simple avenue of corn that we can walk through.

Our corn maze is simply construction paper husks of corn placed on stakes. (The stakes have been collected over time. Our lawn care company places them in our front yard along with a placard with their company name on them. We keep the stakes and pitch the placards.)

I placed a wide variety of numbers on the corn cobs. JDaniel is working on the numbers 1-100 at school this year. I picked numbers that are all over that range.

$Corn Maze Numbers Math Activity - Walking Through the Maze -Gathering Numbers$

The first time through the corn lane JDaniel had to simply read the number to me. If he could read me the number, then he could pick the corn husk and put it into his blue harvest basket. Some numbers gave him some trouble, but most were not difficult.

We then planted the corn husks back onto the stakes. I should have laminated them. The construction paper started to crease a little when we put the corn back on the stakes.

As we walked through the corn this time I asked JDaniel to tell me the numbers that came before and after each number on the corn. This took a little longer and required a little thought. Simply recalling the number had been much easier. This required visualizing the number and then the numbers that appear around it. Moving up to a new level in the higher levels of thinking was a good brain stretcher for him

The last time through the numbers I had JDaniel tell the number in the ones and ten places in each number. I think understanding what makes a number a number helps children bring meaning to the number. This wasn’t that difficult for him. I didn’t think it would be. The goal of was to help him start to build up the number sense compartment of his brain.When he learns expanded notation in school, knowing how many tens and ones a number has will be helpful.

After we explored the corn maze math activity a little more, we took it down and put in it the garage. I was pleasantly surprised that JDaniel asked if we could put it up again a few days later. This time he helped me set up the corn maze math activity and picked what math activities we would do. He got to be the teacher and I was the corn harvester. I just love having him teach me new things.Have you ever been through a corn maze?