Looking for some hands-on ways to incorporate math in your homeschooling this month? There are lots of ways to take advantage of the weather and seasonal opportunities to work everything from averages to multiplication tables this month.
Average the temperature: Challenge your kids to track the temperature each day this month and keep a running tally of the average. Decide on what time(s) to take it each day or rely on a news source like Weather Underground history (type in yesterday's date each day for your city to get the average temperature of the day before). As the month goes along, add each day's temperature and divide by the number of days so far to see how the average changes.
Take it a step further by...
- Have the kids graph the temperatures for the month.
- Ask them to make predictions for what the pattern will look like into September.
- Look up the typical average temperature for each day (also viewable on the Weather Underground page) and compare it to each day this month. Have the kids compare the temps and make note of what percent of the days are hotter or colder than usual.
- Note the record high and low temperatures for the date and have kids figure out how much of a difference there was.
Do jumping math on the sidewalk or driveway: Grab some sidewalk chalk and draw some circles all over with random numbers written inside. Challenge the kids to jump to the right answer as you call out math problems (call out different problems for each child by name to adapt the game to multiple ages).
Take it a step further by...
- Make the circles close together and make it into a Twister-style game. For instance, call out "left hand, 72 divided by 9!".
- Make it a race. Have the kids start at a number and call out an action to see who can jump to the right answer quickest. For instance, the kids start on 4 and you call out "add 7!" and see who jumps to 11 fastest. Don't keep track of winners or losers (that's likely to induce some math anxiety is slower jumpers), just concentrate on making it chaotic fun.
- Have kids close their eyes and jump. When they see what number they landed on, have them tell you what they would need to do to get there. For instance, if your child is on 5 and jumps to 10 she could say "add 5" or "multiply by two."
Go on an angle hunt: Give the kids a list of angles and angle terms and a digital camera to use. Challenge them to take pictures of things that depict those angles or terms (here is a great page to understand angles and their terms quite easily). For instance, the list could include:
- Right angle
- Obtuse angle
- Straight angle
- Acute angle
- Reflex angle
- 90°
- 180°
- 360°
- 45°
Some examples of things the kids could take pictures of to show angles include tree branches to show acute angles, sticks to show straight angles, apples to show 360° and so on.
Take it a step further by...
- Take a protractor outside and have kids make up stick angles to show different angles.
- Use the protractor to measure angles of various natural items.
- Look for different types of triangles such as isosceles triangles, equilateral triangles and right triangles in nature. Here's a great page on ideas like lily petals and maple leaves for examples.
Compare apples to oranges: Lots of fruit is on sale this time of year, but it can be tricky to figure out where to find the best deal. Explain to kids that some grocery stores sell fruit by the piece (plums are on sale 3 for a dollar at one store, for instance) while others sell by the pound. Other sites like farmers' markets sell by the container (a basket of plums for $3, for instance). Head out to a grocery store or farmers' market and figure out which options are the best deals, first weighing fruit to see how many are in a pound and then figuring out what would be a good price.
Take it a step further by...
- Challenge kids to figure out how many they could get for a certain amount of money.
- Have the kids estimate weights and then weigh them to see how close they got.
- Make up discount and sale percentages and see if the kids can figure out how much the price would be if it were 10% off, 50% off or 1/3 off.
- Figure out which fruits are the best deal despite differences in how they're priced. For instance, if bananas are .60 per pound, how much would it cost to buy one banana versus one apple at $4 per bag of about 12 apples?
Water balloon targets: Fill a bunch of water balloons and then draw lots of circles on the side of the garage in sidewalk chalk. Put numbers in each circle. Call out math problems and have the kids throw their balloons at the right answer.
Take it a step further by...
- Play with a group of kids, and the winner for each question gets to toss a water balloon at mom or a willing volunteer.
- If kids like being the targets, assign them numbers and have kids toss at the child representing the right number (below the neck!).
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