At-Home Resources

These resources are designed to support teachers, educators, and families in making more math happen outside of school. They include activities families can do at home, ideas for supporting children as they work on math problems, blogs about the mathematical power of games and other common activities, and digital assets that can support families in doing more math together, at home.

At-Home Activities from Investigations 3

Looking for activities that focus on important math, involve little in the way of materials, and provide experiences that can be tweaked and repeated and extended over time? This page compiles examples of such activities, with variations at each grade level, K-5. While they are all from Investigations 3, they will engage and interest all students. This week we share games that are about adding, and getting Close To a given number. (Past activities: Quick Images: Part 2, Today’s Number: Part 2, The Game of Compare, Quick Images, Today’s Number.)

    Questions that Support Math Learning

    How can families support their children with math learning at home? Asking questions as their children solve problems suggested by school or as they do math activities together can go a long way! Here are 3 blogs about the kinds of questions that can help children use what they know to solve problems and share their math thinking. These questions can also spark kids’ interest in exploring math ideas more deeply. 

    Math at Home

    Math at Home is a collection of K-5 activities that families can do together. A new set of activities in English and Spanish will be released every few days!

    Finding the Math at Home

    Lots of people are talking about how families can and should mathematize the things they are already doing at home. But many wonder, “What does that look and sound like? What kinds of activities present good opportunities for math?” The following blog posts offer helpful images and activities.

      Games 

      As many children and families find themselves doing much or most of their learning remotely, lots of people are thinking about ways to incorporate more math into what already happens at home. One huge opportunity: games. Many familiar games – card games, games that use dice, board games – involve mathematics. In addition, they are engaging (i.e., kids want to play) and motivating (i.e., they want to play better, they want to win) and so encourage repeated play. The following blog posts talk about the power of games, at several different levels, and share examples of some of the authors’ favorites.

      Math at Home: Ideas from Others

      People have been sharing such lovely ideas about how families can be doing interesting, engaging math at home. This page compiles examples from Twitter, with commentary about ways to extend or alter them for children of different ages. (10/9/20, 8/14/20, 7/17/20, 6/26/20, 6/19/20, 6/12/20, 6/5/20, 5/29/20, 5/22/20, 5/15/20, 5/8/20, 5/1/20, 4/24/20, 4/17/20, 4/10/20, 4/3/20)

       

        Investigations 3 Games Online

        The Games Center contains online versions of many of the Investigations 3 games. It can be accessed in English and Spanish.

        Math Words and Ideas from Investigations 3

        Math Words and Ideas provides a clear, interactive review of different concepts. Many include an animation; all include a “Try It” activity. The MWI can be accessed in English or Spanish. 

        Math Tools

        One challenge most classrooms are experiencing this year is the sharing of materials, or having enough to use at both school and home. With the help of our colleagues at Savvas Learning, the Investigations 3 team has expanded the digital Math Tools available on Savvas Realize. These tools now include the most commonly used cubes (e.g. 1-3 & 1-6 dot, 1-6 & 7-12 number, multiples of 5, pattern blocks, fractions) and card decks (primary number Cards, dot cards, multiple of 10 cards, digit cards, array cards, fraction and decimal cards), as well as new base-10 tools and a virtual set of Power Polygons (in the Geometry tools).