Showing posts with label SMMART Math. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SMMART Math. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

SMMART Math: Welcome Home Math Door

Tricky, tricky!  This was an attempt at avoiding the complaining that accompanies multiplication practice...and it worked!  I wrote a few multiplication facts on sticky notes and tacked them to the door to welcome my daughter home.  On a different color of sticky notes, I wrote up a few addition and subtraction problems for my younger daughter who would arrive home at the same time.  I left two pencils on the doorstep...and voila!
Here's a beautiful rhyme...Math practice before they even step in the door!
 
 


171 comments:

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

SMMART Math: Scrambled Egg Waffles


I found a super fun idea in the October 2013 Family Fun Magazine...Waffle Eggs!
 
This was a hit for breakfast, for kids...


...and parents!


Crack 3 eggs and stir them up in a bowl or even a mug...quick, quick.  Pour the eggs evenly between the two waffle iron molds.  3 eggs fills up the two waffle squares perfectly.  If you add milk, then the mixture will go a bit further.  I cracked 9 eggs, added a bit of milk, and it made 8 waffles eggs.  Cook in the waffle maker about 2 minutes 'til done.


So, the SMMART Math begins. 

For younger children, ask them to count the number of squares they can find.  Older children can even include the larger squares that have little squares inside of them.  Even teenagers will be counting squares for a long time if they include all those squares... makes me tired thinking about it:)

Now for Multiplication!  This is a great tool for understanding Times Tables.  I believe the "table" comes from the ol' Times Table:

The waffle is a manipulative to help in the understanding of what it means to say, "2 X 4 = 8".

Cut out a 2 X 4 section of waffle.  Show your child that there are 4 rows of 2 or 2 rows of 4.  "That's what 2 times means.  You have 4 rows twice, or 2 times."

Show a larger example.  6 X 5.  Have your child explain how many rows of 5 there are and that those rows are there 6 times.

A few times of that, while eating each example, makes for eggselent practice. 
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Monday, June 24, 2013

SMMART Math: Computer Help

My daughter was given a worksheet with several websites to look at over the summer for educational learning fun.  I am very impressed with www.ixl.com/math!  You can choose your child's grade and then each math skill is categorized.  Click on a math skill and interactive math questions appear.  You need to check out this site!  Below is an example of the categorized math skills for 3rd grade:

Here is a list of all of the skills students learn in third grade! These skills are organized into categories, and you can move your mouse over any skill name to view a sample question. To start practicing, just click on any link. IXL will track your score, and the questions will automatically increase in difficulty as you improve!

This site gives you a few questions free, but does require a monthly fee, (which I don't particularly like), but it's a good site to see which math skills you can review in the summer.

www.ixl.com/math        

1 comment:

Monday, June 10, 2013

SMMART MATH: Math Worms

Such a cute idea from my daughter's preschool.  Math Worms! 
Easy enough to create a worksheet...
Just draw a curvy line and a circle at the end.  Help your Little by tracing the line with glue.  Then she can line up her cheerios along the line and count how many treats can sit on a line.  Then she can practice writing her numbers in the circle beside the line.  Or write a math problem underneath and she can place the correct number of cheerios on the line and write the answer.

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

SMMART MATH: Pizza Pancake

Maybe you've already discovered it?  The Pizza Cutter!
For years, I've been cutting pancakes into bite size pieces for my Littles with a fork and knife. 
No more! 
"Who wants a Pizza Pancake?"  (You have to say 'Pizza Pancake' in an Italian accent...have to.)
*If the wedges are too big, take that lovely pizza cutter and cut the wedges in half.  This handy little tool is a time saver!
 
And well,  the math application is a bit obvious...FRACTIONS!  Count up all the pieces, and for each piece you eat, say what fraction you've eaten so far.  You can also practice adding fractions with the pancake pieces as a visual.  1/2+1/2 = whole.   1/4 + 1/4 = 1/2...

1 comment:

Monday, November 26, 2012

SMMART MATH: Advent Holiday Calendar


Whatever holiday you celebrate in the month of December...you can create an advent calendar to count down the days until THE BIG DAY(s)!
 
A special idea that I've heard from several sources revolves around creating your own advent calendar of traditions. Might be fun to write each day's holiday activity on a snowflake, folded up and tucked into your advent creation.

Advent Calendar ideas:
-You can decorate 24 little boxes with your children and fill each box with a piece of paper that tells the day's activity.

-24 Gifts-Wrap up 24 little boxes and each day your child can open one to discover the day's activity.
 
-Craft 24 little "poppers" or "crac kers" filled with a holiday activity each day. Check out these rocket poppers: (http://www.alphamom.com/holiday/2009/06/make_your_own_fourth_of_july_c.php)

...might be fun to make Holiday poppers and every day confetti, treats and an activity fall down on your child in a snow flurry...could create holiday snow chimes (without the rocket top)and wrap 24 toilet paper rolls in holiday scrapbook paper, fill, number and hang up by their strings...Tons of Fun!)
.
-Make a pop-up window calendar (cut windows out of one sheet of cardstock that your child has decorated... and paste onto a piece of paper where all of the ideas written out under each window)

-Egg Carton Advent (poke holes into the bottom of two cartons and attach them to a piece of cardboard. Wiggle a small strip of paper into each hole and each day your child can pull out that day's strip of paper with the activity for the day. Be sure to let your child decorate the cartons ahead of time.)
Here is a list of ideas that my good friends Arianne and Melanie (and family fun magazine) helped me come up with-some ideas are local to our area.

Advent Calendar…Christmas Tradition Ideas

Make your own Snowman Pizza (complete with olive buttons and mouth)
Cut out and decorate SNOWFLAKES, then hang them from your child's ceiling
 
Make cookies
Watch a nativity Christmas movie
Visit (temple square) lights
Act out the nativity

Go ice skating
Host a Christmas (princess) party for your child’s friends
Surprise a neighbor by doing something for them 
Deliver neighbor gifts
Go to see decorated Christmas Trees (Festival of trees)
Decorate gingerbread houses

Decorate Christmas tree
Visit Santa
Attend the Nutcracker
Observe ice sculpture contest
Attend a (ward) Christmas party
Visit a live nativity

Watch a Christmas movie
Christmas craft
Let your child pick an angel from an “angel tree” Write Christmas cards
Make gifts for your child’s friends
Play in the snow
Make Snow Ice cream

Watch The First Presidency Devotional (lds.org)
Make ice ornaments
Make bird seed crackers 
Read scriptural account of Jesus’ birth
Attend Christmas Concert/play

Write a Christmas Story
Read Greatest Christmas Pageant EVER
Zoo lights
“This is the Place” Christmas village

Play a holiday game

 
Draw your own nativity
Make a gift for your teacher
Wrap friend gifts and deliver them
Go to the library/craft time
 
Paint everybody's toenails in Christmas colours.
Make Christmas cards.
Make Christmas ornaments.
Set up the Christmas tree.
Make gift tags.
Bake Christmas cookies and decorate them.
Purchase a present to give to charity/Take food to food bank
Have a picnic for dinner.
Go out to look at Christmas lights after dark. (make a gift “award” to present to the house that your family likes the most)
Write a letter to Santa.
Make gifts for teachers and bus drivers.
Hold a family disco.
Go out somewhere special for dinner.
Eat fancy ice creams after dinner.
Watch a Christmas movie before bed.
Visit the grave of loved one

Create and deliver holiday party invites for a holiday party you host
Make a snowscape with shaving cream and action figures (in the bathtub or on a cookie sheet)
Blindfold your kids and have them  guess holiday scents and spices
Write a Christmas Story together
Write a letter to someone in the armed forces
Play secret santa to your neighbor
Act out a Christmas story
At dinner describe what you love about each family member

Hot cocoa taste testing
String popcorn and cranberry garland for an outdoor tree
Happy Holiday Memory Making!
Advent Calendar
4 comments:

Friday, August 31, 2012

SMMART BABY MATH: Counting Spider



This activity works great near by a hard surface...a floor or a hard cover book.

Use your nails to creep along the hard surface so your baby can hear your fingers coming.  "Here comes the spider!" 

Crawl along your baby's toes, feet, and up his leg til you tickle his tummy, shoulders and little neck.  While you are crawling, count your steps out loud..."One, Two, Three, Four, Five...Tickle!"






1 comment:

Monday, January 23, 2012

SMMART MATH: 
Yogurt writing
A new favorite way to use the yogurt writing letters...Math Practice!
(Use a yogurt without bits of fruit)
"Well good morning!  I hope you slept well!  So.....what's 12 - 5?"  A good start to any nutritional breakfast!
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Monday, January 9, 2012

SMMART MATH:
 Magneto Fun with
Colors and Shapes

Have you seen those magnetic quiet toys?  The ones where you fill up a water bottle halfway with birdseed and little magnetic trinkets and toys?  Then you put a magnet up to the edge of the waterbottle and try to "grab" the toys and bring them to the edge. 

This is a math version of that classic mom-made toy.  Cut up different colored pipe cleaners into one inch pieces.  Toss them into an empty, rinsed, clear- 2ltr soda bottle. 

Draw different colored shapes on the outside of the soda bottle with colored permanent markers.

Have your child use a magnet to try to "grab" one color pipe cleaner piece.  Drag the piece over to the similar colored shape.  "Can you drag the yellow pipe cleaner into the yellow diamond?"  You can mix it up a little:  "Can you drag the blue pipe cleaner into the orange triangle?" 

Try to collect as many pieces as you can with your magnet.  Count the pieces together.  See if a bigger magnet will pick up more pieces.  Have fun trying out the different magnets.
2 comments:

Monday, January 2, 2012

SMMART MATH:
Cylinder Stackers
Geometry in action:  A cylinder rolls and stacks.  A right cylinder's base is perpendicular to it's curved surface height.  The two base circles are parallel to each other.  Go for a cylinder hunt with your kids...poke around junk drawers, your pantry and through your closets to find all kinds of example of cylinders or cylindrical objects...bottle tops, pencils, cups, oat cans...
Gather a bunch of paper towel or toilet paper rolls.  You may wish to spray paint the exteriors and let them dry.  Let your child paint the cylindrical rolls with tempura to make the stackers "their own".  Cut the rolls in half, in fourths or thirds when they dry. 
Cut two slits on the top and bottom of the rolls.  The slits can be about a half inch apart or so.  Slide another tube stacker into those slits.  Your child can create a structure of cylindrical tubes by sliding tubes into the top and bottom slits of each stacker.

You may wish to play with the stackers and create a structure with unpainted tubes.  Then spraypaint the whole structure and let your child paint the whole thing with tempura.  The tubes will be sort of glued by the paint, so this may be more of a one-time use of the tubes.  If you paint the tubes first and let them dry before you stack them, you can reuse them.
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

SMMART MATH:
Marshmallow Snowmen Favors
These little guys are a lot of fun to make and are a perfect favor to take home from a winter party.  In this little geometry activity, your child can feel, play with and discover the properties of a cylinder.

You will need:
Clear celophane pretzel bag
twistie tie
7 inch black ribbon to symbolize hat
9 inch festive color fat ribbon for scarf
google eyes
orange triangle nose cut from construction paper
5 marshmallows

Have your child count out 5 marshmallows and slide them into the celophane pretzel bag.  Tie off the top with the twistie.  Talk about the shape of a cylinder marshmallow.  A stack of cylinders also looks like a loooooong cylinder.  Cylinders can roll and stack! 

Tie the black ribbon around the twistie tie to symbolize a top hat.  Tie the festive fat ribbon around the "neck" of your snowman.  You can cut a frayed edge for a scarf look.  Glue on the eyes and nose.  You can use a permanent marker to mark in buttons on the body.
Look for other cylinders around the house...soup cans, cups, rolling pin...

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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

SMMART READING and MATH:
Turkey Shooters

Gobble, Gobble.  These little Turkey Shooters are fun and easy to make with your kiddos.  Roll up a half-piece of construction paper into a tube.  Make sure the diameter is just large enough to fit a cranberry.  Cut 5 or 6 slits down one end of the tube.  Place a pencil at the tip of one of the "feathers" you just cut and roll the feather over the pencil to curl it.  Curl all of the feathers.  Glue on a pair of googlie eyes and a waddle that you cut from a red piece of construction paper. 

Write a list of festive Thanksgiving words:  Turkey, Pumpkin, Stuffing, Thanks, Pilgrim...  With a permanent marker, write each letter of the words on a separate cranberry.  You don't have to write letters for each word, since some words share letters.  Place the cranberry letters in a bowl.

Have your child hold the beak tip of his Turkey Shooter.  He can put a paperclip on the beak tip to hold it closed if that is easier.  Let your child find the letters of a word on the list from the bowl and place the letters in the correct order into the Turkey Shooter.  When all of the letters are in place, your child can release the beak tip and watch the letters roll out.  If he is skilled enough the letters will stay in order, but many times they roll out quickly and get a little out of order.  Have your child refer to the list to place the cranberry letters in the correct order.  Double spelling practice.

SMMART MATH:  This would be a fun way to practice addition.  3+3=   Place three cranberries into the Turkey Shooter and then three more.  Release the beak tip and then your child can count up the 6 cranberries that roll out.
1 comment:

Monday, November 7, 2011

SMMART MATH:
Cranberry Garland Patterns

Yes! Cranberry Relish and Turkey Season is approaching! 

On that fine Turkey Day when all are busily baking...keep your children merrily making with a simple cranberry and popcorn garland.
Lay out a bowl of cranberries for each garland maker and a big bowl of popcorn in the center of the table for all to share.  Thread a long piece of dental floss onto a large, fat needle (little hands may need some supervision).

Now, you know the routine...cranberry, cranberry, cranberry, popcorn, popcorn, cranberry, cranberry, cranberry... and so it goes.  Have your child create her own garland pattern. 

Go outside and find the perfect tree upon which to lay your Thanksgiving Bird Feast.  Your child will be particularly thrilled they get to feed the cold little birdies while you all indulge in the cranberry sauce and stuffing inside.










2 comments:

Monday, October 24, 2011

SMMART MATH:
 Halloween Estimation

So your little Goblin is going to scare his way door to door this Halloween and come back home with a stash of candy...hmmmm...what to do? 

There are a few methods of consumption that I've experienced or heard about:
-Let your kids eat their guts out on Halloween night and then ask them to select 20 more pieces to keep for future treats.
-Your children sort out the types of candy into piles and then only keep the piles of the candy that they really like.
-Turn in your candy for money at certain dentist offices.
-Your children gorge themselves on candy Halloween night and then leave the rest of the candy as an offering to the "switch witch" who, in exchange the next morning, leaves a nice gift for each child.
...I'm sure there are many options...but I like having my kiddos work for their candy!

For example, in subsequent days when your child asks for a few pieces of candy, first have them spell a word to you.  Have your child answer a math problem or recite a poem or scripture. 

How about trying out this Estimation Activity?
Let your little Gobblins pour out their candy stash on the table. Then have them sort their candy by name/type.  Ask your child to estimate how many pieces of camdy are in each pile.  Write down everyone's guess.  Have your child count out each piece in a pile and write the name of the candy and how many are in the pile (great spelling/handwriting and number writing opportunity).

Have your child compare what they guessed to the actual number of candy in each pile. 
Your child can write math phrases showing how their guess compared to the actual number of pieces:
-Greater than/Less than practice: "17 is more than 12"   
-Subtraction practice to determine how off their guess was: "17-12=5" 

Compare everyone's guess to see who came closest to the actual number of candy in each pile.  It's fun to see who comes closest to guessing correctly.

After all of that math work, reward your child with...yes, of course, a piece of candy!
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Thursday, October 13, 2011

SMMART MATH:
SUCKING SPOOKS
You'll need:
Straws
Bat cut outs
Pumpkin cut outs
Two bowls
(*Optional: Karo syrup and red food coloring)

PREP:
-First you'll need to cut out a few small bat and pumpkin shapes from colored paper.  Make sure the shapes are small enough that you can pick them up with the end of  a straw as you suck through the other end.  Write a number on each cut out.  For smaller children, you'll want to use simple numbers and for older children, you can use more complex numbers.

-Now drip a drop or two of red food coloring into a small amount of Karo Syrup and stir until the color is ubiquitous.  Drizzle a little of the "bloody" syrup onto the rim and sides of your bowls.

GAME:
-Give each player a straw and lay a bowl in front of him.
-On the count of "Crows feet, Broomsticks and Warlocks...GO!", each player will suck on their straw and try to pick up the bat and pumpkin cut outs with the other end of their straw.  They'll drop the cut out into the bowl.
-Players continue to pick up all the cut outs until they are gone.  Then, each player dumps out his own bowl of cut outs and looks at the numbers on them.
-As quickly as they can, players will add up all of the numbers on the bats and subtract away the numbers on the pumpkin cut outs.  When a player has figured out the final answer, they yell the number out loud.  After a quick check to make sure their math is correct, that player is the winner. 

Of course, this could be a lot of fun for older children if it was MULTIPLY the numbers on the bats and DIVIDE the numbers on the pumpkins.  Younger children can sequence the numbers in 1,2,3 order or sort similar numbers into groups. This game adapted from (http://familyfun.go.com/halloween/halloween-games/)
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