Archive #2: Thinking Mathematically

This past week our elementary hosted a "Family Fun Night".  The purpose of the evening was to demonstrate and share ideas that families could use at home to support their student's learning.  Some of our activities included healthy snack ideas, physical fitness, reading and fluency, and mathematics.  Mrs. Brown and I were able to share some fun activities that families can do at home with their children to promote number sense that are simple and have no cost to families. Supporting our student's thinking about numbers and their relationships can have a lasting affect on how they will be able to problem solve and will promote efficient ways of thinking.  I have decided to post these suggestions on my blog for those who may not have been able to attend.

• Count, Count, Count....Count everything!  Count the number of stairs in your house, cars in they toy box, Cheerios's in their bowl.  Figure out a variety of ways to group and count them efficiently.
• Have your children answer problems like:  If we have 10 apples and your brother eats 3 apples, how many apples will we have left?  Ask questions that involve adding and subtracting.
• Talk about time!  What time is it now?  What time will you go to bed?  What time will you go to school?  What time was it 10 minutes ago?
• Measure- the size of objects in your home, the amounts of ingredients you will use in your recipe. 
• Talk about a variety of ways of making or decomposing numbers:  Make 10 as many ways as you can.  Make 50 in more than one way.  Make 100 in at least 3 ways.
• Let your child use their own thinking, their own strategy, and have them explain their thinking.