Fourth Grade, Math, Set Seven

We are using Real World Math books during this set. These books take a vocation and walk you through a day or situation and show how math is used, with the student solving the problems along the way. These are very good books! There are three levels of books:

• Blue Level for beginners, grades 2-4
• Orange Level for intermediate, grades 4 - 6
• Purple Level for advanced 

There is also Real World Math: Natural Disasters, where you learn about the subject and practice math skills.

• Droughts
• Earthquakes
• Floods
• Hurricanes
• Tornadoes
• Tsunamis
• Volcanic Eruptions -- we did this one
• Wildfires

Fourth Grade, Math, Set Six

I discovered a series of math books at the library. The series is called Real World Math. The book we used in this set was Estimating with the Newspaper by Dawn McMillan. We took three days to read through the book and solve the math problems. It was fun. I've requested more books from the series for our seventh set of weeks of fourth grade. There are different levels of books for different grades.

Fourth Grade, Math, Set Three

Addition and Subtraction

• Professor Pig games
• Number Stories
• Fast Track
• Worksheets

Multiplication

• Marvelous Multiplication
• Split Second
• Crossword Puzzle
• Worksheets

Division

• Dazzling Division
• Division Scrabble
• Three-in-a-Row 
• Worksheets

Measurement

• Problem Solving with Time and Money

Fractions

• Changing improper fractions to mixed numbers
• Adding fractions with like denominators

Geometry

• Symmetry
• Line Segments, Points, Lines, Rays 
• Intersecting, Parallel, and Perpendicular Lines (Here's a video that explains what they are.)

 Number Sense

• Roman Numberals
• Reading numbers to 100,000,000
• Number Stories
• Comparing values
• Name That Place game
  

Fourth Grade, Math, Set Two

Addition and Subtraction

• Professor Pig games
• Fast Track
• UNO Card game
• What's the Difference?: Turn over two cards and tell the difference between the two numbers
• Worksheets

 Multiplication

• Skip Count Cards
• Marvelous Multiplication games
• Shout It Out
• Split Second
• Multiplication Search
• Worksheets

Division

• Review Sheets
• Dazzling Division games
•  Three-in-a-Row (I highly recommend this game!)
• Answer Up
• Worksheet
• Worksheets

Word Problems

• Wacky Word Problems games
• Word Clues
• All About Me

Graphs

• Great Graphs activities
• Dangling Spoons
• Television Pictograph, just #1
• Birthday Months

Decimals

• Delightful Decimals games
• Scavenger Hunt
• Name that Place

Number Sense

• We each had five pieces of paper and wrote a different number (any number - big or small) on each paper. Then we:
• Put them in order
• Practiced 10 more / 10 less
• Found place values
• Compared using < and >
• Wrote the expanded form

Pre-Algebra

• Worksheet with missing addend

Fourth Grade, Math, Set One

Addition and Subtraction

• Games from Adding and Subtracting Book 1 and Book 2 by Ann Montague-Smith
• Practice with Triangles (fact families)
• Worksheets

Multiplication

• Reviewed using skip count sheets
• Marvelous Multiplication
• Cover Up
• Shout it Out
• Worksheet

Division

• Reviewed facts with division picture sheets
• Added "divide by" 7, 8, and 9 sheets
• Dazzling Division
• 3-in-a-Row for 7, 8, and 9
• Worksheet

Measurement

• Measurement Mania
• A Tall Order
• Area Mosaic

Geometry

• Groovy Geometry
• Measure Up
• Draw It
• Right Angle Scavenger Hunt

Fractions

• Fabulous Fractions
• Fraction Match
• Fraction War
• Domino ESP

Number Sense

• Recognizing numbers 1 - 100,000,000
• I put down one UNO card; K. read the number
• I added another card to the right of the first card; K. read the number
• We continued until we had a 9 digit number
• Then we took turns turning up a new card and exchanging it with a card that was the same color and reading the new number
• Even/Odd numbers
• I handed K. 3 UNO cards and asked her to make an odd number
• Then she gave me the next 3 cards and picked whether I should make an even or odd number.
• We continued back and forth for a few rounds.
• Roman Numerals
• I turned over 1 or 2 UNO cards and had K. write the Roman numeral that showed that number.
• Then she did the same for me.
• We continued back and forth a few times.

Estimation

• I put out 3 UNO cards and asked K. to round to the tens place.
• We practiced with a different number of cards, rounding to the nearest 10, 100, and 1,000

Third Grade, Math, Set Seven

We mostly worked on division and maps, completing the book, Map Skills: Neighborhood and Communities.

Third Grade, Math, Set Six

We worked through the book, Safari Adventure, by Deborah Underwood. This book takes you on a safari in Africa to make graphs from the data they give you. It was a fun way to do more work with graphing. The last two graphs are made on the computer, using Create a Graph.

I printed out some work pages to practice:

• reading time
• drawing time
• calculating elapsed time
• using a calendar

We completed more pages in Map Skills Made Fun: Neighborhoods and Communities.

We started practicing our skip count sheets out of order.

In geometry:

• we made flat and solid shapes of clay
• we reviewed what a polygon is, and made a poster
• we reviewed edge, vertex, and face, using signs and counting them on our clay shapes

 

• we cut a shape out of the clay with a cookie cutter and practiced: slide, flip, and turn

Third Grade, Math, Set Five

• We did Addition and Subtractions sheets like in Set Four
• We played multiplication games on the computer and practiced our skip count sheets
• I taught decimals - tenths and hundredths places
• We played Fraction Games
• We completed miscellaneous worksheets to review things like
• even/odd
• counting by 10's
• measuring units
• perimeter
• symmetry
• word problems
• We did more work with Maps Skills

Third Grade, Math, Set Four

• Addition and Subtraction Sheets
• I printed out a sheet of each with 16 problems in them
• The first four weeks K. solved 4 problems
• The fifth week we used the sums and differences to
• compare with < and >
• show the expanded form (3,547 = 3,000 + 500 + 40 + 7)
• identify even and odd numbers
• round to nearest 10, 100, 1,000, and 10,000
• give the number that is 10 more and 10 less
• Map Skills
• We continued with the book we started in week five of Set Three
• Counting
• by 2 to 50
• by 5 to 100
• by 10 to 500
• by 100 to 1,000
• by 1,000 to 10,000
• by 10,000 to 100,000
• Math Games on the Computer (multiplication.com)
• Fraction Games (Fabulous Fractions)
• Skip Count Sheets (from Set Three)
• Addition and Subtraction Bingo
• Bedtime Math

Third Grade, Math, Set Three

We are continuing with Bedtime Math. K. really likes doing it.

We spent the first week on lesson five of Professor Pig and playing the games from previous lessons. Lesson five is about the "9 Trick". When adding a number to 9, take one from the other number and add it to the 9 to make 10, then add.

In the second week we worked on more of the fraction workbook: Comparing Fractions, Adding Fractions, and Subtracting Fractions. We also played some games from Fabulous Fractions.

• Fraction Math -- played like a memory game, but the matches are equivalent fractions, so 2/4 and 1/2 would be a match. Each card has the fraction with an illustration of the fraction, which makes it easy to tell if they are equivalent.
• Combination Pizza -- we didn't actually play this the way it is in the book (we probably will later), but I had K. make the pizzas and I cut them up. I used it to help her understand that 12/8 is the same a 1 4/8 or 1 1/2.

The third week we practiced with multiplication and skip counting. Some was review from last year and some was new. Some were ideas from Marvelous Multiplication and some I thought up.

• 1's -- you need 10 napkins and 10 jelly beans, also write out the times tables (1 x 1, 2 x 1, 3 x 1,etc.). Put out one napkin with one jelly bean. This illustrates 1 x 1 (1 set of 1 jelly bean). Have your child write the answer on their times table chart. Continue with two napkins with 1 jelly bean on each (2 x 1), etc.
• 2's -- use pairs of socks; I also printed out a sheet with 10 pairs of socks (easy to use for skip counting)
• 3's -- I printed out a sheet with 10 tricycles on it
• 4's -- we used the Counting Corners game from last year; I also printed out a sheet with 10 buttons that each have four holes.
• 5's -- use nickles; I printed out a sheet with pictures of 10 nickles
• 6's -- I printed a sheet with 10 insects (make sure the six legs of each insect shows)
• 7's -- I had 70 toothpicks. K. put them in groups of 7 and I put rubber bands around them; I also printed out a sheet with 10 sets of 7 toothpicks
• 8's -- I pulled 10 Lego blocks from her room that had 8 bumps; I also printed out a sheet with pictures of the Lego blocks
• 9's -- I taught her the hand/finger method
• 10's -- I printed out a sheet with 10 sets of hands (last year we made a big sheet with 10 sets of her hands)
• 0's -- played with 1, 2, or more sets of 0 and 0 sets of 3, 4, 5 or more; either way, there is still zero
• Cover-Up! -- The instructions for this game are in Second Grade, Math, Set Four. We decided that any dominoes with a zero are also wild.
• Fingers! -- Two players each hind one hand; one player calls, "Ready, set, fingers!" When "fingers" is called, both players bring out their hidden hand, showing either 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 fingers. Both players multiply the number of fingers shown on each players hands. (Example: player one shows 3 fingers, player two shows 5 fingers; 3 x 5 = 15) The first player to call out the correct answer wins an F (the first letter in FINGERS). The first player to spell the word FINGERS is the winner.

In the fourth week we worked on angles, playing these games from Groovy Geometry.

• Measure Up -- Use a protractor to measure six angles around the room. What size angle do you find the most? Cut two strips of card stock about 1 inch by 8 inches. Draw a line down the middle of each. Attach them together at one end with a brad. Use it to make different size angles to measure.
• Draw It -- Cut two sheets of paper into eight pieces. On each piece write the degree of an angle, starting at 10 degrees and ending at 170 degrees. Fold the papers and put them in a bowl. Player 1 picks out a paper and tries to draw an angle that is that degree (or you can use the angle maker you made in Measure Up). In the book there is more to the game, including how to score points.
• Name Game -- Write one angle degree on each of 16 index cards (from 10 degrees to 160 degrees). Deal eight cards to each player. Both players turn over their top card at the same time and call whether the angle is acute, right, or obtuse. An obtuse angle beats right and acute; right beats acute. Winner gets to keep both cards. If both angles are obtuse or acute, player with the larger angle wins. When all cards have been played, the player with the most cards wins.
• Shape Lotto -- see Kindergarten, Math, Week 19 for instructions

We worked on map skills in week five. I have the book Map Skills Made Fun: Neighborhoods and Communities by Catherine M. Tamblyn. K. also did some addition and subtraction problems each day.

Third Grade, Math, Set Two

We continued with Bedtime Math (almost) everyday.

We spent four days on lesson four of Professor Pig. This lesson teaches how to break numbers into 5's for adding and to find 10's when adding. We played the games from this lesson, and from the previous lessons.

We started playing the games in Family Math by Stenmark, Thompson, and Cossey. Each Friday we played a different game. The game we have enjoyed most is Target Addition. This game consists of a grid 5 squares by 5 squares. The bottom row of squares all have the number 1 in them. The next row up is 2, the next row is 3, then 4, then 5. One player picks a number between 25 and 55. Then players take turns putting a token on numbers until the "picked number" is reached. The person who puts the last token on is the winner. The first day we played this three times -- K. won all three games. I have only won twice in all the games we've played. This game is good for addition practice and strategy.

I purchased the book, Teaching Math with Favorite Picture Books by Hechtman and Ellermeyer. It has 28 books and hands-on activities to use to teach math. The four books we did during this set are listed here:

• The Quilt Story by Tony Johnston
• Billy's Button by William Accorsi
• Caps for Sale  by Esphyr Slobodkina
• The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns
• Ed Emberley's Picture Pie by Ed Emberley

To go along with The Greedy Triangle, I found some work sheets on-line that dealt with angles -- right, acute, or obtuse.

I used Picture Pie to introduce our week of fractions. Then we started working through a workbook on fractions. This is just a part of a book that I was able to download for free. It is from www.aplustutorsoft.com. We did four lessons of review, then introduced equivalent fractions, along with some games from Fabulous Fractions (Fraction Strips and Fraction Match).

For the last week of Set Two, I wrote five addition problems and five subtraction problems on 3 x 5 cards. The addition were 3 numbers up to 10,000 place. The subtraction were also up to 10,000 place. After K. solved the problems, I cut the answers off and we:

• put them in numerical order
• told what the number would be if it was 10 more/10 less, etc.
• place value; told what numeral was in the ______ place
• compared the numbers using < and >
• grouped them by even and odd
• rounded to the nearest ten, hundred, and thousand
• introduced the expanded form; 382 = 300 + 80 + 2

Third Grade, Math, Set One

• Bedtime Math -- because I've been saving these for a while, we do three a day; Bedtime Math e-mails a math problem each day. There is a paragraph about a topic, then word problems that have something to do with the topic. There are three or four different levels of math problems.
• The first day we completed a project called Agriculture Counts. In this we sorted and counted the number of different animals in a bag of animal crackers, made tally marks, which we turned into a chart.
• We have done the first three lessons of Professor Pig. Each lesson has a few games to re-enforce the concept, and we have been playing them a lot. The chapters deal with:
• Magic Numbers -- numbers that add up to 10
• Magic Numbers plus one -- numbers that add up to 11
• Magic Numbers plus two -- numbers that add up to 12
• I found the book, Right In Your Own Backyard: Nature Math at the thrift store. It is part of the I Love Math series by Time-Life, published in the early 1990's. This book was a good review for starting our school year, and covered many topics, such as
• even/odd numbers
• patterns
• shapes
• addition
• subtraction
• categorizing
• estimating
• reading charts
• temperature
• measuring

Second Grade, Math, Set Seven

This last planning week was also the week before our middle daughter's wedding, and making the detailed plans for math just didn't happen. So I have picked up books at the library with projects and games for us to do each week.

• We are continuing to complete one lesson in Map Mysteries and Mirror Magic each week.
• Measuring Penny by Loreen Leedy -- this is a great book because it not only gives the assignment so you can do it, it teaches how to do it, and it is a fun story to read. The book is about a school project using measurement. The book explains the project completely and then describes how Lisa did her project.
• We read the book one day
• On two succeeding days we completed our own project following the assignment in the book.
• It's Probably Penny by Loreen Leedy -- this book follows in the same style as the above book, except it is about probability.
• We read the book one day
• The next we completed the assignment.
• Exploring Numbers by Andrew King
• We played the game, Fifteen!; this is a game for two players. K. liked this game and wants to play it again.
• Make a board with the numbers 1 through 9 on it.
• Each player needs five markers.
• The players take turns covering one number at a time.
• The winner is the first person to cover numbers that add up to 15. If you go over 15, you lose.
• We added the rule that you have to use at least three numbers.
• After using the board with 1 through 9 on it a couple times, we decided to make a board with twelve numbers: it has two each of numbers 1 - 4 and 6, one 5 and one 7. This board was a lot more fun and worked better.
• Plotting Points and Positions by Andrew King
• We played the game, Coordinates
• Make a game board that is a graph with numbers 0 - 6 across the bottom and up the side.
• Lay out the dominos from a double six set upside down.
• Players take turns turning over dominos and putting their markers at the coordinates it shows.
• We played that you could turn the domino around to get the coordinate that was the most to our advantage. For instance, a domino with 4 dots and 6 dots could be (4,6) or (6,4). Remember, horizontal number is first.
• Scoring Points: Every time you can place a marker, you score a point. If you make a line of two markers, score two points. A line of three scores three points, and so on.
• The player with the highest score after twelve turns wins.
• Shape Up! by David Adler
• Some of this book was review (like triangles), some was new (like quadrilateral), and some was beyond her (like obtuse and acute).
• This book has some fun ways to explore shapes, like cutting a triangle out of cheese and making shapes with pretzels and a slice of bread.
• Sir Cumference and the Viking's Map by Cindy Neuschwander
• This book is a story that introduces the X and Y axis and positive and negative numbers of a coordinate graph.

Second Grade, Math, Set Six

Addition

• K. completed six addition problems (three addends to ten thousands place with renaming). Then she marked which sums were odd or even, compared the sums using the < or > signs, and rounded to the nearest ten or hundred.
• We played games from the books, Adding and Subtracting Book 1 and Book 2 by Ann Montague-Smith.
• We practiced the order principle and grouping principle.

Problem Solving
Map Skills -- I discovered I had the book Map Mysteries by Lisa Trumbauer. It is for grades 2 - 4. We are completing one mystery each week. K. is really enjoying it.

Geometry
We are continuing the book Mirror Magic. This book covers congruence and symmetry.

Subtraction

• K. completed six subtraction problems (to thousands place with borrowing). Then she marked which differences were odd or even, compared the differences using the < or > signs, and rounded to the nearest ten or hundred.
• We played games from the books, Adding and Subtracting Book 1 and Book 2 by Ann Montague-Smith.
• I made up word problems that had to do with comparing. Such as, John had 3 apples. Ken had 7 apples. How many more did Ken have?

Multiplication with Marvelous Multiplication

• We used the squares we made for the four times tables to play a game.
• I put the squares out with the words showing (one, two, three, etc.)
• We took turns tossing tokens.
• We had to give the answer for which ever square it landed on, even if there were already tokens on that square.
• We kept going until we used all the tokens.
• If a wrong answer was given, we took any tokens that were on that square off and put them back in the pot to be thrown again.

• We explored the ten times tables by putting sets of hand prints on a large paper. Each set is a ten, so one set is 1 x 10 = 10; two sets is 2 x 10 = 20; up to 10 sets is 10 x 10 = 100.

• We played the dominos game with a double 6 set.
• Each player has a card with the numbers 1 through 36.
• Players take turns choosing dominos and solving the multiplication equation it represents. That player puts a token on the answer on their card.
• The first person with six in a row wins.
• Dominos with a zero, mean you can put a token anyplace on your card.

Division with Dazzling Division

• We practiced our 3's
• I would give K. a number of colorful game pieces and she would divide them evenly between three circles I drew on a sheet of paper.
• We practiced our 4's
• I printed out pictures of ten animals that have long legs (horse, cow, giraffe, zebra, etc.) then I cut the legs off of them.
• I gave K. four legs. That was enough for one animal. (4 ÷ 4 = 1)
• We continued with 8, 12, 16, . . . 40
• We played computer games to practice our 1's, 2's, 3's, and 4's. K. really liked playing Flurry of Flavors. I liked it because it was not timed, which allowed her to skip count to find the correct answers.

Second Grade, Math, Set Five

• Counting
• We counted to 500 by 5s
• We counted to 60 by 2s
• We counted to 30 by 3s
• We counted to 40 by 4s
• We counted backwards from 100 to 0
• We counted by 10s, starting with 4 (4, 14, 24, 34, etc.)
• Addition
• We did six more problems from the worksheet I got in the last set. Instead of drawing columns so K. could keep the place values straight, I did each place value in a different color. After she solved the problems I had her circle the sums that were odd numbers. Then we compared (&lt; or >) the sums. After that we rounded the sums to the nearest ten or hundred.

• Subtraction
• We did six more problems from the worksheet I got in the last set. After she solved the problems I had her underline once the differences that were odd numbers and twice the differences that were even numbers. Then we compared (&lt; or >) the differences. After that we rounded the differences to the nearest hundred.
• Another day we did word problems
• We solved missing addend problems using subtraction.
• Multiplication with Marvelous Multiplication
• We played Counting Corners on page 17
• Cut out 10 squares (about 3 inches)
• On the first one have your child write the word "one".
• Turn that square over and count the corners and write the number "4".
• On a piece of paper write 1 x 4 = 4
• On the second square, write "two".
• Turn it over and count on from 4 (5,6,7,8) and write the number "8" on the back side. 2 x 4 = 8
• Continue until all 10 squares have been done.
• We played Nickel Mania on page 22
• Use nickels and pennies to figure the 5 times tables.
• One set of five is one nickel.
• One nickel equals 5 pennies, so 1 x 5 = 5
• Continue through 10 x 5
• Division with Dazzling Division
• We played It's All in the Eyes on page 20
• Find ten pairs of eyes and cut them out (I used an old puppy and kitten calendar).
• Cut the pairs in half, so you have twenty individual eyes.
• Have your child take 2 eyes and put them in a group of 2. How many groups do you have? 2 ÷ 2 = 1 "Two eyes in groups of two makes one group."
• Do the same with 4 eyes; 4 ÷ 2 = 2 "Four eyes in groups of two makes two groups."
• Continue with 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20.
• Geometry -- I found the book Mirror Magic by Janet Abbott at the used book store. It is a California textbook from 1968 that teaches symmetry, same shape & size, and congruence in a fun hands-on way. The book had never been used. The mirror was even still in the book! There are 12 units, we are completing 1 unit each Friday.
• We used blocks to count faces, edges, and vertices.
• The next day we made figures from clay and counted the faces, edges, vertices, and curves.

• On our errand day, we found 5 each horizontal, vertical, parallel, and intersecting lines.
• Fractions
• I made flower for the fractions halves through tenths -- two flowers for each. One side of each petal is blue, the other side is yellow.
• K. and I each made a fraction, then she wrote the fractions, then she put out the &lt; or > sign.
• Money
• I had a worksheet that had problems that stated an amount of money, then K. had to figure out how many quarters, dimes, nickels, or pennies she needed to make that amount.
• We also did word problems with money.
• Time
• I made up word problems for elapsed time equations. Such as: Sally went to the park at 2:00. She played with her friend for 1 hour and 20 minutes. What time did she go home? Use a clock with movable hands to figure the answers.
• I wrote out things that happen during our day and K. had to mark them as AM or PM
• Statistics and Graphs
• We looked and talked about the bar and line graphs on pages 14 - 16 in Statistics by Srivastava.
• We did the bar graph activities in Bar Graphs by Bodach. I had made the forms ahead of time.
• From Great Graphs we made a line graph to show how many times K. jumped rope without a miss on five different tries (page 52). We also made a line graph of the temperature forecast for the next ten days (page 60). Now, on the same graph, we are marking the temperature at our house at 2pm each day.

Second Grade, Math, Set Four

• Numeration
• We took turns using the decahedron to make four-digit numbers, then we secretly wrote the number down. We said the number aloud to the other player and they wrote the number. Then we compared to see if what we had written was the same.
• Number Theory
• We played games on-line to review ordinals. Here is a website that has a list of games to practice ordinals.
• Rounding - at the grocery store (we just bought seven items) we rounded the cost of each item to the nearest dollar and then added them up. We got an estimate of $15. The actual amount was $16.08.
• Another day we played a game on-line for practice rounding to the nearest 10.
• Comparing - we each drew four UNO cards and made the largest number we could. Then K. put in the appropriate sign &lt; or >.
• Counting
• We counted to 1,000 by 100's
• We counted to 500 by 10's
• We counted from 1 to 500 by 1's -- using the UNO cards like we did in Set Two
• Addition / Subtraction
• Fact Families - we practice 1/3 of them three times a week
• I printed out an addition and a subtraction worksheet from WorksheetWorks.com. I chose options that would challenge K., without frustrating her. We took the worksheet and sidewalk chalk outside and worked the first six problems on the driveway. The rest of the problems we will save for other times. One day we did addition, and another day subtraction.
• I printed an addition and a subtraction worksheet of word problems. Choosing options that would challenge K., but not frustrate her. There were six problems on each page. We worked one sheet a day. We drew pictures and/or wrote out the equations as needed, but mostly she wanted to solve them in her head.
• We read the book Lights Out by Lucille Recht Penner -- this is a story of a girl who wants to be the last one in her neighborhood to turn her light out. Across the street is an apartment building with 30 windows. She has to subtract numbers as people turn their lights out. K. really liked this book, and has read it to herself a few times. This book is part of the Math Matters series.
• Multiplication with Marvelous Multiplication
• We reviewed that 1 is the identity element
• We worked out the 2 times tables using ten pairs of socks
• We played Cover-Up! on page 49
• Materials: two playing cards with the numbers 1 - 36 in order (6 rows of 6), dominoes (sixes), pennies
• We took turns turning over a domino and solving the problem. A domino that had the dots for 2 and 4 would be the equation 2 x 4 and that player would solve and cover the 8 on their card.
• If you turn over a double, that is a wild, and you can cover any number. It is necessary to play this way or some numbers (like 7, 11, 21, etc) wouldn't be able to be covered.
• The first person to get 6 in a row wins.
• We played Don't Skip This Activity on page 13 (well, a variation of it)
• I set out three cans and thirty beads.
• I asked K. to put an equal number of beads in each can. (They make a great noise when you drop them in, so that was fun for her.)
• Then we counted how many beads were in each can and wrote the equation 3 x 10 = 30 (3 sets of 10 is 30).
• We dumped out all the beads. I took away three and had her separate the beads into the cans, etc.
• Division with Dazzling Division
• We used 30 paper clips and divided them by 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
• K wanted to play with a magnet, so I counted out the 30 clips and then asked her, "If you had 3 magnets, how many clips would each magnet get?" We separated the clips into groups to find the answer.
• We played Fun One! on page 17
• I had K. get out a stack of 10 books.
• I put one of the books on the table. I said, "Here is one book, if there is one student, how many books would he get?" Answer: One
• Then I wrote the equation 1 ÷ 1 = 1
• We continued through all 10 books this way. Two books and one student, three books and one student . . .
• Statistics
• We read and talked about pages 10 - 13 of the book Statistics by Jane Jonas Srivastava, ending with the pictograph
• The following two days we read and did the activities in the book, Pictograph by Vijaya Khisty Bodach. I had made the forms for the pictographs ahead of time.
• The fourth day we looked at the pie graph on page 14 of Statistics.
• The fourth and fifth days we read and did the activities in the book, Pie Graphs by Vijaya Khisty Bodach. I had made the pie graph forms ahead of time.
• Fractions, Geometry, Estimation, Measurement
• One day we completed a worksheet that asked for the best estimate. Example: The amount to water the lawn: 32 gallons or 32 fluid ounces
• One day we compared fractions with common denominators and the next day we compared fractions with common numerators.
• We played Shape Lotto.
• To practice area and perimeter, I found a website that had house floor plans, and I printed one on graph paper. Then we figured out the area and/or perimeter of a few rooms.
• I also read the book, Sam's Sneaker Squares by Nat Gabriel from the Math Matters series.

Second Grade, Math, Set Three

• Numeration
• We used the decahedron to make a four-digit number. Then we wrote it and used the word cards to make the the number. For instance: 4,612 and four thousand, six hundred twelve
• Then we used the spinner to choose 10 more or less or 100 more or less, and wrote that number. There were a couple times when we had to rename to write the 100 or 10 less.
• Another day we just used the decahedron to make numbers and see who had the largest number the most times.
• Even and Odd
• We took turns drawing three UNO cards and then made the largest odd number we could.
• Rounding
• We drew two UNO cards, and with a number line, decided what it would round to.
• During week 5 we took a day to work some more on rounding.
• I wrote out some 2-digit numbers and (after a little reminder) K. rounded to the nearest ten.
• Then I wrote some 3-digit numbers and showed her how to round to the nearest hundred.
• Next, I set up a practical activity. I told a little story about going grocery shopping and said we bought milk (I wrote down $2.68), eggs ($1.98), meat ($5.10), oatmeal ($2.50), and yogurt ($1.20). I had her round each amount to the nearest dollar (hundred) and add it up. Then I let her use the calculator and add up the exact amounts. She could see how close the rounded total was to the exact total, and how rounding is helpful when you need to keep track of how much money we are spending at the store, but don't want to add up exact amounts.
• Word Problems
• Everyday Number Stories by George Baker Longan, published in 1915. I'm not sure how far we will go in the book. I am mostly just picking out the number stories.
• Statistics
• Statistics by Jane Jonas Srivastava -- we read the introduction through page 9; then we did the red/yellow bead activity.
• Addition and Subtraction
• We played Addition/Subtraction Bingo
• I made bingo cards with numbers and corresponding playing cards with equations on them.
• We took turns turning over the playing cards, and putting beans on the answers.
• We played Storm the Castle -- you can get this game from Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop
• We played Storm the Castle again during week 5. However, this time we raced to see who could get across the bridge first. I had put one Milk Dud inside the castle, so the person who won would get something, but it wouldn't be that big of a deal to lose. K. won by half a second! She used the cards from SKIP-BO Junior and I used the UNO cards.
• We went outside and did four-digit addition and subtraction problems with sidewalk chalk on the driveway.
• Missing Addends -- I printed a worksheet from the internet and taught K. how to turn the addition problem into a subtraction equation to find the missing addend. These addition problems were very simple, and she really didn't need to do the subtraction problem to know the answer, but I wanted her to learn how it worked.
• Fractions
• Comparing Fractions -- I found a worksheet that had some fractions with the same denominators and some with the same numerators. She was really good at comparing the fractions with the same denominators, but was confused about the others, so we took a couple bananas and cut one into fifths and the other into sevenths. I asked her which was more, 3/5 or 3/7. Then she understood.
• Geometry
• Area -- I printed a couple worksheets from education.com and one from superteacherworksheets.com. These were just very simple -- find the areas by counting the square units and write the answer.
• After the worksheets we went into her room and counted the number of floor tiles along the width and length of her rug. Then we drew it on graph paper and counted to find out the number of square tiles her rug took up. Then we did the same thing with her bed.
• Perimeter -- I printed a worksheet from Scott Foresman, grade 2 math. On it she had to use a ruler and measure the length of each side of the shapes, and add them up. From education.com, there was one worksheet that had four problems that gave the measurements for each side and five word problems. The other worksheet had different shaped houses and she needed to find the one with the largest perimeter for Mr. Piggy to live in. I let her use the calculator for this sheet.
• Lines -- I taught K. what horizontal, vertical, parallel, and intersecting lines were. Then we found examples of each around the house.
• Another day we looked for each type of lines while we were driving around doing the grocery shopping.
• Multiplication
• I had written out some word problems, such as, There were seven lily pads on the pond. Each lily pad had three frogs on it. How many frogs were there?
• First, K. drew a picture to demonstrate the word problem.
• Then, we wrote a repeated addition equation and solved it.
• Last, we wrote the multiplication equation and solved it.
• Division
• Equal Sets
• We gathered a bunch of beads and 5 stuffed animals.
• I put out a certain number of beads and stuffed animals and had K. divide the beads between the animals. You should always have an amount that will divide evenly.
• Then we wrote the division equation and repeated addition equation.
• Division as Grouping from Dazzling Division by Lynette Long
• Put 12 cookies or crackers or raisins (the dividend) on a serving plate. Put out two small plates (the divisor) and divide the cookies equally between the two plates.
• Do the same with 3 plates, 4 plates, 6 plates, and 12 plates.
• Write out the five different division problems you solved.
• Division as Repeated Subtraction from Dazzling Division
• Write the problem: 30 ÷ 10.
• Start with 30 paper clips. Thirty is the dividend.
• Take away 10 paper clips and put them in a pile. Ten is the divisor.
• Take away 10 more paper clips and put them in a second pile.
• Take away the last 10 paper clips and put them in a third pile.
• How many times did you subtract 10 from 30 to get to 0? Count the piles of paper clips. Three is the quotient.
• Solve 30 ÷ 6 and 30 ÷ 2 the same way.

Second Grade, Math, Set Two

 

• Writing Numbers to 9,999 and Number Words
• I made a decahedron with clay and baked it. Then I wrote the numbers 0 - 9, one numeral on each side. I wrote out the words one - nine (3 each); ten - twenty; and thirty, forty, fifty . . . ninety; hundred; and thousand
• Game
• We took turns rolling the decahedron four times to make a four-digit number.
• Then the player wrote the number on a paper (8,537)
• and made the number with the word cards.

• Ordinals first through twentieth
• We played Find a Penny (pg 52 Games for Math)
• I printed out 20 rabbits doing different things and wrote the words first - twentieth. K. told a story about a family of twenty rabbits and put them in order with their corresponding word.
• Place Value and Renaming
• We made four-digit numbers with UNO cards and then showed them on the place value mat. Then we made a three-digit number and subtracted it.
• Counting
• We counted to 1,000 by counting 100 numbers each day. At first it seemed like K. was just mumbling and echoing me, so we brought out the UNO cards. The first person turned the top card over (it is a 5). They count from (let's start with 200) 200 to 205. The other person turns the top UNO card over (it is a 9). They count from 206 to 209. The first person turns over the next card (it is a 7). They count from 210 to 217. Keep going until you get to 300.
• This turned out to be a very good way to count as there is no set pattern for how many numbers each person counts, but sometimes you may count only one number and other times you may count more, but never more than ten numbers.
• We used beads to count to 30 by 3's and to 40 by 4's
• Rounding
• I put a button on a number (7) on our number line and asked it if was closer to zero or ten.
• Subtraction
• We read Subtraction Made Easy by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson up to two-digit regrouping.
• We practiced 3- and 4-digit subtraction without renaming
• We did a few problems that we had to rename the tens. We did this on our place value mat.
• Multiplication Readiness
• I wrote out some word problems. K. drew a picture to illustrate the problem. Then we solved it with repeated addition, showed it on the number line, and wrote it in vertical and horizontal multiplication forms.
• We read Multiplication Made Easy by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson; pages 4 - 19
• Fractions
• I read the book, The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins. We had stuffed animals for the people and beads for the cookies and worked out the Fair Shares. Then figured out what fraction of the cookies each person got.
• We compared fractions with common denominators and fractions with 1 as the numerator.
• Geometry
• We played Shape Lotto (Games for Math). I added the hexagon and pyramid shapes.
• We counted sides and vertexes / faces, edges, vertexes, and curves
• We played pattern games on-line. Moon Rock Patterns and Crazy Pattern Machine
• Charts and Graphs
• We read the book Tally Charts by Vijaya Chisty Bodach. Instead of just looking at the charts made in the book, we worked out the charts by looking at the pictures. Later that day we were running errands and made a tally chart of red, blue, and yellow cars.
• Estimation
• Games and Activities
• We played Is It? from Games for Math pg 90

• We made the Gallon Hero. I found this idea on a blog and made our own. We started out by coloring all the pieces before they were cut out. Then I had K. cut out the gallon piece and the head and glue them together. I had a gallon of water and experimented to see how many times it would fill our quart measuring cup. Then K. cut out the quarts and glued them on to the gallon. Next, we took 1 quart and experimented to see how many times it would fill the pint container. Then she cut out the pint pieces and glued them on to the quarts (2 on each quart). Last, we took one pint and experimented to see how many times it would fill our one cup measuring cup. I had cut out all but four of the cup pieces. K. cut them out and glued them on to the pint pieces (2 on each pint). Then I let her glue some hair on his head. This method seems to have worked really well because a couple times since then she had used the knowledge.

• I pulled out 10 containers and K. put them in order from the one that would hold the least to the one that would hold the most. I had her first pick out the one she thought would hold the least. We filled it with water. Then I had her pick out the one that she thought would hold the next most. We poured the water from the first container into the second. If it overflowed, we knew the second container was smaller than the first, but it we had to add more water, then we knew the second container was bigger. We did this with each container.
• We took a walk around the neighborhood. I pointed out items and asked K. if we would use inches, feet, or yards to measure it.
• We both went and found an object. Then we weighed them to see which was heavier. The goal was for her to come back with something that would be heavier than whatever I picked.
• K. picked an object and we weighed it. Then she flicked the spinner (options are 'More' or 'Less'). If it landed on 'More', I had to bring back an object that weighed more. If it landed on 'Less', I had to bring back an object that weighed less. Then I flicked the spinner, etc.
• Map Skills
• I found three different activity pages on-line that were fun to complete; they gave practice with north, east, south, west and finding locations.

Second Grade, Math, Set One

• I introduced Thousands Place.
• To practice recognizing and reading numbers, we took turns taking four UNO cards and making them into a number. K. had left her collection of rocks on the table and there was one that looked like a comma, so we used it.
• Another day I took out the Place Value Mat.
• I put on 10 ones and asked K. what she could do with that -- make 1 ten.
• Then I put out 10 tens and she made them into 1 hundred.
• Then I put out 10 hundreds and told her that made 1 thousand. I hadn't made thousands for our mat, so we went to the computer and did that. Then she made the 10 hundreds into 1 thousand

• We played the Ten More/Less & 100 More/Less
• Game
• I numbered to 7 on the paper and labeled two columns "K" and "M".
• I started by taking four UNO cards and making a number. Then I flicked the spinner.
• K. had to write the number it specified.
• Example: Above the number is 9,558 and the spinner is on 10 Less, so she needed to write 9,548.
• We each had seven turns.
• To review Even and Odd Numbers
• We played the Kitten Game from Adding and Subtracting by Ann Montague-Smith.
• There are four baskets that 20 kittens have escaped from. We used pennies for our kittens.
• The kittens need to be put back in the baskets, but each basket has to have a even number of kittens.
• Once they have done this, ask if they can find another way to do it.
• Then do the same thing, but have only odd numbers of kittens in each basket.
• To review Comparing Numbers
• Game
• We each took three UNO cards and made a number.
• Between the numbers was a stack of scrap pieces of paper.
• We took turns writing the "<" or ">" sign on the papers.
• We played until we had used all the UNO cards.
• To review Addition we read the book Addition Made Easy by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson.
• We started using the fact family Triangles again this week. I still have them divided into five groups. We do one group each day. If K. completes the group correctly in less than two minutes she gets to put a sticker up on the calendar.
• Game
• One person writes down a number sentence (like 6+3=9). The other person writes down three other number sentences that use the same numbers. (3+6=9; 9-3=6; 9-6=3) Now switch.
• Game
• Take turns to think of a number. Give clues to the other person so they can guess your number.
• Game
• Take a pile of coins (you can limit it to 12 coins if you want). How many ways can you make 12¢; 17¢; 25¢?
• To review Charts and Graphs we read the book Mashed Potatoes by Nancy Harris.
• We made charts for Neighborhood Distances, and Weight/Mass (see below).
• I introduced Metric Measurements this week
• For centimeters and meters we measured the circumference of a wheel on K.'s bike (we measured it in both cm and inches). Then we counted (actually she walked the bike and I counted) how many times the wheel went around as we went the length of the house, width of the driveway, length of the block, distance to the park, etc. Then we calculated how far each was in centimeters, meters, inches, and yards. This activity was called Neighborhood Distances, on page 40 in Measurement Mania by Lynette Long.
• For grams and kilograms we picked six items and measured their mass and then their weight.
• For Celsius I did a variation of What's the Temperature (page 98 in Measurement Mania). I took the cards suggested and the house thermometer (which has both C and F) and we talked about whether the temperature talked about would be C or F. Then we made some more cards. Another time we will be able to play the game as suggested.
• Fractions
• We reviewed equal parts and fractions halves through tenths
• Geometry
• We review the shaped we knew and I introduced hexagon and polygram
• Charts
• Tally charts - pages 10 and 11 of Beginning Charts, Graphs, and Diagrams

First Grade, Math, Set Seven

Games, activities, books, and web sites that enhanced our learning:

• We are continuing to practice the Triangles every day.
• We reviewed the 10 More / 10 Less and 100 More / 100 Less concepts using the spinner we had made before and Uno cards. K. took three Uno cards and made a number (345), then she flicked the spinner and which ever instruction it landed on, I had to write the new number (if it landed on "10 More" I would write 355). Then it was my turn to take three cards, etc. We worked our way through the whole pile of cards.

• I had printed a worksheet of three-digit addition problems. K. worked two problems each day, then on Friday we pulled out the Place Value mat and worked the last four problems using manipulatives before solving them on the paper.
• We took turns handing each other a handful of coins. Then the person wold count them and write the amount.
• We worked on Subtraction: 2 digit, money, missing addend, word problems.
• For missing addend we used these manipulatives. We used pinto beans for the known addend and the sum, then it was easy to figure the missing addend, 'x'.

• I printed some rectangles on a paper, then told a story of why someone need to know how much fence they needed. I drew pictures on the rectangles as I told the story. Then K. used a ruler and measured the rectangle and got the Perimeter.

• I made a fun worksheet for estimating capacity. I used clip art and put pictures of things (large mug) and then put options for her to choose as to the capacity (2 cups or 2 gallons).
• We played Fractions games on Johnny's Math Page.