Teaching Day-by-Day: Math, Measuring & Money
Every day counts in this month's mélange of mathematical activities.
How heavy? Count 20 each of different items of varying weights (pennies, peanuts, crayons, etc.). Put sets of the items in paper bags. Now predict the heaviest bag, the biggest bag, the lightest bag, etc. Use a balance scale to compare weights.
Multiply that word! The word multiplication has 14 letters. Some people say they can make 50 new words with those letters. How many can you make?
Pizza pieces. Make a large cardboard pizza and cut it into eight slices. Working with friends, decorate the slices with your favorite toppings. Use the "pizza" to practice fractions: What is a half? A quarter? An eighth?
Pet project. Make a bar graph about your friends' pets. Find out what kind of pets they have. Color in one square in a column for each animal (cat, dog, fish, hamster, bird). Find the most, and least, common pet.
Size up a song. Sing these words to the tune of "Frère Jacques": Big and large, big and large/What is big? What is big?/Elephants are big, Trees and trucks are big./Big and large, big and large. Create another version with the words small and little.
Rock and sort. Collect 10 rocks. Use a permanent marker to number them from 1 to 10. Sort the rocks in different ways, largest to smallest, odd numbers and even, smooth and rough, etc.
Elephant equation. In the wild, an elephant can walk about 30 miles a day. How many miles could an elephant travel in two weeks?
Dollar scholars. Collect 50 pennies, 20 nickels, 10 dimes and four quarters. How many different combinations can you find that add up to $1.00?
How many ways? Have students make a web of 10s. First have them write the number 10 in the center of a circle. Then ask them to find other ways to make 10 using outer circles (9 + 1, 2 x 5, 11 - 1, etc.).
Let's make money! Use dollar bills and coins as models to create large green and gray construction-paper cutouts. Make a version with large numbers that you can easily count or sort. Use them to play bank or grocery store.
Take your money for a spin. Use a round piece of paper, a pencil and a paper clip to make a spinner. Divide the paper into four sections and write one cent, five cents, 10 cents and 25 cents. Take turns spinning. Keep track of your "winnings." After 10 turns, add up your totals.
America the Beautiful quarters. Visit the www.usmint.gov/kids site and have students pick a quarter design to learn about. Then have them make a tracing of that quarter and make it into a trading card. The can also create cards for all the National Parks.
Tell me the time! Make a clock with a paper plate, two pieces of cardboard and a brass paper fastener. Cut a hole in the center of the plate. Attach cardboard hands and write the numbers. Use the clock to practice telling time.
Measure that jump! Outside, have a long-jump contest with your friends. Measure the distance of each jump with chalk marks. Who made the longest jump?
Small to tall. As a class, work together to line up in order of height. To make things more challenging, try it without talking!
Paper clip trip. Use a small paper clip to measure a friend who is about the same height as you. Then ask your friend to use a large paper clip to measure you. Why are the measurements different?
Estimation station. Estimate the length of items in your classroom, such as desks, books and windows. Then record the actual lengths using rulers, meter sticks and tape measurers. How close were your estimates?
Forearm and foot figures. Line up your shoeless foot with your forearm. What do you notice? Try this: Use a tape measure to measure your arm span and your height. What do you notice?
Make a giant! Have students measure you – arms, legs, head, etc. Double all measurements. Then have them draw those body parts on big paper – they'll need several pieces. Put your giant together, decorate it and hang it up. Where will it fit?
Changing cents. Look closely at a penny. Soak it in a small cup of vinegar. Now look at the penny. What happened? Look at it with a magnifying glass. What can you see now?
Practice math skills online. Go to www.freemathhelp.com and have students play the "Add Like Mad" game.
The hard facts. Some people say 7 x 6 = 42 and 7 x 8 = 56 are the hardest facts to remember. Make up rhymes for those hard facts. (6 x 9 is 54, that's not hard, now try one more!)
Math in a flash! Write a math problem on one side of an index card and the answer on the other. Trade cards with a partner. Quiz yourself.
Pity the poor penny. The United States Mint may be eliminating the penny from circulation. Should the penny be kept or eliminated, ask students to debate the issue.
Design a dollar. If you could redesign the dollar bill, what would it look like? Have students draw a picture and explain their changes.
Shrinking jackpot. Imagine you just won a million dollars. Then you buy something for half of what you won. Then you buy another item for half of that. How much money would you have left?
Coin comparison. Choose any two coins (penny, nickel, dime, quarter). Use a Venn diagram to compare them: How are they alike? How are they different?
Happy birthday, Jamestown. This year marks the 407th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, VA, the first permanent English settlement in North America. In which year was it founded? When will it celebrate its 425th anniversary?
Keep the beat. Have students bring in a recording of their favorite song. As a class, count the number of beats per minute in each song. Find out which songs have the most – and least – beats in a typical minute.
Sweeps week. Have students conduct a survey about their friends' favorite TV shows. See how many kinds of charts you can produce to show the data.
Peak performance. Mount Everest, the tallest peak in Asia (and the world), is 29,035 feet high. Mount McKinley, the tallest peak in North America, is 20,320 feet high. How much taller is Mount Everest than Mount McKinley? Write math problems using other amazing geography facts.
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