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Category: Problem-Solving

Family Math Night Home Edition

Family Math Night Home Edition

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Family Math Nights are usually done at school but I created one that families can do at home. This comprehensive resource includes video tutorials, check lists, materials lists, and activity sheets for four home-friendly activities for grades K-5. I’m including the video below.

My goal was to design the Family Math Night/Day to be different than simply doing a math activity at the kitchen table. It’s their own personal event and I walk them through how to do it step-by-step. Watch the video below for tips on making it a special event.

Here is the link so you can access all the activity PDFs:
https://familymathnight.com/resources/mathathome.php

Here is the link so you can access the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GknJtgZ47KQ

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What Do You Notice? Lego Blocks

What Do You Notice? Lego Blocks

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Skills:
K-2: counting, subitizing, geometric shapes
3-5: skip counting, repeated addition, multiplication, beginning algebra

Although there are no numbers represented, this What Do You Notice? poster is filled with number concepts. Young students should be able to quickly recognize that there are 4 circles on each square (subitizing). From there, they can decide how they want to count circles. Maybe they want to count just the circles on the pink squares or blue squares. Or maybe they want to count all the circles to arrive at the total number. Others may notice the squares and decide to count how many squares there are all together.

Older students can use repeated addition to determine the total number of squares (4 + 4 + 4 or 3 + 3 + 3 + 3) or they can multiply 3 x 4 or 4 x 3.

There are a variety of ways these students can determine the total number of circles: skip counting by fours; determining the total number of circles in a row and multiplying that by 3; multiplying the total number of squares by 4, multiplying 6 circles x 8 circles, etc.

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Grid Dots: A Family Math Night ‘What Do You Notice?’ poster

Grid Dots: A Family Math Night ‘What Do You Notice?’ poster

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Grid Dots

Skills:
K-2: subitizing, counting, colors, shapes, pattern
3-5: counting, shapes, even, odd, addition, subtraction, multiplication

Subitizing, being able to quickly recognize the total amount without having to count each member of the group, is an important part of developing number sense. In the primary grades, students who subitize are able to count on from the subitized number. In upper elementary, students can use subitizing to break a larger group into smaller equal groups to find the total. In this 10 x 10 grid, I used colored sticky dots to create opportunities for students to subitize.

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What Do You Notice? Magic Square

What Do You Notice? Magic Square

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Skills:
K-2: counting, number recognition, comparing, geometric shapes
3-5: even/odd numbers, addition/subtraction

In a magic square, all the rows, columns, and diagonals add to the same number. In our case, the numbers all add to 70. Usually, a magic square starts off with a few numbers filled in and participants figure out all the missing numbers. For this activity, though, I wanted participants to focus on the numbers in the grid so I only left two small squares empty.

At a beginning level, students can simply notice that there are numbers and point to numbers they recognize. They can count how many of each digit they see. Some of these students may even be able to “read” some of the double-digit numbers.

Some participants will notice squares. The grid is a 4 by 4 so there are 16 squares for numbers. (There are technically a lot more than 16 total squares and this may be a challenge to put out to the older students.)

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What Do You Notice? Scales

What Do You Notice? Scales

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Skills:
K-2: counting, number recognition, comparing, addition/subtraction, logic/reasoning skills, geometric shapes
3-5: logic/reasoning skills, addition/subtraction, beginning algebra

This scale weight problem is a fun way to introduce algebraic thinking. Although for the young students, simply recognizing numbers and counting the animals is good enough. They can even describe the geometric shapes used to make the scales.

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