Math is Everywhere - Mrs. V's 4th grade Art Class

I was invited by our wonderful art teacher Mrs. Vulfovich to see her integration of math and the arts in her lesson.  Students in fourth grade can be seen below designing a board game and dice to go with it.  The students were learning about cube patterns and practicing math skills such as measurement and skills.  Mrs. Vulfovich also integrated math vocabulary (parallel, horizontal and vertical) within the art lesson.

Welcome Back!

Great to be back, I am looking forward to my second year at Jefferson Elementary. Over the summer the teachers in the district added some wonderful math lessons and projects to our curriculum that promote critical thinking and strengthen problem solving skills.  We are looking forward to a lot of great math learning. 

The Problem Solving Board is slated to start this year in late October.  I will talk more about this during our curriculum night on September 15th.

I am including a link to some "must have math apps" for you and your child to try out:

Free Must Have Apps for Elementary Math

Wishing everyone a great start to the school year! 

Summer Math and Fun Ways to Avoid Summer Brain Drain!

Fun Ways to Avoid Summer Brain Drain!

During the fun summer months children tend to forget some of the academic skills learned during the school year.  Helping your child avoid the summer “brain drain” can be easy and lots of fun. Math games are a great way not only to occupy your child but also to keep their skills sharp in the summer. Read on for ideas!

Resources for you Going Home with Report Cards: Every student will get a calendar where they color in a sun for every problem that they complete over the summer.  We are asking that students complete at least 15 problems each month (July and August).  The problems cover most of the skills that they learned this year.  We will be collecting the calendars (and reading logs) in September.  

Fluency: You will also receive a fluency letter from me (blue paper) with tips and fun resources on how to support this skill over the summer. Your child's latest results will also be attached to give you a starting point.  Teachers have been working all year to build up fluency and we would like to ask you to help continue this practice to ensure that the kids retain what they learned and practice facts that they are still working through. 

District link to the summer math and reading logs if you need to replace a copy:

Math and Reading Logs

Recommended Daily Math Activity Time

Students entering Pre K, K and grade 1 = minimum 5 minutes

Students entering grade 2 = minimum 10 minutes

Students entering grade 3 = minimum 15minutes

Students entering grades 4 and 5= minimum 20 minutes

Summer Blast Math Books

At your local library there are many great picture books that teach various math skills.  Below are some great titles separated by topics:

.

Chance, Probability, Graphs, and Data

Ø  Do You Wanna Be? You Chance to Find Out about Probability by Jean Cushman

Addition

Ø  Addition Annie by David Gisler

Ø  Imogene's Antlers by David Small

Ø  Math Potatoes: Mind-stretching Brain Food by Greg Tang

Ø  The Mission of Addition by Brian Cleary

Division

Ø  Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream by Cindy Neuschwander

Ø  The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood

Ø  The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! By Mo Willems

Money

Ø  The Big Buck Adventure by Shelley Gill and Deborah Tobola

Ø  Once Upon A Dime by Nancy Kelly Allen

Ø  Sold! A Mothematics Adventure by Nathan Zimelman.

Subtraction

Ø  The Action of Subtraction by Brian Cleary

Multiplication

Ø  Anno' Math Games by Mitsumasa Anno

Ø  The Best of Times: Math Strategies That Multiply by Greg Tang

Wishing you a Wonderful Summer!!

Happenings and things.....

The Problem Solving board has come to a close for this school year.  I am planning on continuing this next school year.  Thank you for your support with this program by encouraging your child to participate.

Next time you visit the school, stop by J13 and check out our "Caught Doing Math" bulletin board. I have been taking pictures of students throughout the school year demonstrating their math skills.  I will continue to fill the board in the next couple of weeks.

The Barnes and Nobles fundraiser was a great success and they have a lot of great math books.  If you are looking to vary your library at home a bit, check out my suggested book list from the previous post.  

Mr. Barrett performing for the event:

Money Confident Kids - Great Resource for Parents

Check out this great free resource from scholastic to help your kids understand important financial topics such as money, savings, even retirement.  Activities are kid friendly, there are even a couple of great on line games that teach these concepts. http://www.scholastic.com/mck/parents/

Providing Enriching Math Opportunities for Your Child - Resources provided

Math enrichment gives your child opportunities to think like a true mathematician and extend what they learn in a standard classroom to the real world.  This develops the critical thinking section of their brains which we all know is like a muscle so the more it is used the more proficient it becomes.

Giving your child a chance to struggle through a problem that is at their level this which means  instead giving your 2nd grader multiplication and division problems, rather dive deep into what they have learned already.  Question their thinking, have your child justify their answer to you.  If they are working on a number puzzle, ask them if the rule they identify applies to all situations.

Good questions to ask:
"is this always true?"
"can you find an example to make this not true?"
"how can you prove that your answer is correct?"
"is there another way you could solve this?"

Below are some resources that are great to use for these type of activities.  Include some of the questions mentioned above when your child works the problems out.  And remember to give them that very important opportunity to struggle through a problem.  Real mathematicians get problems wrong repeatedly but they keep on trying until they persevere though them.

Fun fact: the longest math problems took 365 years to solve.  Google Fermat's Last Theorem.

Resources:
Books -  a sample of authors who have other great books about math
The Grapes Of Math Paperback – June 1, 2004. ... Greg Tang, a lifelong lover of math, shares the techniques that have helped him solve problems in the most creative ways! ...Math For All Seasons: Mind-Stretching Math Riddles  - http://www.amazon.com/The-Grapes-Math-Greg-Tang/dp/0439598400

G Is for Googol: A Math Alphabet Book - B is for Binary, F is for Fibonacci, P is for Probability... even a small sample begins to give you the idea that this is a math book unlike any other.  http://www.amazon.com/G-Googol-Math-Alphabet-Book/dp/1883672589/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460402226&sr=1-1&keywords=g+is+for+google

Math Appeal: Mind-Stretching Math Riddles - Greg Tang underscores the importance of four basic rules in problem-solving. Keeping an open mind, looking for unusual number combinations, using multiple skills (like subtracting to add) and looking for patterns will guarantee any child success in math. In MATH APPEAL, Tang continues to challenge kids with his innovative approach to math. http://www.amazon.com/Math-Appeal-Mind-Stretching-Riddles/dp/0439210461/ref=pd_sim_14_8?ie=UTF8&dpID=514bh0fY6CL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR139%2C160_&refRID=1A8GMYAXD8P8QHVMP26G 

Math Curse - http://www.amazon.com/Math-Curse-Jon-Scieszka/dp/0670861944/ref=pd_sim_14_6?ie=UTF8&dpID=51uj2yLxRzL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR159%2C160_&refRID=1A8GMYAXD8P8QHVMP26G 

Web - Resources

1.   New Zealand Math - provides information and resources to support the extension of students whose abilities and performance in mathematics are strong.  http://nzmaths.co.nz/

      NRICH - enriching mathematics through various activities and resources for parents and teachers. http://nrich.maths.org/frontpage

      Brain Teasers and Math problems - a wide range of problems http://www.syvum.com/teasers/

       Places to Visit -

      The Discovery Museums and MathWorks Partner Again on Traveling Science Workshops for 2011-2012 School Year   http://www.discoverymuseums.org/

         

        MIT Museum - Children of all ages are welcome to attend the MIT Museum family events, but most activities are targeted for middle-schoolers and up. Sign up for their newsletter for updates on workshops and events.  http://web.mit.edu/museum/index.html

Story Time? How about Bed Time Math

One of the biggest topics in mathematical education is the integration of math concepts into “real world” scenarios.  When children see how we as adults use mathematics in our daily life it makes learning the subject relevant for them.

  

Recently, I came across a very interesting article in Time magazine entitled “Beyond Counting Sheep.  Why math is the hot new bedtime reading”, by Bonnie Rochman.  This article is about an astrophysicist turned stay at home mom whose mission is to “change the way parents put their kids to bed”.  The mom, Laura Bilodeau Overdeck, is the founder of a great web-site called Bedtime Math  (Bedtimemath.org).  This web-site offers interesting “real world” problems that are fun for every age group and center on current events, holidays, and home life.  Her vision is to have parents problem solve with their children as part of their nightly routine; as you would read your child a story, you would also solve a problem together.  Solutions to each problem can also be found on this web-site.

I hope you have an opportunity to try this web-site and approach out. 

In the meantime here are some sample problems from Bedtimemath.org:

Crowd-Diving Posted on February 16, 2013 by laura

Skydiving has been a favorite topic here, because there are few things in life as dramatic as hurling yourself out of a plane from thousands of feet above the ground. Well, this group of 100 skydivers took it to a new level: they all jumped out of planes at the same time, then used their wingsuits to steer themselves into a nice neat square formation of people in the sky. It set the record for the number of people in one skydive formation – well, okay, that’s because it’s the first formation anyone has turned in for the record. But given that it took 100 people from 21 countries jumping out of 5 planes, they obviously earned the honor.

Wee ones: If you were one of the divers and you were on the 1st of the 5 airplanes to take off, how many planes took off after you?

Little kids: The skydivers jumped from 13,000 feet. If they didn’t pull their parachutes until they were 6,000 feet above the ground, for how many thousands of feet did they fall first? Bonus: If the 100 skydivers were divided evenly among the 5 planes, how many people jumped out of each one?

Big kids: The 100 divers spread out in an almost perfect square in the sky. If it had been a perfect square, how many people wide would that square have to be? Bonus: To skydive wearing a wingsuit, you need to do at least 200 dives before that. At least how many dives must the group of 100 have done in total before this? (Hint: to multiply a number by 100, tack 2 zeroes on to the end of it.)