How to Find the Treasure

             I’ve thought about what kind of homework I had as a kid that I enjoyed the most. A lot of it was simply projects that I could do at home with my family. When I was learning to read, I first had to learn my letters. One of the most entertaining homework assignments that I can remember simply involved a newspaper and pen. My teacher had me choose one article in a newspaper and circle all the a’s I could find. In my childish eyes, it was a lot like Where’s Waldo, and trust me, I loved those books!

So why don’t we have those for math lessons? They actually do exist! They are known as scavenger hunts though. Teachers basically make them up with any lesson they are doing at the moment. They can have the kids find whole numbers, fractions, and repeating decimals. It’s also a good way to tie math into any lesson having to do with years and important events. Here is what these scavengers may look like:

Math Scavenger Hunt #1   See if you can find each of these in the newspaper.  Write what you found and the page on which you found it.   A fraction that is more than one-fifth (1/5) Page____ A money amount less than $1 Page____  A date other than today’s Page____ A five-digit number Page____ A decimal that is not an amount of money  Page____ A store giving a discount of 20 percent or more Page____ An ad larger than half of the newspaper page Page____  A temperature higher than 40 degrees Page____ A stock that has gained more than one point Page____

                 Obviously the scavenger hunts would be different depending on what grade you teach. Third graders aren’t going to understand what a stock is. Hopefully the parents would be more than willing to help their children with their homework if they were to need it, but sadly not all children have that luxury. I know for myself personally, I feel proud when my sister feels comfortable coming to me for help with her homework. I can only hope that parents feel the same way and help them the same that I help my sister.

                Doing math this way allows students to connect math to an actual real life thing. Reading a newspaper they can understand people doing, it’s not as foreign to them as learning a new math concept. So if you pair the two together, learning a new concept may become less stressful. It may even seem normal then because it’s something you do in everyday life and don’t even realize it! Children need something concrete to build their math skills on. Something as simple as finding numbers in a newspaper or even magazine! May just do that! It’s like finding a hidden treasure. Exciting and fun for most children. I remember my mom sitting down next to me and my sister, all of us taking turns in circling the letters. I’d always find them, but I loved to share the joy in circling the letters up until the very end.  

Pins for pinterest

https://www.pinterest.com/

    Believe it or not, math lesson ideas are starting to sink into our social networking! Pinterest is a website where you have different boards. For example, you can have your wedding day, your future house, hair styles, nail designs,...etc. On the website, you are now beginning to see more educational boards where teachers or moms are putting up their creative ideas on how to get their children to do math. These ideas can be shared easily with a click of a button, literally!  It's neat to see the different ideas and pictures to go  along with them.
    One of the pins (what you call all the ideas and pictures under a single board) I enjoyed the most was the nerf gun math. The parents, or children, write whole digit numbers from 0-9 on plastic cups. The children then shoot cups until they all fall down. They need to write down the number on the cups that they shot, and then add them up. Let's face it, a nerf gun shootout will get anyone's attention!  Even my own because its fun and interactive!
      Another pin that I found rather unique had to deal with shape recognition. One parent thought it would be a great idea to turn snack time for the child into learning time for the brain as well. The adult took snacks and cut them into different shapes. Then on the plate it was served on, drew the same shapes. Next, they mixed the fruit up so the child could then match the food to the shape if they wished too. It gave them something to do while they were eating that kept their brain involved while at the same time probably taught them to not talk with their mouth open or full!
     There are also pins that you would never think of as actually being math skills.  For example, connecting the dots to reveal a picture.  Without even noticing, this is helping kids to count. Also, the greater than and less than signs being monsters. Who hasn't heard that one?! The monster always wants to eat the bigger number right?! It's a simple trick to get kids to remember which was to turn the sign. The open end always points towards the bigger number. My personal favorite though, was the 100th day of school project. On the 100th day of school each of my classmates, including myself, would have to choose a tiny object that they loved and count out 100 of them to put in a jar to bring to school. We then had show and tell with our jars and said why we loved the objects we had chosen. This is yet another, great idea to get kids to count to larger numbers!
    The thing I found most unique about these ideas however were that most of the ideas came from parents. These ideas most likely aren't classic ones that are taught to "teachers in training" as a way to involve their class. It was love and care for their own children that helped parents create interactive learning in everyday moments. Parents are teachers, except everday, every moment, they have a class watching their every move.
     So enjoy your social networking! You never know what math you'll find out there without even realizing it. At the top is a link to pinterest so  that you can find some ideas for some math exercises!  Enjoy!