April 2022
Welcome to EFM's April Newsletter!
News
Donations Now that EFM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, a supporter has answered the question: What is the next donation in our sequence of donations: $1000, $1500, ____ ? That number is $1000. We are of course very happy to receive support in any amount.
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Minimal Activities
Which math activities do you think of when your hands are busy, or you are sitting someplace and you have not brought anything with you? If you have a child, you often find yourself in these situations and it's great to have some choices to work with. I have suggestions this month on what to do when only minimal resources are available to you.
What If I Can Only Talk?
There are many times when you might be traveling, or otherwise occupied, and you'd like to do a little math with your child. Here are some ideas for you. I'll list them out by EFM chapter and page.
Chapter 1:
Pages 1 - 2 - Both Pages - Math Talk - The whole point of Math Talk is to share your math thoughts aloud with your child anywhere and everywhere. Of course this does not need to be restricted to chapter 1 material.
Pages 4, 5, 6 - Shape Hunt, Object Hunt, Number Hunt - Similar to I Spy, one of you thinks of an item for the other person to look for. You give a few hints, and then have fun seeing which things the other person finds.
Page 5 - Patterns - Look for patterns around you, or create sound patterns to copy and extend. The patterns can be visual or aural.
Chapter 2:
Page 6 - Nim With 1 and 2 - The other versions of Nim in later chapters are also great. Once your child is comfortable with adding or subtracting small numbers in their head, this is a fun game to play on the run.
Page 8 - Smallest Single Number - If you have a small group of children, this is a very easy game to play over and over. There is always lots of laughter as the children shift their strategies and allegiances. Who will take 1 and who will take 2, and will they actually do it, can lead to lots of fun. You can make the winner have some prize, such as the winner gets to go first when you get to where you're going.
Page 9 - I'm Thinking of a Number - This simple game, with lots of comparisons and splitting intervals into parts, is easy to play without paper.
Page 12 - Bag Game and Math Stories - Make up small verbal puzzles for the other person to solve. If there are five cars that are red and blue in front of our car, and two of the cars are blue, how many red cars are there? If I have ten scoops of ice cream and each cone gets three scoops, how many people get cones and how many scoops are left over?
Page 13 - Estimation - Look over at a group of things and say - I wonder how many there are, what do you think? Try to pick things you can actually count, so you can see whose estimate is best.
Page 15 - Make Me a Liar - It's always a fun challenge to think of statements that are almost true and challenge the other person to find out why it's false.
Chapter 3:
Page 11 - How Can I Make - Think of different ways of getting a total, say 9. You can do variations where you insist that the numbers are bigger than 2, or maybe that two of the numbers are the same.
Chapter 4:
Page 7 - Skip Counting - This is great practice and is easy to do anywhere. Start at an arbitrary number and practice skip counting up or down from there by some given amount.
Page 14 - Sum Difference - Think of two numbers in your head, and announce their sum and difference. The other person must find the original two numbers.
Chapter 5:
Page 7 - Beep - This can be lots of fun and can be very silly, especially if you insist on going quickly.
Page 9 - Practice Prime Factorizations - This is fabulous practice and a great skill builder. When my family went skiing, we would try to do the prime factorizations of the numbered lift chairs as they came the other direction.
I Didn't Bring Anything, What Do I Do?
Sometimes you find yourself at the park and you didn't bring anything like paper and pencil with you. Of course, all the verbal activities I just listed are available to you. This section has a few more ideas.
Chapter 1:
Page 5 - Patterns - Collect some things you brought, or things lying around, and play with making patterns with them. Alternatively, make movement patterns or sound patterns. Challenge the other person to repeat them, or to repeat them and add one more item to the pattern.
Page 6 & 7 - One More One Less & In the Other Hand - Count a small collection of things and discuss what happens when you add or take away a few of them.
Page 8 - Going in Circles - Draw circles in the dirt or make use of regions already present in the surface. Take a group of objects and place them in the regions according to some property.
Page 8 - Same and Different & One of These Is Not Like the Others - Get together small groups of objects and discuss how they are the same or different, or how one of them is not like any of the others.
Chapter 2:
Page 6 - Invisible adding and subtracting - Grab some objects and add or subtract a few of them out of sight of your child.
Page 6 - Nim With One or Two - If your child is not ready to play Nim without writing things down, then you can play nim with a small group of fairly identical small objects.
Page 8 & 10 & Chapter 3 Page 2 - Fitting In & What's Missing & Mystery Change - All of these can be played by gathering together a group of objects that are just lying around where you are (perhaps some fallen leaves).
Chapter 3
Page 4 - Number Shapes - Put together a collection of similar small objects and see which shapes you can make on the ground. With a given number, how many different rectangles can you make? When can you make squares or triangles?
Chapter 4
Page 12 - Magic triangles & Magic Designs - This requires a bit of writing, but perhaps you can write in the dirt or draw in a sandbox. Draw one of the diagrams and discuss solving it as your child figures it out.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them my way. I would enjoy the opportunity to chat with you. Also, if you are interested in collaborating with us or supporting us in any fashion, I would love to talk with you about ways we can work together.
Chris Wright
April 18, 2022
Chris@EarlyFamilyMath.org
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Early Family Math is a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, #87-4441486.