Many everyday experiences provide excellent opportunities for engaging in math thinking. Encourage mathematical thinking through activities that you create, as well as through well-known materials such as coins, blocks, card and board games. When engaging in these math experiences, encourage your child to solve problems mentally rather than over-relying on mathematical tools such as pencil and paper and calculators.
Examples of everyday activities that encourage meaningful math thinking for elementary-aged students include:
| Activity | What's the Math? | |
|---|---|---|
| Grocery shopping: (All of these activities also focus on identifying and reading decimal numbers.) | ||
| How much do you think our groceries will cost? |
Estimation, addition |
|
| How much money will we save if we use these coupons? |
Addition, subtraction |
|
| How much change will we get if we give the clerk $20.00? |
Addition, subtraction |
|
| How much money will we get for recycling a certain number of cans? |
Multiplication |
|
| (Or, how many cans were recycled if I got back $.65) | Division | |
| At the post office: | ||
| How many stamps on a sheet or in a book? |
Counting, addition, multiplication |
|
| About how much will it cost to buy a certain number of stamps? |
Estimation, addition, multiplication |
|
| How much change will we get if we give the clerk $5? |
Subtraction |
|
| How many stamps can I buy for a certain amount of money? |
Division |
|
| When driving, taking the bus or walking: | ||
| About how many blocks until we get to a certain place? (Then count and find out.) |
Estimating, measuring distances, counting |
|
| About how long will it take to get to a certain place? (Then time it to find out.) |
Estimating, measuring time |
|
| How many dogs, stop signs or traffic lights do you think we will see along the way? |
Predicting, collecting data, counting |
|
| How many stamps can I buy for a certain amount of money? |
Division |
|
| Can you sort the clothes into whites and colors to wash them? What about sorting into three categories? |
Sorting and classifying data |
|
| How many pair of socks can we make if there are 14 single socks? (Or, if there are 5 pairs, how many socks is that?) |
Multiplication, division |
|
| When cooking dinner: | ||
| How many [plates, napkins, spoons] do we need for a certain number of people? |
Counting |
|
| How much [water] do we need to measure when making [orange juice]? |
Measuring, fractions |
|
| If this recipe calls for 3/4 cup of flour and we are doubling the recipe, how much flour do we need? |
Adding fractions, measuring |
|
| When reading with your child: | ||
| How many objects/pictures do you think are on this page? Let's count. |
Estimating, counting |
|
| Do you think there are more birds or trees on this page? Why? How do you know? |
Counting and comparing quantities |
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As you can see, you can do lots of math throughout the day. In addition to the activities listed here, you can create other valuable experiences, play games and solve problems from a variety of sources.