Enriching Math Talent at Home
Marsha Landau, Ph. D.
Center for Talent Development
Saturday Enrichment Program
Parent Workshop
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Introduction
You are your child's most important teacher.
You are your child's most important teacher.
What are some ways in which you encourage mathematical thinking in your child?
Math is about Patterns and Relationships
For example, here's a number pattern I haven't had a chance to explore yet:
In order to ENRICH at home, parents need to know what's happening in the schools:
Common Core State Standards
Common Core State Standards Initiative | Mathematics | Standards for Mathematical Practice
new directions for assessment, for example:
Grade K-2 performance task
Grade 3 performance task
Grade 4 Performance Task
Grade 5 performance task
Math at Home:
Common Core State Standards
Common Core State Standards Initiative | Mathematics | Standards for Mathematical Practice
new directions for assessment, for example:
Grade K-2 performance task
Grade 3 performance task
Grade 4 Performance Task
Grade 5 performance task
Math at Home:
Everyday life opportunities: measurement in cooking, arts and crafts, projects
Note about the afternoon session on Saturday: We talked about the fact that cutting an orange into eighths could lead to a discussion about non-Euclidean geometry. In the picture below, you can see how the "triangular" piece of the orange has three right angles:
Note about the afternoon session on Saturday: We talked about the fact that cutting an orange into eighths could lead to a discussion about non-Euclidean geometry. In the picture below, you can see how the "triangular" piece of the orange has three right angles:
Books
(for example, see: Math Books and Resources . Education | PBS Parents)
Almost any book will do if you are on the lookout for math connections.
Last week my granddaughter and I were reading There's a Zoo in Room 22 by Judy Sierra. (Preview here on Googlebooks.)
It is written in verse, so we discovered and labeled the rhyming PATTERNS.
This one is ABAB CDCD:
This one is AABBCC:
My granddaughter declared that "hexaflexagon is not a word."
Well!
I happen to HAVE hexaflexagons--in fact, all of the following:
trihexaflexagon
tetrahexaflexagon
pentahexaflexagon
hexahexaflexagon
So after finishing the book, we explored the flexagons.
For directions and patterns to make your own, go here.
And an exciting video here.
Planned learning situations: using manipulatives, games, software, internet
(for example, see: Math Books and Resources . Education | PBS Parents)
Almost any book will do if you are on the lookout for math connections.
Last week my granddaughter and I were reading There's a Zoo in Room 22 by Judy Sierra. (Preview here on Googlebooks.)
This one is ABAB CDCD:
This one is AABBCC:
Well!
I happen to HAVE hexaflexagons--in fact, all of the following:
trihexaflexagon
tetrahexaflexagon
pentahexaflexagon
hexahexaflexagon
So after finishing the book, we explored the flexagons.
For directions and patterns to make your own, go here.
And an exciting video here.
Planned learning situations: using manipulatives, games, software, internet
Big Ideas in Early Childhood:
numeration
seriation
classification
counts and measures
meanings of operations: addition and subtraction
(in depth: Addition and Subtraction Problem Types )
meanings of operations: addition and subtraction
(in depth: Addition and Subtraction Problem Types )
Math and Literature
An excellent resource to use when creating a list of books to look for at the library is Math Patterns in Children's Literature.
Another is amazon.com's lists of books keyed to specific mathematics content. For example:
FOR PARENTS:
Math and Literature: K-3 Book 1 by Marilyn Burns
Math and Literature (K-3) Book 2 by Stephanie Sheffield
Math Through Children's Literature: Making the NCTM Standards Come Alive
by Kathryn L. Braddon, Nancy J. Hall and Dale Tylor. Math activities designed for 132 different children's titles. Designed for classroom use.
by Kathryn L. Braddon, Nancy J. Hall and Dale Tylor. Math activities designed for 132 different children's titles. Designed for classroom use.
Project Resources
Example: Halloween (see page on this blog)
QUILTS
I was especially pleased to find a link to a free online quilt designer. Quilters made it easy for me to create my own patterns. Here's an example:
11/4/2012 Update on Quilters: Al Jarnow, the creator of Quilters, was kind enough to respond to my email about the application not working for me. Here's his reply (and both the link and the revised app worked fine today):
Here's a version that will work in a different way (I think). It might be too late for your demonstration, but for next time . . . .
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/72975954/QuiltRevision.zip
Click on the link to download a zipped app to your computer. It might unzip by itself. Otherwise find the downloaded zip in your downloads folder and click.
Further correspondence suggests that the first link above will work for PCs and the download from dropbox will work for Mac, but won't be available indefinitely.
TESSELLATIONS
Here's a version that will work in a different way (I think). It might be too late for your demonstration, but for next time . . . .
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/72975954/QuiltRevision.zip
Click on the link to download a zipped app to your computer. It might unzip by itself. Otherwise find the downloaded zip in your downloads folder and click.
Further correspondence suggests that the first link above will work for PCs and the download from dropbox will work for Mac, but won't be available indefinitely.
TESSELLATIONS
To make your own tessellations, simple directions can be found here:
Cuisenaire Rods: Space, Color, and Mathematics introduces Cuisenaire rods and explains in detail how to get started with them. The rods are a very versatile manipulative, so worth the investment. They can be used to explore all the important whole number concepts and operations, but also factors and
multiples, fractions, area and perimeter, etc.
multiples, fractions, area and perimeter, etc.
Speaking of manipulatives, here is a nice description (with pictures) of most of the useful math manipulatives you might consider purchasing for your home:
Math Manipulatives Page from USI STEM
Interactive Games and At Home Activities For Kids, LICM Kid’s Page is sponsored by the Long Island Children's Museum. There is another quilt designer here, and other interactive drawing games. The at-home activities include printable games for children 9-12.
The Math Kit "At Home with Math" at the TERC website has this description, from their introduction:
A word to parents This math kit contains activities and games to help you make math a natural part of your family’s everyday work and play. The kit contains two books, one for everyday math activities and one for math games.
Everyday math activities As parents, we use math all the time—as we shop, figure out how much time to allot for errands, and schedule time for cooking, eating, and cleaning. Often, our children are with us during these tasks. Perhaps they are even helping out. Why not involve them in the math?
The ten everyday math activities in this kit build math into the things most families already do—ordinary routines such as figuring out ways to save money, to share fairly, or to get somewhere on time. With these activities, children practice adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and using other important math skills while doing tasks that are a regular part of life.
I particularly liked the activity using estimation and counting while putting away toys that are scattered about, and the one developing ideas of probability and statistics through collecting junk mail for a week.
This link, also at TERC, provides questions that can be the basis for a series of projects:
Finding different ways to make fourths on a geoboard is one of my favorite activities when I work with gifted students.
for example:
tangrams
Explore geometry and measurement ideas using 7 easy pieces: similar triangles, equal areas, angle measures, etc. A wide variety of tasks are available to make this work well with students of all ages.
Explore geometry and measurement ideas using 7 easy pieces: similar triangles, equal areas, angle measures, etc. A wide variety of tasks are available to make this work well with students of all ages.
Wooden Geoboard 8 X 8 Single So much more than making a shape! Explore length, area, Pick's Formula, irrational numbers, composing and decomposing regions, congruence, and more.
Attribute blocks One of the central math tasks of early learners is classification. This manipulative allows the student to consider classifying pieces based on shape, color, size, and thickness.
pattern blocks
Note: The photo at the top of this blog shows a pattern block design tucked into a hinged mirror. I think it illustrates the beauty of the WOODEN blocks, which I much prefer to the only slightly less expensive plastic ones.
A better price is often available at EAI:
Pentominoes
All the shapes you can make in a plane when 5 congruent squares are connected along whole sides. The 12 pieces can be fitted together to make rectangles (6x10, 5x12, 4x15, 3x20) and many other shapes.
origami
Games
I do not recommend so-called games that are designed to make your child practice math facts--they are boring! The 24-game, featured below, gets the same job done many times over and is fun and exciting.
The other games are strategy games which promote logical reasoning and thinking ahead. The ones you can play with young students are Continuo, Gobblet, and Set, since they rely more on visual/spatial thinking than number knowledge.
Blokus
SET game
24-game
Use all four numbers on the card to make 24.
Interactive and Printable Resources : nrich.maths.org
Math Models
Puzzles
Tools
PRINTABLES available online
This manual for the project “Parents Teach Math: A Family Literacy Approach,” funded by the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, has wonderful activities for doing math at home, starting on page 18.
Esso Family Math Early Years Resource Book provides more than 100 pages of activities and ideas for sharing math with your child. Although parents of gifted children are not the target audience for the book, the activities will certainly be appropriate for your children, ages 2-6. The book continues in this link: Extended Weeks (7-10) Resource Book.
Figure This Challenging math problems for families to work on together.
GROCERY STORE BINGO is one example activity from Activities . Grades 1 and 2 . Early Math . PBS Parents | PBS. For younger children, check out
OTHER LINKS FOR PARENTS
Making the Most of Math explains important math skills that can be developed, starting in two- and three-year-olds, that will ultimately support math in school but connect math with fun and play for children and parents.
Mathwire.com | Math Enrichment offers a comprehensive set of links for gifted math students of all ages. So does the website Developing Mathematical Talent.
Parents Guide / Math Skills Development at Chateau Meddybumps provides information about math skills and links to appropriate activities for developing each skill. The page also contains a link to a page of counting books. Another page at meddybumps, Fun and Games / Learning Activities / Spatial Concepts, helps parents work with their child's understanding of over, under, in, and out using cute animal cutouts.
4 Great Math Games from Marilyn Burns are intended for the classroom but can certainly be played at home.
Mensa For Kids has a page of parent resources.
Explore a page of links on symmetry and tessellations posted by Jill Britton, based on material in her book: Investigating Patterns: Symmetry and Tessellations
Elsewhere on this blog I have already recommended the book, Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths Toward Excellence and Equity. It is worth mentioning again.
In addition to the print version, which I think is quite expensive, the book is available from the National Academies Press to read online: Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths Toward Excellence and Equity.
I encourage you, as parents of budding mathematicians and scientists, to read My Mother, the Scientist to understand why your gifted daughters deserve the same support and attention in these fields as your gifted sons.
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