Park Meadows Elementary School Joan Wick, Principal Exploring Number Paths The path from 1 to 10 includes 2 and 9 and all the other numbers in between. By making number paths on strings of beads or strips of paper your youngster can see at a glance all the numbers he s working with. Send your child on a path to math success with these activities. They ll let him explore what numbers stand for, how they re related to each other, how to combine them, and best of all, how much fun they are! Number strips 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 A strip of paper on which each number gets its very own box is ideal for your youngster to practice number recognition and counting. First, help him copy the number strip shown above. Then, let him gather a few small toys (plastic dinosaurs, fun erasers). Move and count Have your child pick a physical activity like jumping jacks, bunny hops, or toe touches. Place a toy on any number, and then he says the number and does that many jumping jacks (or other moves), counting out loud as he goes. Example: If you put a toy on 7, he would do 7 jumping jacks. Next, he sets a toy on a different number and counts aloud as you do the activity. Skating toys Let your youngster make more strips with numbers 11 20, 21 30, and so on up to 100. She can slide a toy from 1 to the highest number she knows how to count to, saying each number as she skates past it. Then, the toy could skate back home to 1 she ll work on counting backward. For an extra challenge, give her random numbers so she practices starting at a number other than 1. For instance, if you say, Make the T-rex skate from 11 to 16, she would start her dinosaur on 11, skate across 12 15, and end on 16. Bead strings Your child can count, add, and subtract on a colorful string of beads. For the following games, have each player slide 20 beads onto a shoelace or yarn, and knot both ends. (Idea: Instead of store-bought beads, you could use dyed uncooked pasta. Put handfuls in separate plastic bags with 4 8 drops of food coloring, seal, shake to coat, and lay on paper towels to dry.) Race to the end Who will be the first to slide all her beads from one end of her string to the other? Lay strings horizontally, and slide all beads to the right. Then, take turns rolling a die and moving that number of beads to the left (roll a 3, and slide 3 beads). Encourage your youngster to count out loud, saying each number as she moves a bead she will work on one-toone correspondence or showing that one bead equals one number. Win by exact count. continued
Exploring Number Paths Page 2 Slide, say, and solve For this addition game, shuffle a deck of cards (face cards removed, ace = 1), and stack them facedown. On each turn, draw two cards. If your youngster gets 4 and 9, he would move 4 beads and then 9 more beads from the right end of his shoestring to the left. Ask him to count the total (13) and say the number sentence (4 + 9 = 13). If he counts the beads correctly and gets the total right, he keeps his cards and moves his beads back to the right, and then it s the next person s turn. (If he s incorrect, he discards the cards.) Play 5 rounds, and the person with the most cards wins. Variation: Make it a subtraction game by subtracting the smaller number from the larger number. So for 8 and 2, move 8 beads to the left, then return 2 to the right, and say that number sentence (8 2 = 6). Number lines 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Making and playing with a number line is a great way to build number sense and work on estimation, addition, and subtraction. Let your youngster copy the number line shown above, and try these activities. Guess my number Secretly pick a number on the line. Your child s job is to guess it. Have her put a paper clip on any number, and you say whether your number is greater than, less than, or equal to the one she chose. For example, if you picked 18 and she placed a clip on 12, you would say, Greater than, and she would slide her clip to a higher number. When you announce, Equal to! it s her turn to choose a secret number for you. Grab and mark Put 20 counters in a paper bag 10 each of two different types (say, bingo chips and dry beans). Ask your youngster to pull out a handful and count how many of each kind of counter he has. Perhaps his handful includes 3 chips and 5 beans he could put chips on 1, 2, and 3 and beans on 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Have him tell you the number sentence he created (3 + 5 = 8). Then, ask him to make the opposite number sentence by putting the beans on numbers 1 5 and the chips on 6 8 (5 + 3 = 8). He ll see that the answer is the same regardless of the order of the numbers this is called the commutative property. Fill in the numbers A number line that shows only the numbers 0 and 20 is ideal for sharpening estimation skills. Tell your child three random numbers (say, 2, 11, and 16), and let her estimate where they would go on the number line. She ll learn to eyeball the locations and start to form a mental image of the number line in her head. This will help her understand how numbers are related. You could even try a number line with 0 and 100 on either end, and call out numbers like 47 or 83. 0 20 Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated 128 N. Royal Avenue, Front Royal, VA 22630 540-636-4280 MC16xx488E
Park Meadows Elementary School Joan Wick, Principal The Shape of Things Here s a sphere! There s a square! Shapes, shapes everywhere! When your youngster explores the shapes she sees and uses every day, she s picking up knowledge about geometry. Try these activities to boost learning while you play together. Art challenge What s your child s favorite shape? Encourage her to draw it with her finger in the air and then practice drawing it on paper. Next, challenge her to make an entire picture using just that shape. If she chose a triangle, she might sketch a cat with a triangle head and triangle body, and smaller triangles for ears, eyes, nose, and tail. As she works, talk about the shape. How many sides does each triangle have? How many vertices (corners) or angles? You ll help your youngster understand which attributes define the shape (number of sides, number of vertices) and which ones don t (color, size). For example, a large blue triangle and a small yellow triangle are both triangles because they have three sides and three vertices. Now she can pick a new shape and draw another picture. Shape pond Together, search through magazines or catalogs for objects of different shapes. You ll need two pictures for each shape, such as a chessboard and a brownie for a square or a birdhouse and a school crossing sign for a pentagon. Help your child cut and glue the pictures onto separate index cards. Scramble the cards facedown into a pond. To play, take turns fishing two cards from the pile and naming the shapes. If they match, keep the cards. If not, they go back in the pond, and it s the next person s turn. When all the matches are made, count to see who has the most. Copycat drawings There s no peeking allowed in this activity, which lets your youngster practice recognizing shapes and using position words. Sit back-to-back with crayons and a sheet of paper in front of each of you. Your child starts by drawing a shape in the middle of her paper and describing it. I drew a green rectangle. You draw the same shape in the same place on your sheet, add another shape, and use position words to describe where you put it. I drew a purple circle above my green rectangle. After three rounds, compare your pictures do they match? Variation: Rather than naming the shape, describe its attributes. Say, I drew a shape with 6 sides and 6 angles, instead of saying hexagon. continued
The Shape of Things Page 2 puzzle. You might say, What two shapes together would look the most like an ice cream cone? (a triangle and a circle). Once she has arranged the shapes, take a photo to save her design. Then, she can take the puzzle apart and cut out more shapes to make a new one. Mysterious objects Play this solid-shape guessing game to give your youngster practice with geometry vocabulary. Let him decorate a paper towel tube as a telescope. He will look through it to spy a secret object for you to guess. When he s ready, ask questions like How many faces does it have? or What shape are the faces? As he answers your questions, think out loud: Hmmm. It has 6 faces that are rectangular. That sounds like a rectangular prism. Is it the tissue box? When you guess the object, swap roles. Marvelous museum A museum of shapes? Why not! Together, list 2-D and 3-D shapes: square, cube, cylinder, circle, triangle, pyramid, and more. It s your child s job to round up items to represent each shape in an exhibit. For the cube display, he might get dice and a Rubik s Cube. Have him display the shapes with a sign describing them, such as, These are cubes. A cube has 6 equal square faces. Idea: Write fill-in-the-blank descriptions for your youngster to finish. Cubes are (solid) shapes with (12) edges, (8) vertices, and (6) faces. Now he can give visitors a tour of his shape museum. Imagination puzzles Suggest that your child use shapes to create a puzzle. First, have her think of a picture to make, say an ice cream cone. Then, help her cut shapes from colored paper to build her Cookie chef Your little entrepreneur can go into business by opening her own shape bakery. Have her gather play dough and molding tools. Then, place orders for specific shapes, and she molds the dough to bake the cookies. If you order a half-dozen square cookies, she could use a small square box as a cookie mold. For triangles, she might pat the dough into a rectangle and cut it in half diagonally with a plastic knife. Suggest that she experiment with making other shapes, too, perhaps trimming a circle into a hexagon or cutting a rectangle into a trapezoid. How many different shapes will your child make? Shapes in action Sidewalk chalk and a patch of pavement are all you need for outdoor shape play. Draw a triangle, square, rectangle, and pentagon large enough to stand in. Then, try these ideas: Suggest that your child pretend he s a frog and hop from lily pad to lily pad, naming each shape as he jumps in it. Let your youngster walk the perimeter of each shape, counting the sides as he goes. Tip: Have him mark the first corner so he knows when to stop. Take turns tossing a rock toward the shapes. If it lands inside one, count the shape s vertices, and use that number for your score. High score wins after five rounds. Variation: Play for the lowest score. Call out a pattern of shapes (pentagon, square, pentagon, square). Your youngster walks the pattern and then gives you one to do. Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated 128 N. Royal Avenue, Front Royal, VA 22630 540-636-4280 MC16xx489E
Park Meadows Elementary School Joan Wick, Principal Little Engineers What do vending machines, sneakers, and video game systems have in common? They re all made possible by the work of engineers. Your child can explore the world of engineering with these activities. And who knows maybe she ll decide to become an engineer when she grows up! Catapult it! How far can your youngster launch a jelly bean? Have her make a catapult to find out. Materials: wedges (binder clip, chip clip, clothespin, door stopper), rubber band, plastic spoon, jelly beans, measuring tape Ask your child to choose a wedge and use a rubber band to attach it to the end of the spoon handle. Then, she should set The engineering process For each project, encourage your youngster to: 1. Design 2. Build 3. Test 4. Redesign 5. Rebuild 6. Retest Engineers repeat steps 4 6 until they re satisfied with the results and your child can, too! her catapult in the yard, pull back on the spoon, place a jelly bean in the spoon, and let the candy fly. (Note: Make sure no one is standing in the candy s path!) Help her measure how far the jelly bean goes. Next, encourage her to redesign her catapult to launch the jelly bean even farther. What happens if she tries different wedges or attaches more rubber bands along the spoon? Ping-Pong maze The shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but a path that zigzags back and forth is more fun. Let your child build this vertical maze for a Ping-Pong ball. Materials: toilet paper and paper towel tubes (empty), scissors, masking tape, Ping-Pong ball Help your youngster cut the tubes in half lengthwise. He can tape each one onto the refrigerator. His challenge will be to figure out how to connect the tubes so the ball will keep rolling through the entire maze. Have him drop a ball into the first tube, and see what happens. If it gets stuck or falls to the ground before reaching the end, he could redesign and retest his maze. continued
Little Engineers Page 2 Tower power In The Three Little Pigs, the third pig s engineering skills paid off when the wolf couldn t blow down his brick house. In real life, engineers use materials and designs that help buildings withstand everyday wind and extreme weather like tornadoes and hurricanes. Can your youngster build a structure that resists wind, too? Materials: blocks, pieces of cardboard (various sizes), tape, hair dryer, timer, ruler Copy the beaver Animals are amazing engineers, and your youngster will learn about design by mimicking what they do. Let him try his hand at building a dam. Materials: watering can or pitcher of water, twigs, leaves, rocks, soil Go outside together, and find a spot that slopes downward. At the bottom of the slope, have him create a dam out of crisscrossed twigs, leaves, and rocks, then mix soil and water into mud to seal his dam together. He can find out whether he would make a good beaver by pouring water down the slope to test his dam the water should pool behind the dam. If water gets through, he could try reshaping his dam or putting in more materials. What works best at holding back the water? Idea: Beavers build their dams with broad bases that taper up to the top. Suggest that your child look for pictures of beaver dams in books or online, or try to spot one outdoors. Float your boat With this activity, your youngster will put on her thinking cap and build a floating cargo boat. Materials: drinking straws, scissors, tape, aluminum foil, sink, pennies, pencil, paper To start, have her cut and tape the straws together into a boat shape and then wrap the foil around it. She can place her boat in a bathroom sink filled with water to test its buoyancy. If it sinks, suggest that she look for holes or gaps and then redesign and retest. When her boat floats, she s ready for the next step adding pennies, one at a time. How many pennies will her boat hold before capsizing? Encourage her to record that number on paper and then think about how the boat could hold more. She might try a wider, flatter design. Or she may use more or less foil. How many pennies will her new boat hold? Have your child create a tower from blocks, cardboard, and tape. She can test her structure by standing about 3 feet away and aiming a hair dryer at it (set on low). Use a timer to see how long it stays standing. If her building remains upright but slides across the table, help her measure to see how far it traveled. Note: Mark the starting point before she turns on the dryer. How could she improve her tower to better withstand the wind? She might construct a wider base (like on a pyramid) to provide more stability. Or maybe she ll add horizontal cardboard beams to make it stronger. Parachute to safety Parachute design is certainly important to people jumping out of airplanes! Here s how to engineer a mini-parachute. Materials: string, scissors, plastic bag with handles, small toy person or animal, timer Help your youngster cut equal lengths of string and tie them through the handles of the bag. He should tie the free ends to the toy figure. Now it s time to test his parachute. Supervise him while he stands on a deck or at a stairway railing holding the bag upside down, and start a timer when he drops the parachute. Stop the timer when the toy hits the ground. How many seconds did it take? The bag will catch air and float slowly to the ground. And the more slowly a parachute descends, the gentler a person s landing will be! Encourage your child to look for different types of bags or other household materials that might make a better parachute. He could try a trash bag or a small gift bag, or even knot string around the four corners of a cloth napkin. Resources for Educators, a division of CCH Incorporated 128 N. Royal Avenue, Front Royal, VA 22630 540-636-4280 MC16xx490E