Everyday Math Activities

We will be incorporating two math programs; Everyday Math and Math in Focus. Everyday Math is a spiraling program that is designed to teach your child several different ways to solve problems in order to address the many different learning styles of children. Math in Focus was designed after the approach used to teach math in Singapore and teaches math concepts to mastery. I look forward to teaching this approach while incorporating the spiraling program. Throughout the year I will be adding some do-anytime activities that are easy and fun to do with your child at home to the webpage. These activities will reinforce the skills and concepts that your child will be learning at school. You can also find math activities to do with your child under the Kindergarten Readiness section on the home page.

1st quarter

• Count the steps needed to walk from the sidewalk to the front door (or between any two place). Try to walk the same distance with fewer steps or with more steps.
• Start collecting pennies in a family penny jar. Count them from time to time. 
• Encourage your child to figure out answers to real-life situations. "We have one can of soup, but we need five. How many more do we have to buy?"
• Collect a number of different types of rocks, leaves, or sticks. Have your child sort them by shape, color, size, or another way. With your assistance, have your child make a graph using the items collected.
• Record family heights, in centimeters as well as inches, on a door frame. Measure again periodically in the same location throughout the school year. You can also look for items around the house that are about the same height as each family member.
• Help your child plan and prepare a snack that includes common shapes. Decide which shapes will be in your snack and choose or cut food that represents the shapes. For example, use cheese slices for squares, oranges for circles, grapes for ovals, crackers for rectangles, and cut watermelon in triangle shapes.
• Collect different kinds and sizes of objects: buttons, milk tops, soda caps, coins, barrettes and so on. Both you and your child can make different patterns using the items. Take turns guessing each other's patterns and describing them.

 2nd quarter

• Make a number matching game using 20 index cards. On 10 of the cards, write the numerals 1 through 10. On the other 10 cards, draw a set of objects for each number (or use stamps or stickers), such as 1 apple, 2 stars, 3 spiders, and so on. Mix up the cards and lay them facedown. Players take turns flipping over the cards, trying to find a matching pair-that is, a set of objects and the numeral card that tells how many objects there are. Players keep the pairs they find and count them at the  end of the game.
• Show your child 3 objects and count them aloud together. Then put the objects in your pocket, a box, or a bag. Put 2 more objects in with the 3 objects, and ask you child, "How many are in my pocket now?" Repeat with other numbers and then with subtraction (taking objects out of the pocket, box, or bag.)
• Have your child think about how much cereal (or other basic food) your family eats each week. Is there a way to keep track of the amount? Help your child plan a way to collect this data during the week. You could keep track by making tally marks, drawing pictures of bowls, and so on.
• Help your child measure the length of a room with his or her feet by measuring "heel to toe". Then measure the length of the room in the same way with your own feet. Compare the measurements and discuss why they are different.
• Look for shapes around the house, supermarket, mall, playground, or while driving in the car. Talk about what shapes seem to appear most often.
• Use cookie cutters or plastic knives and play dough to make sets of a certain number of things. For example, if your number is 5, your child can make 5 circles, 5 squares, 5 bells, 5 leaves, and so on. You and your child can arrange the shapes in a pattern (such as 2 circles-1 square-2 circles-1 square). Guess each other's pattern and continue the pattern with more shapes.

  3rd quarter

• Have your child count pennies from your family penny jar into stacks of 5. Then help your child counts by 5s. You may want to exchange some of the stacks of pennies for nickels.
• Play a guessing game to help your child visualize and recognize written numbers by "writing" a number with your finger on your child's back. If your child has trouble guessing the number, give hints. ("It has two curves" or "Your sister is this many years old.") Switch roles and let your child write numbers on your back.
• Make up "one more" and "one less" stories. Have your child use counters, such a pennies or raisins to model the mathematics. For example, "The dinosaur laid 5 eggs." (Your child puts down 5 counters.) "Then the dinosaur laid one more egg." (Your child puts down another counter.) "How many eggs are there?"
• With your child, take a look in each family member's closed and tally the different colors you see. Ask your child, "What do you notice?" "What does this tell you about the colors your family likes to wear?"
• Gather 5 or 6 of the same type of objects (books, boxes, and cans) of various sizes. Help your child arrange the objects in some kind of order - by length, by thickness, by weight. Engage your child in a conversation about how the objects are arranged using comparison words such as taller, shorter, narrower, wider, heaviest, lightest, more, less, about and the same.
• Gather several of the same type of items such as stuffed animals, dolls, trucks, cars or ball. Think of a rule for sorting the objects into two groups. For example, sort the stuffed animals into one group that has tails and another group that does not have tails. Ask "Why did I pick those animals?" or "Why do they belong together?" Have your child verbalize the rule. Switch roles and have your child make up a sorting rule for you to solve.

4th quarter

• Have your child practice counting backward when you cook food in the microwave oven. Let your child set the time, then count down to 0.
• Take a big handful of pennies from your family penny jar. Count out some of the coins for your child (such as 33 or 47), and then have your child count on from that number.
• Put 10 - 20  small objects, such as beans, pasta, coins, or buttons, in a paper bag. Have your child reach in and grab a few objects with one hand, and then with the other. Lay both handfuls down beside each other. Ask your child to first count the objects from the left hand, and then add the number of objects from the right hand by counting on.
• Help your child create a survey question and collect answers to it. Some examples of questions may be "How do kids get to school?" "What is the most popular flavor of ice cream?" "What kind of cereal do people like?" Have your child predict how people will answer, then survey family members and friends and keep track of their answers. Ask you child, "What did you find out?"
• Go on a geometric shapes scavenger hunt. Use a camera to take photos of indoor or outdoor objects of various shapes. Once your film is developed, ask your child to sort the pictures into different categories and create a shapes photo album. If you don't want to use a camera, grab a bag and walk around the yard, neighborhood, or park to collect various items that are a particular chosen shape.
• Invite your child to help you sort the laundry. Before washing, your child can sort the clothes into piles for lights, darks, and whites. After the clothes are washed and dried, your child can help fold the clothes and sort them into piles of his or her choice, for example, by shirts, shorts, socks, or by color. 

*Suggested activities are from Home Connection Handbook - Everyday Mathematics Early Childhood- McGraw Hill Wright Group Copyright 2007

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