This post is from contributor Stacey Lane.
Since we are about finished with the first quarter of school, I thought it would be a great time to change up the school routine for one day.
Now one could argue that math can never be fun and I am sure some of my family would agree. Regardless, I have chosen to spend the day focused on math. We have put our normal schedule and books away.
Disclaimer: I might have bribed my kids with candy, money, or video game time to join me in a day of math lessons. No, we did NOT do everything I have listed; I often get carried away in planning.
I tried my best to research math activities that do not require huge amounts of preparation. Honestly, I thought it was a great chance to review things I had pinned on my Math Pinterest Board and take some time to actually complete them.
Math Fun Day Schedule:
My children need to know the schedule every morning; I think they fear I will forget to feed them. I printed up a schedule to hang on the refrigerator, but you might be able to skip this step at your house.
- 9:00 to 10:00 Math Activities
- 10:00 to 11:00 Creative Writing
- 11:00 to 12:00 Cooking in the Kitchen
- 12:00 to 1:00 Lunch and Math Read-Aloud
- 1:00 to 2:00 Math Games
- 2:00 to 3:00 Math Movies with Snacks
- 3:00 Math on-line or Math Apps
Math Fun Day Activities:
- LEGOs have a way of getting my boys moving, so I started our day with some LEGO math. I made it a race to build the math problems.
- Since we are starting regrouping next week, I took a moment to introduce borrowing with this poster and dance. My oldest son read the poem by doing a dramatic reading. My youngest did the dance. I shot video of both events.
- Math cups for place value review.
- I need to work on percents with my oldest son and this activity with cards, dice, and calculators helped.
- Walk the Plank, skip counting the pirate way. This site includes a printable for skip counting by tens. I used sticky notes to review skip counting by 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8. Then I could remove different numbers as he remembered them. The goal was to walk the plank by successfully completing the skip counting.
Math Fun Day Lunch and Snacks:
- 2D geometry shapes made with pretzel sticks and mini marshmallows. We worked on creating all the different quadrilaterals. I typed two words per page of the different kinds of quadrilaterals; this gave them enough space to place their creations.
- Flash Card Cookies, I used a tube of icing gel. I put a math problem on a graham cracker and they had to give the answer before they could eat it.
- Tangram sandwich
- Chex Mix math, sorting shapes and answering questions. This free download is no longer available but I so loved the idea of sorting a bag of Chex Mix that I copied the information down by hand.
- Our family favorite English muffins pizza. Before serving the pizzas:
- Cut one pizza in half
- Cut one pizza into fourths
- Cut one pizza into thirds
- Now serve one whole, one half, one third, and one fourth to each person.
Math Fun Day Games:
- Multiplication War or Add it Up with a deck of cards.
- Teaching money by ordering food from a restaurant.
- Uno Flip
- X Math Game, uses dice and grid paper
- Place Value War with Uno cards
- Math Sorry
- Think Fun Math Dice
- Out of the Box Publishing, Inc. 7 ATE 9 – Fast and Fun Number Crunch’n
- Blink Card Game: The World’s Fastest Game
- Or just dust off the math games in your closet and take some time to play them.
Math Fun Day Movie:
- Donald in Mathmagic Land
, I watched this one when I was a kid.
- Leapfrog: Math Adventure To The Moon
- The Story of 1
- Rock ‘N Learn: Money & Making Change
Math Fun Day Literature:
- I emptied the shelf at our local library on books with a math theme.
- Books on division
- Huge list of math books
- Math chapter books
- Books about place value
Math Fun Day Creative Writing:
- Ok, so Pinterest is not bursting at the seams with math writing prompts, but I still wanted to write a math story.
- I use Life of Fred 4-Book Elementary Set # 1 : Apples, Butterflies, Cats, Dogs
with my youngest son and he can recite in his sleep that 4 plus 5 is 9 because Fred walks down the hallway that has 9 vending machines.
- Fred Writing Prompt: write a story with 3 equations in it. Repeat the equations at least twice.
- My son’s story included Bill the librarian passing 13 bookshelves every day, 7 on one side and 6 on the other.
- Tell me why 7 decided to eat 9, you know the old joke, why is 6 scared of 7? Because 7 ate (8) 9.
- I believe the boasting of number 9 led to his demise, and 6 forever being afraid of 7. I loved the humor in my son’s story; we might need to illustrate this tomorrow.
- Write a story telling me how a child spent his $10 birthday money on 3 items.
Math Fun Day On-line or Math Apps:
Math Fun Day Pinterest Boards:
What are your favorite Math Fun Day ideas? Would your kids joyfully attend or need a bribe to enjoy a math fun day?
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Stacey Lane is a wife, mother, teacher, jill-of-all-trades, and a member of the Bright Ideas Press team. Her many gifts include visual thinking, bringing order out of chaos, thinking outside the box, and taking charge (when needed). When she’s not developing curriculum or contributing to her blog at Layered Soulshe homeschools her own four children. She is notoriously, amazingly frugal and has shouted, “I’m Debt Free” on the Dave Ramsey show!
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