There are several reasons that it is important for students to 'play math.' First, it's more fun than sweating over 'drill and kill' math worksheets. Next, everyone learns better when they are relaxed and having fun. Also, playing around with numbers, relationships, and ideas gives students a sense of ownership. Finally, messing around with numbers and mathematical ideas creates a fantastic context for skill practice.
I have been posting videos on YouTube for a while now. So far, I'm learning a lot about how to make videos. Still, even though they are lumpy and homemade, they are worth watching. Here is the list so far:
There are other academic topics that support and extend the mathematical concept of perimeter. As you know, more connections make topics easier to understand and recall.
Whenever you have a new class, new students, or new circumstances of any kind, teachers might decide to use a gentle Get-to-Know-You type of math activity. The list of math-art activities below starts with ideas for very young learners and marches up to middle school aged students.
Lots of students think they understand triangles ~ three ... Continue Reading
One skill that is much easier than it sounds, is learning to find percentages with mental math.
The order of factors in multiplication doesn’t change the product. Encourage students to expand their understanding of the commutative property of multiplication to include percents. Even though the commutative property doesn’t apply to division and there is division in calculating percentages, x% of y will always equal y% of x. The swap always works and can be used to make mental calculations of percentages even easier.
Well educated people understand and make use of percentages all the time, making this an important topic to study as a gateway to higher math, and as an essential life skill.
Sprinkling mathematical questions into lessons on other topics gives students more opportunities to use math during the school day. Math adds detail and important information to the topic being studied.
Why not send home a letter notifying parents about Summer Slide and providing the solution at the same time?
