Game and Puzzle Club
Our Wednesday morning before-school Game and Puzzle Club is about to wrap-up. Wednesday, May 29, will be our final meeting for this year. Led by a volunteer, Nataliya Yufa of the Cambridge Math Circle, and originally open to interested 4th and 5th graders, some of our younger students have been drawn in from the cafeteria by all the game playing and problem solving. The room buzzes with students thinking strategically, talking about their ideas, and enjoying math! We are sorry to see it come to an end and want to extend a huge thank you to Nataliya as well as our intrepid volunteers, Alicia and Carroll.
Summer is Coming - Keep Math in Mind
Summer is a great time to do math with your children, but many parents and caregivers aren’t sure how to do that. Don’t worry! Nothing fancy is needed - just ask questions about the world around you! Your children are wonderful problem solvers - help the see the math that is all around them. Here are some suggestions - your children will love coming up with their own ideas, too.
If your child just finished, JK, K or grade 1, give them lots of opportunities to count things. Count as you go - how many steps to the corner, how many cars did we pass? Or count small piles of objects - how many beans, how many pennies, how many paperclips? Encourage them to organize the objects - can they put them in piles of 10 and then count them? Older children might organize them by 2s or 5s.
If your child just finished grade 2 or 3, try to make up problems about things you see that come in groups. We just passed 3 cars. How many tires were on them all? I have 10 cookies. How many could you and sister each get?
If your child just finished grade 4 or 5, put them in charge of figuring out money questions! How much money will you need to buy eggs and milk? How much change will you get if you pay with $5?
Want to learn even more about helping your child? Check out this new
podcast episode from WBUR. It’s called “Raising Kids Who Love Math — Even If You Don't.”
Have fun finding math in the world around you!
Nili Pearlmutter, Haggerty Math Coach