Area & perimeter activities - a teacher's experience with Math Mammoth

Ms. Pineda used two lessons from my book Mamut Matemáticas Geometría inicial with her bilingual class. Below is her lesson plan, and some reflections. I asked her some questions.


How did the children like the activities?

The worksheets were a great guide for them because they kept them focused, and the amount of , "What do I do?" questions were very minimal.They seemed comfortable referring back to the worksheets for definitions and examples. I also noticed there was a lot less hand-raising.


How did you like using Math Mammoth materials?

It definitely made my job easier, because I did not have to continue going back to each group to explain what are or perimeter were. The definition was in front of them along with examples.


How many class periods did you use them?
It took us two 45-minute periods to complete all the activities. The students were so engaged they did not want to quit.

Did you use both English and Spanish, or only Spanish worksheets?
I only used the Spanish versions, but I plan on assigning the English for homework when we return in January.


Did you give them any homework?
They were able to keep their booklets in their math folder in order to refer to them in the future. They will usually go back and complete any unfinished assignments.



LESSON PLANS & PICTURES 

AREA

Area and Perimeter Activities
Ms. Pineda, 3rd Grade Bilingual Teacher

Objective: Measure the area of geometric shapes using square units.

Materials: Comenzando con área worksheet (a lesson from Mamut Matemáticas Geometría inicial),, attribute blocks, ¼ - ½ inch graphing paper, pencil, mini booklet made from manila paper, markers or crayons.

Procedures:

1. Use the worksheet to discuss how area is calculated.
2. Trace a shape using your pencil.
3. Count the whole squares by writing the numbers.
4. Combine two halves to make a whole square.
5. If one of your shapes crosses four squares, combine them to make a whole.

Area = 4 + ½ + ½ = 5


6. Once you have calculated the area of each shape. You may color it and glue it in your mini booklet.

 

PERIMETER

Objective: Measure the perimeter of geometric shapes in inches.

Materials: Perímetro worksheet (a lesson from Mamut Matemáticas Geometría inicial), attribute blocks, pencil, ruler, mini booklet made from manila paper, markers, and crayons.

Procedures:

1. Use the worksheet to discuss how perimeter is calculated.
2. Trace a shape on your booklet using your pencil.
3. Measure each side of the shape in inches.
4. Add the lengths to find the perimeter of each shape.
5. Combine two halves (½ + ½ = 1)to make a whole inch.
6. Trace the edges of each shape with a marker and color the area with a crayon.

Perímetro = 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + ½ + ½ = 7

MathMammoth.com new home page design

I've given the home page at www.mathmammoth.com a "lift" (new design)... go check it out, see if you like it!

Currclick Cyber Monday freebies

Currclick has 8 + 2 freebies just for today (Cyber Monday)!
One of them is a physics book... I'm downloading it right now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last year my kids learned this silly rhyme

A turkey is a silly bird
whose head goes wobble wobble
It only knows this one word
gobble gobble gobble!

Here's a video of kids shouting it... 



Remember also Math Mammoth Thanksgiving sale... all my products are 25% off at Kagi store. See my website for details.

And happy Thanksgiving!

Math Mammoth reviews galore

Click here to read a bunch of recent Math Mammoth reviews, by TOS review crew.

A few highlights:

TOS Review: Math Mammoth from Miscellaneous Musings
"My daughter took a break from her other math curriculum and began focusing just on fractions with the Math Mammoth blue series which includes explanations. About three weeks later she was able to test out of an entire text on fractions"


Review: Math Mammoth from Footprints in the Butter
"And I started this school year completely stressed about what to do with math.So finding out I'd be reviewing Math Mammoth again this year was a gift from God."


Math Mammoth -- A TOS Crew Review from Mountaineer Country
"Do you know what my daughter said to me? She said, rather matter-of-factly, “Why haven’t we been doing this all along? I love this math.” 

TOS Review Math Mammoth from Circling Through This Life
"She really enjoys it. She calls it her “Elephant Math” and insists that Manny, her woolly mammoth do math with her. "
This review has a cute picture of a stuffed mammoth next to the girl's math work!

Math Mammoth~ TOS Review from Adventures in Unsell Land!
"We have used quite a few various math programs through the years between our 6 children and I have never seen one that is as strong on the mental math as Math Mammoth is. It's my favorite aspect of this program."

Math, it’s a Mammoth responsibility from A Teaching Heart
"It is suggested that you introduce multiplication before division, but other than that, you can proceed through the lessons as you wish. I find that mixing up the learning of multiplication with other math concepts gives Hunter’s brain a chance to process and retain facts. So we will be jumping around the books all year."

More reviews here!

Class Dismissed - a film about homeschooling

I'm just spreading the word on an upcoming film about homeschooling. The movie is called Class Dismissed.

It does sound interesting, though I cannot be  sure what all it will include.

The website says:

QUOTE
Class Dismissed will be the first full-length documentary devoted to exploring homeschooling as a viable alternative to traditional schooling.


As homeschoolers ourselves, we are constantly reminded by the degree to which the public misperceptions of homeschooling are far removed from reality. With this documentary we hope to both educate the general public as well as inspire the existing homeschool community.


Class Dismissed will focus on the topic of education, specifically the validity of homeschooling as an alternative to the industrial school model. Framed within the historical context of traditional schooling, and particularly at a time when education across the nation is in a state of crisis, the film will examine the numerous approaches to home learning, exploring both its history and recent growth. UNQUOTE

Take a look: Class Dismissed.
Also... the filmmakers are having a fund raiser right now — the campaign ends in 22 days.

A teacher's experience with Math Mammoth Geometry 1

I intend to publish several of these "stories" or "reports" from teachers who have been using Math Mammoth. Here's the first one, from Megan in Belgium. She used some lessons from my Math Mammoth Geometry 1 book.

Presentationof the Class and the School

I am a1^st,5^thand 6^thgrade teacher in south Belgium. My school is what we call an“immersive school”. The students are taught in French, theirmother tongue, 14 periods a week. During the other 10 periods eachweek, class is given in English – the students are “immersed”in the language from the age of 5 and learn to speak this language ina very natural manner.

Becauseof these awkward hours, we teachers “share” the classes. In orderto have a full schedule, I give class in English 10 hours a week in5^thgrade, 10 hours a week in 6^thgrade and 4 hours a week in 1^stgrade. We also split the subjects between French and English – andGeometry is one of the subjects seen in English.

Now,the immersive program is not without its downfalls, one of whichbeing that we must consecrate two times as many periods per week onLanguage Arts, as we have both the French and the English language toteach. As a result, we have less time to teach everything else.

I amalso a first-year teacher, thrown into this system with no life-linesto cling to! I was searching desperately for a guide, something tohelp me, but also for something that would help my studentsunderstand this subject that is such a part of our everyday lives,yet seemingly so abstract. When I saw Maria Miller’s offer – one“free” e-book in exchange for a report of my experiences – Icouldn’t turn it up! So, without further ado, here is what I haveto say about Math Mammoth.

Session1

Istarted the year teaching lines and angles to both the 5th and 6thgraders. Most of the 5^thgraders did poorly on the test and some of the 6^thgraders needed a refresher course.

Forthe 5^thgraders, I dove right into the Geometry 1 Elementary Math book inorder to review the different lines and angles, as well as how todraw them (chapters Lines, Rays andAngles and DrawingRight Angles). I did not print out andphotocopy the pages exactly as they were, I chose instead to pick andchoose the exercises I found most appropriate for my students at themoment. I must say though, I felt no need to modify any of theproblems, as I usually do with workbooks.

Thereaction from my students was a good one, especially concerning theterm ray.Most of them had such a hard time remembering what a ray is and theimage of the sun and its rays was just the trick they needed! Theirresults were very satisfactory – though they all had a hard timewith the construction of the squares and the rectangles! I don’tthink they’ve passed a lot of time on that as of yet, and I hope itis a point that MM covers more thoroughly later on in the program.All in all, the weaknesses I noticed from the test have now beenovercome, except for one or two exceptions of course.

Agreat point about these exercises is that I could let most of theclass work independently while I spent a bit more time helping theslower/weaker students. Everything is very clearly explained and easyto follow and understand, even for 5^thgraders whose native language is not English.

Forone of my 6^thgraders, I started him off with the chapters MeasuringAngles and DrawingAngles as I noticed he had difficultiesusing his protractor. Once again, I did not give him all the pages inthese chapters, nor did I alter anything. (As a side note, it isquite nice to have such a great bank of problems at the ready – Iusually spend more time perfecting my worksheets than the childrenspend working on them!) He whizzed through the exercises and trulysurprised me with his improvement. It’s as if a light bulb went offin his head. I don’t know if it’s because of the book’sexplanations or not, but I’m glad it happened! He’s now at thesame level as the others.

Myother 6^thgraders did not receive sheets from this book during this period.

Sessions2 and 3

Forthis work period, I combined the chapters Measuring Angles and DrawingAngles for the 5^thgraders. I let several children do some examples on the board andthen students worked quietly on the worksheets (which, again, I didnot modify, save the page-layout). They finished these quickly,though that was because of laziness from most of them. They wereconvinced that the angle was still alright; even it was a few degreesoff! The papers were returned to them the next day and the redoneangles were more than acceptable.

I amnot sure about this, but I am getting the impression that Belgianstudents see certain geometry concepts earlier than their Americancompatriots. I am not saying that these concepts are known andmastered by Belgian children (far from it! :p), but they do have somebases to work from. I have yet to explain a point starting from zeroknowledge, though the book sometimes seems to suggest that theconcept is completely new.

Nevertheless,the MM book is so clearly laid out and the explanations are soconcise and understandable that I feel more confident myself inexplaining the different concepts to my students. Also, it is a loteasier for students to look at a piece of paper right in front ofthem and follow along with the pictures than just doing the exampleson the board alone. The drawn protractors act as a sort of teacher’saide – I don’t have to walk around to verify that each child hasplaced their protractor how they should because they can clearly seehow the protractor is supposed to be on their paper.

Also,it was very practical as I make sure to have the papers for the nextlesson printed out for my “ace” students that always finish wellbefore the others. Because of their clarity, these students can oftenget right to work without any additional explanations.

The6^thgraders are busy doing precision drills and going over drawing basicgeometric shapes (I’m surprised at how many of them have a hardtime drawing a square!), though I am not using MM for their work.

Session4

Thissession was dedicated to the EstimateAngles chapter in MM. This was a breezefor my 5^thgraders – much to my surprise! We started the lesson out by doing afew examples “in real life” using chalk on the playground outsideand our giant chalkboard protractor. Walking the lines and making theturns themselves really helped them understand what the directionsmeant when they said “turn 45° to the left”.

I mustadmit though, the last exercise had everyone baffled! I still don’tknow what the secret message is (I could look at the answer key, butwhere is the fun in that?)! Nevertheless, the children enjoyed trying to figure it out, andthen trying to find where they went wrong in their drawings. Itbecame a very rich activity in which the children analyzed and foundtheir own errors, as well as the errors of others.

Sessions5 and 6

Weworked on the chapter Parallel andPerpendicular Lines for these last twosessions. These concepts had already been touched upon in theearlier chapters, so it was more of an in-depth review than a newconcept for them. This really helped set things straight in theirheads and served as a great closing lesson for the first part of theschool year, before leaving for a week of vacation. Most of the workduring these two sessions was done individually while I worked with afew children in need of an extra boost.

Evaluations

Iincluded three evaluations in this first part of the MM curriculum:one on Lines, Rays and Angles;another on Measuring, Drawing and Estimating Angles; and the last one onParallel and Perpendicular Lines.These were tests that I created myself, based on the concepts coveredin the MM chapters.

Inever had more than three or four students out of twenty fail thetests, but these are also the students who present very importantweaknesses in nearly every subject matter. The other results weremore than satisfactory and provided for a very impressive firstreport card. (As a first-year teacher, I was very proud to have beenable to show the parents that their children had indeed learnedsomething with me.)

Continuation

I planon using MM for the rest of the year with my 5^thgraders, while adding my own touches. We’re going to start with thetriangles, but before using MM, I would like to use a more activeapproach for the discovery of the different types (let them createthe different triangles themselves, for example).

FinalWord

I findMM to be very complete, though a bit traditional. Perfect forhomeschooling parents who have little or no pedagogic experience, butI think it could benefit from the addition of a few hands-ondiscovery sessions. (Though I do believe that Maria speaks of acurriculum that shows how math is useful in everyday life… thiscould also be very interesting for a hands-on approach…) I have noproblem with the hands-on approach, but I was rather blocked by thetheory part of the geometry… MM is my perfect complement! I wouldhave been very lost this year if not for this amazing find.

Iwould like to thank Maria for this wonderful opportunity, apologizefor the absence of photos (I always get so caught up in my lessonsand with my students that the camera stays inactive on my desk!) andI do hope that my words and my experiences can help convince othersof MM’s wonderful structure, clarity and presentation.

---

Click the link to read more about the book Math Mammoth Geometry 1 and to see its FREE sample pages!

A free math assessment test

LexxLearn is a new company and is offering a free math assessment test online. It's currently based on Massachusetts standards but is surely useful if you need to benchmark your student, wherever you live.

The grade levels offered are from grade 3 through grade 10. Each grade level test has about 35 questions.

You will need to supply your email address and create a password, which will then allow you to come back and continue the test at a later time.

Basics of percent of change - with videos

The two videos below have to do with basics of percent of change, where you are given the initial and final quantities, and you have to calculate the the percent of change (percent change, percentage change).

The main formula I use is to calculate the DIFFERENCE in the quantities divided by the original quantity. Then this fraction is written as a decimal, and as a percent.





In the second video, I solve two word problems that involve percentage change - one having to do with percentage increase in area, and another where the price of a washer is discounted by 10%, then by another 10%, and we are asked the total discount percentage--yet the PRICE of the washer is NOT given!



Teachers - feel free to use these problems in your teaching!

I have recently been making lots of videos, aiming to produce full playlists for certain topics such as percent, decimals, and fractions. I also have many older videos on various topics. Click the image on the left to see my Youtube channel and see what I have uploaded thus far.

Winning the lottery with math?

An article that might interest some of you... it talks about 15 mathematicians who used their knowledge of mathematics and statistics to be able to win in lotteries, blackjack, roulette, and other games that should be based on pure chance.
 
15 Brilliant Math Geeks Who Outsmarted the System

Some did nothing illegal and simply used their knowledge to their own advantage, others used their math skills to cheat and lie their way into millions, and some figured out a system just for the fun of it.

What fraction of the elephants is blue?

Someone sent me a nice word problem to solve:

 Image courtesy of Wednesday Elf - Mountainside Crochet

Bob went to the zoo last week and was captivated by the lovely baby elephants. Some were pink and some were blue. When he counted the elephants, he found that the number of pink elephants was 2 1/2 times the number of blue elephants. What fraction of the elephants was blue?

First of all, think: which ones are less, blue or pink? Clearly, the blue ones are less. Make those kind represented by ONE BLOCK or one unit.

So, let's let the BLUE elephants to be |----|  (one block).

Then, the pink ones would be |----|----|--| (2 1/2 times as many)

Now, to get the fraction asked, I could use those little dashed lines in my blocks... See, I made each block have 4 little dashes ---- and the half-block has two.

So, the Blue elephants are "four dashes" and the pink ones are "ten dashes". I know that in reality we don't know how many blue or pink elephants there are, but this won't matter if we only want to know what FRACTION or what PART of the elephants are blue. So we might as well assign some quantities here that fit the problem.

From this, we can write the fraction. Blue elephants are 4, total elephants are 14, so 4/14 of the elephants are blue. This simplifies to 2/7.

You can also get the same answer this way: blue elephants are 1 block, and there are a total of 3 1/2 blocks of elephants. The fraction is 1 / (3 1/2) which is equivalent to 2/7 (multiply both numerator and denominator by 2).

Tiling word problem

Someone sent me this problem to solve, so here goes:

Photo courtesy of Brajeshwar

Square polystyrene tiles, 50 cm by 50 cm, are used to cover the ceiling of a classroom measuring 7.4 m by 4.5 m

1. Find the number of tiles that are needed.

2. Find the total cost if one tile costs $130.

Now, consider the room that is 7.4 m by 4.5 m. The tiles will not fit exactly along the 7.4-meter side, so we will need to cut some of the tiles. So we might as well consider it to be 7.5-meter side for the purpose of figuring how many tiles we need.

Along the 7.5 meter side we would need 15 tiles, each 0.5 m. Why? Because 0.5 fits into 7.5 exactly 15 times. It's essentially a division problem... 7.5 ÷ 0.5 but you can solve it mentally by thinking that each meter takes 2 tiles, so 7.5 meters takes 7.5 x 2 = 15 tiles.

Similarly, along the 4.5 meter side you would need 9 tiles, each 0.5 m.

Therefore in total we need 15 x 9 = 135 tiles. Some of those will need cut!

The cost will be 135 x $130 = $17,550. This would be expensive tiling... but I realize the person sending the question might have used some other kind of money units (not US dollars)!

Math Teachers at Play

The most recent edition of Math Teachers at Play is now up at Maths Insider... beautiful and inspiring! Go take a look and enjoy!

Free kindergarten math ebook

Renee from SchoolSparks.com is offering a totally free ebook for kindergarten math! It basically is a worksheets collection for K, colorful and beautiful.

The book covers number recognition, counting, patterns, sorting and classifying, and an introduction to graphs, and has 53 pages.

In addition to this very nice e-book, Renee also has hundreds of free kindergarten worksheets for parents and teachers to download and use at home or in the classroom.

Kakuro - cross-sums puzzle

Kakuro is a numeric crossword puzzle that uses sums.

You fill in the white space using digits 1 to 9. The little numbers indicate what the sum of the neighboring row or column of blocks should be. You cannot use the same digit twice in any sum, so for example 12 cannot be 4 + 4 + 4.

It is considered more challenging than Sudoku, but just as addictive to its fans!

I find it gives nice simple addition practice for elementary school kids, yet is fun. You can play some Kakuro games online here. Here's another site.

This game is immensely popular in Japan, according to Wikipedia.

Free book - Geometry in Art

I was told about this free download of the book Geometry in Art, by Hilton Andrade de Mello.

On the page, you need to scroll down to the words "free downloading".

This book is a basic introduction to geometry in art, with topics such as polygons, spirals, polyhedrons, tessellations, perspective, the golden ratio, symmetry, geometry and symbolism, and geometry and informatics. It has lots of illustrations and artwork by various artists, and can serve as a nice introduction for anyone who hasn't studied these topics before.

Currclick 50% off sale

Currclick Affiliate Appreciation Weekend, 50% OFF sale is going on for just 2 more days. Over 4,000 titles are discounted by 50% OFF!

Just use the coupon code "appreciate" at check-out!

Click to start browsing now!

Mowing the lawn - mathematically

Mowing the lawn is a oh-so familiar task to many of us. Now here's an article that approaches the problem of pushing the lawnmower the shortest distance possible mathematically.

A Victa-ry for mathematics

I'm sure you'll enjoy it! I did!

Yummy Math - real-life math activities

Featuring...

Yummy Math

We provide teachers and students with mathematics relevant to our world today …

Yummy Math is actually a fantastic website. It has real-life math activities (as PDF and Doc files) that are free. The solutions, however, are only available to subscribers.

Recent topics include Starbucks, light bulbs, NFL,  the U.S. Open, Labor Day, hurricanes, earthquakes, cheesy goldfish, going back to school, the hot summer, cost of diapers, or even the rescue of Chilean miners, etc. etc.

You can find real-world math activities that relate to social studies, earth science, food, entertainment, sports, holidays etc. I really like this site. The activities are well-planned and so varied!

Perennial Math - math competition

Perennial Math is a new mathematics competition for students in grades 4-8. I thought some of you would be interested in it! What follows is their information that I have copied.

---

Your students can participate at either a team level or individual student level by registering on www.perennialmath.com. Don't worry if you cannot access the internet, you can always print and administer the tests to log in your students' scores later.

The competition consists of 5 tests each year (November-March). Each test contains 5 questions that get progressively harder. The tests must be completed in 30 minutes.

All students receive a certificate of participation and your team winner will receive a gold medal. Additional awards include plaques for teams who score in the top 10% and dog tags for each student who scores in the top 10% at each grade level. Students who get a perfect score on the test-and exceptional teams can have their name scrolling on our wall of fame.

Math in the real world

I've put together a page of web resources about math in the real world. These include a website with movies that show how algebra is used in real life, a site with multimedia explorations, information about careers that require mathematics, sites with activity worksheets with real-life data, and some articles. Enjoy!

Math Mammoth for school teachers

Hello!
This is a special offer I'm extending to school teachers, all around the world!

This is your chance to get Math Mammoth downloadable books for free, in exchange for making a PRESENTATION.

Here's how this thing works:

1. Contact me and I will send you Math Mammoth materials on a certain topic, such as basic addition or division facts or fraction addition, etc. Nearly any topic in grades 1-7.
   
   
2. Document (photos and/or videos) your class using the materials, and write up a "report" or a presentation, showcasing what you did, how the students liked it, and so on. It could be of a single teaching session, or it could cover a longer period of time. You could include student responses & comments, an example lesson plan, etc. Be creative...
   
   
3. Send me your presentation.  I'll look it over. Depending on the quality and extent of your presentation, you'll then get MORE materials -- several books, or the whole Light Blue Series download, or the All Inclusive download.
   
   
4. I'll post your presentation on my blog for others to see! This will help and inspire others, when we share ideas of how to use Math Mammoth!
   

Sincerely,
Maria Miller

Math Teachers at Play

Go on to enjoy the latest Math Teachers at Play blog carnival! Bon has created quite a funny "love" story about two people who have a kid... and all the math is somewhere in between!

Giveaways!

I will be giving away FIVE copies of UberSmart Math Facts software to five lucky winners!

At the same time... if you don't win, David from UberSmart Software is graciously offering a BIG 40% DISCOUNT on his math facts software! The normal price is $24.95, but you can get it now for $14.97.

Click this link to take advantage of this discount.

You can also read my review.

And to boot, I will add to the giveaway THREE copies of Math Mammoth Blue Series CD (or download, if you prefer). Value: $100.

This giveaway is now closed. As usual, I got over 160 responders super quick. The 40% off discount is still valid though! 




This giveaway is open to everybody, no matter where you live on this planet.



The giveaway runs till I have at least 160 participants. This will give you a 1 in 20 chance of winning. I will then choose the eight winners using the random number generator at Random.org.

Blogging as an Educational Activity

Students who have trouble learning certain material by traditional methods may benefit from a lesson designed around blogging. You may increase a student’s attention in a particular subject or lesson plan with blogging because it has the draw of being an online activity. In fact, with proper boundaries and rules set out, blogging can serve as a constructive and worthwhile educational activity. Plus, working on a computer may distract your student from the fact that they’re doing something educational!

The setup for an educational blog couldn’t be easier: create a blog using a free service like Blogger or Wordpress, following their user-friendly instructions. Restrict full access to the teacher and change the blog’s settings so that students can sign on as users who can only post and view blog entries. From there it’s up to you to decide how best to start a student blogging for educational purposes. Below are a few ideas for possible educational blogging activities.

Writing Exercises
Your student could compose writing exercises to be submitted as posts to your blog. These exercises could vary from practice in formal/informal writing styles to lessons in basic syntax and grammar. The blog could substitute as your student’s workbook whereby it becomes an interactive space for all their writing assignments. And these assignments don’t have to exclude traditionally non-writing courses; you can have your student draft or solve math/science problems on their blog post as well. A blog’s greatest asset is its endless versatility.

Use blogging as a means to reinvigorate your student’s interest in a subject that they may not otherwise take to. In the case of writing, think of blogging as a way to disarm your students who show a strong aversion to the subject by presenting it in a different context.

Research Project

If you want to make the blogging experience more comprehensive, you could have your students use it as a place to document a research project. Basic research projects are a fun exercise for younger students because it helps them grasp how concepts they learn in class relate to the real world. You could assign a topic to your student—say covering a current event or the researching of key term in a lesson—and instruct them to post their findings about the topic on the blog. Encourage the student to elaborate on their findings in their blog post. If they find an interesting news article about their topic—details about a newly discovered star, for example—have them write a brief synopsis of the article and write about how it relates to the lesson that they’re researching. If the student protests the amount of writing, remind them that research projects are all about tying your findings back to the original topic.


Journaling

You could also design the blog as a space for journaling. If need be, adjust the privacy settings on your blog to ensure that it’s a safe space for your student to journal. The student could write reflections on their daily school activities or simply maintain a diary-style account of whatever interests them. Emphasize to the student that the blog/journal is their own project where they have the freedom to write about anything. Unless they write about questionable content, refrain from offering any major criticism on their journal entries. Blogging as a journaling activity can serve as a constructive creative outlet for your student; it fosters expression in a way that could warm students up to the writing process. Hindering that expression could discourage them from further writing.

Author Bio:
This is a guest post by Nadia Jones who blogs at online college about education, college, student, teacher, money saving, movie related topics. You can reach her at nadia.jones5 @ gmail.com.

Fun and practice with Roman Numerals

Someone asked me recently whether I include Roman Numerals in Math Mammoth. Yes, I do... they are in the 3rd grade materials, but the section is not extensive.

For some extra fun, learning, and practice with them, check out these web resources:


Roman Numeras Tutorial
Good explanations of how numbers are formed using Roman Numerals, such as when to "add" or "subtract" the symbols. The page allows interactivity where the student can self-check his/her understanding.

Roman Matching Game
Drag the Roman numerals to the corresponding Arabic numerals. If you win the next game will be faster. See if you can beat the clock!

Roman Numerals Worksheets
Generate worksheets for converting Roman numerals to normal (Arabic) ones, or normal numbers to Roman numerals, or do easy addition and subtraction problems with Roman numerals.

Roman Numerals Dot-to-Dots
Some dot-to-dot worksheets with animal themes that use Roman Numerals.

Roman Numerals - Wikipedia
An article explaining the usage, origin, and a chart of Roman numerals.

Quia: Easy Roman Numerals
Translate Roman numerals into Arabic (covers I, V, and X only). Matching game, concentration, or word search.

Roman Numerals - A Maths Webquest
A set of web pages where you can learn all about roman numerals: how they originated, how to read & write the numerals, and places we still use the Roman number system today.

Roman Sequence Game
See how fast you can put these Roman numerals in the correct sequence.

Times Tales DVD giveaway

Folks at Triggery Memory Systems are generously offering THREE copies of their new Times Tales DVD program for me to give away (for free!). Everyone is welcome to participate, no matter where you live on this planet. Shipping outside US will be by USPS First Class Mail.

This Giveaway is now closed! 

The winners are:

Wes Ryan, Virginia,

Eileen Flater, Iowa, and

Erica Potter, Ohio.

Congratulations!

Winners are chosen randomly using the random number generator at Random.org. The giveaway will run UNTIL I have at least 150 responses, or till September 12, whichever comes first.

What is Times Tales?

Times Tales is a mnemonic-based program for learning multiplication and division tables. It uses simple stories to provide students with a "memory peg", allowing them to quickly
recall the facts.

CapJaxMathFax and UberSmart Math Facts programs

I had the chance to look into two math facts practice programs, titled CapJaxMathFax and UberSmart Math Facts. Both programs drill math facts and keep track of your progress.


My testing "girl" liked them both just fine. Her focus definitely was on getting the percentages on the progress chart to go up (in both programs)!

CapJaxMathFax

Here's a screen of CapJaxMathFax showing a math problem to solve. It alternates the dot and cross symbols for multiplication. It also alternates showing the problems vertically or horizontally. The vertical line is my cursor blinking in the empty space.



If you answer correctly and in less than 3 seconds, it shows you the word "SUPER". Then you get the next fact by pressing "ENTER."

Personally I would have liked a little clearer workspace, but all these colors, buttons, text, etc. on the screen seemingly didn't bother my daughter.






Here is where you select what operation you want to practice, how long, etc. The "word problems" aren't really word problems, but just math facts with words instead of with symbols.




In CapJaxMathFax, you can either practice, or build your ratings. Ratings can be built when you can get "SUPER" answers—those where you answer in 3 seconds or less.

You start off with ratings of 0 in each math type. Your ratings climb as you work through each building level in the math skill types (+, -, x, ÷).

Here are my ratings after playing for a little while:





And this is the general progress chart:




The software has a free evaluation version that you can download here. Website: www.CapJax.com. The price for the software is $59.96.

UberSmart Math Facts

UberSmart Math Facts had a cleaner interface that I liked better, but it has less options. The math facts were shown as flash cards. You get a progress chart, but there aren't any "ratings" as in CapJaxMathFax.

There are three ways to practice. The first one is to View Flash Cards. The second one is to View Flash Cards and check the Beat the Clock checkbox. The third one is to take a Test. The first, "View Flash Cards" option, simply shows you the flash card and you just think the answer in your mind, and you can have the program show you the answer.

"Beat the Clock" is the main way to practice (this won't affect your progress chart). When you check this box, the flash cards become interactive and you must enter an answer before the computer answers it for you. If you enter the wrong answer, or the computer answers before you do, the correct answer is shown and that fact is moved to the end of the set, so you need to answer it again. The facts you didn't get are repeated in the set until you get them correct.



Once you think you're ready, you can take a "test". The results from tests will be shown in your progress chart. This is how you set up the practicing using the "test" option:



Here, I would like to see an option to select several tables for a test, such as 4s, 8s, and 9s. Currently it has an option for choosing one table at a time, or all of them.

This is how the flashcards look like in the test.



If you miss some facts in a test, the program will tell you what you missed after the test, and show you the correct answers.

After missing or answering slowly some facts in a particular test, such as in the 4s for multiplication, if you go to the "View Flash Cards" for that same kind of practice, you have the option of doing a "focused" viewing of flash cards. This makes the program only show you flash cards of the problems you missed or were slow in answering in the "test".

And lastly, here's the progress chart. Your goal is to get to 100%, and if you are not only 100% correct but also fast enough, it shows a neat star in the chart!

My "guinea pig" daughter was plenty motivated by trying to get the progress chart go up to 100%! (And that's how it should be, by the way... that the student would be internally motivated to learn something for the learning's sake.)






You can download a free 30-day trial of UberSmart Math Facts here.

The main website is Mathfacts.ubersmartsoftware.com/mathfacts.php. The software costs $24.95.

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The main feature I'd like to see in these two programs is being more adaptive so that the program would drill those facts much more (not just one extra time) that the child has trouble with. I've seen how Math Rider does that (which I have also reviewed).


I would definitely recommend using something computerized to help children master their math facts. My children have enjoyed trying out many different programs and systems, and I feel it has been quite helpful. BUT not at first--only AFTER they have understood the concepts and the patterns in them!

I also recommend you use the free trials to check and see what program  your child likes best.

My new percent lessons

Need help with teaching percent-related topics? Or need help studying them? Check out these new lessons of mine -- with videos!
Click on the links to read the lessons. You can watch the videos here or on the lesson pages.

1. Percent - the concept and how to change fractions to percents.

2. Percentage of a number using mental math
    For example, how to find 70% of 5,000 or similar problems.

3. Percentage of a number using decimals
    The same as above, but this time we use a calculator & decimals,
    not mental math.

4. "What percentage..." / "How many percent...?"
  How to solve word problems that ask for the percentage.

Hating math?

About this thing where people say, "I hate math", or "I'm not good at math", or "I never understood math", or similar things. It's well-known that in the U.S. at least, people seem to be able to say such things with ease -- it is totally acceptable socially -- but no one readily admits similar things about their reading abilities!

I just read two interesting posts by Bon from Math is Not a Four-Letter Word that deal with this topic... They can HELP you or others you know overcome this line of thinking.

How to Get People to Stop Saying "I Hate Math"

How to Quit Saying "I Hate Math"

You might also be interested in an old blogpost of mine: Developing a Positive Attitude (towards math).

Solar panels in a TREE model & Fibonacci numbers

Did you know tree branches and leaves in a plant rotate around the trunk in a pattern based on Fibonacci numbers? That maximises the amount of sunlight that the leaves get, because it minimizes how much the upper level branches or leaves shade the lower ones.

Well, a 13-year old student has now built a "tree model" with solar panels and proven that it collects MORE sunlight than a flat array of solar panels! The article has lots of photos to show his experiments.

Giveaway of 3 copies of Math Dictionary for Kids

PRUFROCK PRESS INC. is graciously donating THREE copies of their
Math Dictionary for Kids: (Grades 4-9) to be given away to my blog readers! (Only U.S. and Canada addresses, please.)

This dictionary has been recently updated and is now in full color!

Go check how it looks like inside At Amazon:



If you want to take part in the giveaway, leave a comment here, AND email me so I'll have your email address to contact you if you win.

I will run this until  August 21 OR until I get 100 entries, whichever happens first. And it's only for U.S. and Canada addresses.

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED NOW... I GOT MORE THAN 100 in record time.

The WINNERS are RJC, Sheri R, and mommygirl @ HCA. THANKS EVERYONE!


AND, not only that, but Denise also has a math book giveaway at her blog... hers are for TWO books: Keith Devlin’s new e-book, Leonardo and Steve: The Young Genius Who Beat Apple to Market by 800 Years, and his latest print book, The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci’s Arithmetic Revolution. She said the number of entries was LOW, thus far. Go take part!

Math Mammoth sales in August 2011

1. Homeschool Buyers Co-op group buy is live at
   www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/math-mammoth
   
   You can get Math Mammoth bundles for up to 50% off! (The discount level depends on the number of purchasers.) This is the best deal on the planet!
   
   
   
2. Currclick will have an August sale on lots of stuff starting TOMORROW AUGUST 3, including Math Mammoth books (but not bundles... they don't have a way to automatically include bundles in their sales). Math Mammoth 25% OFF! The sale runs till August 24.
   http://www.currclick.com/index.php?filters=0_0&manufacturers_id=108
   
   
   
3. Concurrently I'll run the same sale at Kagi--25% off of all my books, including the CDs and bundles. Use coupon code AUGUSTSALE at Kagi checkout. Starts NOW (August 2) and runs till August 24.
   
   Go to www.mathmammoth.com first, then find the links to Kagi's order pages. Or use these direct links:
   
   
   • Light Blue series (complete curriculum)
   • Blue series
   • Golden and Green Series
   • Make It Real Learning workbooks.
   • Bundles (CDs or downloads).

My first piano lessons are ready

Finally... after many delays, I've gotten the first batch of beginner piano lessons uploaded. They're especially geared to children, or parents/adults who want to teach children. You don't need any prior knowledge of piano, if you start at the beginning and go through the lessons in order. You as a parent can learn alongside your child!

Piano lessons for children - lesson index page

Here's one of the lessons (Mary Had a Little Lamb, part 1). It's not the first lesson - it is assumed you know the names of the white keys)

See me stomp on a rocket (plus a free science resource)

I have something a bit different to share with you today.
Supercharged Science (the science curriculum by Aurora Lipper) is giving away a neat product for free this week.

You can get a free copy here.

It's really good stuff. My daughter and me just looked at it today (Wednesday) afternoon, and we decided to do the first experiment in it (Stomp Rocket). Daddy got excited too, so we got it done in record time.

It was fun! We all stomped on the bottle, and up went the blue rocket, maybe 40-50 feet high. It was just really cool. The girls stomped on it many, many times to make it go. In fact, here are a few pictures...

OK I'm looking at my rocket & launcher and soon ready to stomp:


I stomped on it!


It went up!


Rocket up on the sky:



It's just awesome how Aurora Lipper (the founder of this science program) gives back to the community with her free products, teleclasses, and such. And my readers know how I try to do the same with my math stuff... provide free math worksheets, articles, videos, etc. for everyone to use.

Anyway, be sure to get your free copy of this science education program before the offer goes away. Get it from here:

www.sciencelearningspace.com/members/go.php?r=3095&i=l38



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Article: education in Finland

I'm not writing about this to lift myself up, no. It was an interesting read to me, of course, since I grew up in Finland, and I thought maybe some of you find it interesting as well. I never knew back then that the educational system was one of the top-notch in the whole world, but of course I am thankful!

Anyhow, the article mentions how there is no nation-wide testing. Well, there are national "matriculation" exams in the end of high school and for 9th grade, at the end of comprehensive school.

And it's true that teaching is a highly respected occupation there, which in turn attracts top-notch students to become teachers. BTW I have always felt that the MAIN problem with mathematics education in the U.S. goes back to the teachers, and not to the curriculum.

How Finland became an education leader

Another one on similar lines: West Virginia learns Finland's "most honorable profession": Teacher

I also found this article on CNN, that kind of ties in:
Why one good teacher quit. A high school math teacher is quitting and going into nursing because she can't make a living, and nurses make $20,000 more a year than she does.

How Khan Academy is changing education

My hubby found this article about Khan Academy, and I think you'll find it interesting. It features this certain teacher's 5th grade classroom that is "flipped" or "inverted" -- kids listen to the teaching videos from Khan Academy at home, and do "homework" (math problems) at school.

How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education

Carnival time...

Math Teachers at Play carnival is posted at Math Mama Writes blog. And it's not just for "math teachers" -- the carnival has lots of posts for elementary math, puzzles, teaching ideas, free downloads, etc. which are of interest for ALL homeschoolers and for parents who are helping children in math.

See, if you teach math at your house, you need to see yourself as a "math teacher!"

Using Math Mammoth in California

I have prepared a document to help Californian parents and teachers who want to use Math Mammoth:

How to use Math Mammoth to meet California standards. As it turns out, Math Mammoth actually fares fairly well against California's mathematics standards. The table in the article lists the topics that are missing from each grade level in Math Mammoth, and resources to cover those topics.

Math museum

Two articles that are probably of interest to my blog readers:

1) There will be a math museum open in Manhattan, New York, in 2012. New York Times has an interesting article about it!  The museum is titled MoMath and its website is at momath.org . (Currently there are zero math museums in the United States). I hope it well!

2) 15 interesting facts about the history of homeschooling was an interesting read as well... such as when it was illegal, there's a college designed for homeschooled students (opened in 2000), how 1983 tax laws increased homeschooling etc.

Problem solving videos--bar/block model

These videos show you examples of how to use the bar or block model in solving math word problems. The examples are all about 5th grade level. Enjoy! I hope they are of help!

First I solve the following word problem using a bar model (Singapore math style), taken from Math Mammoth grade 5 curriculum: Brenda and Lily shared the cost of a $11.70 lunch so that Brenda paid two times as much as Lily. Find their shares.





Next problem is this: One rake is $5.60 more than the other, and together they cost $22.70. How much does the cheaper rake cost?




And lastly, John spent 3/10 of his money, and had $45.57 left. How much did he have initially?

Order of operations and "bubbles"

Or you could call it a "cloud" or "balloon", instead of a "bubble". Anyhow, the idea is simple: in a given math problem with many operations, have the child encircle in a bubble/cloud/balloon the operation to be done first. He/she can use colored pencils or crayons for more fun.

I just had this idea when my 2nd daughter was studying order of operations in addition and subtraction... that is, problems with many additions and subtractions, including parenthesis, things like

100 + 20 − (50 + 10)

or
20 − 8 − 6    vs.   20 − (8 − 6)

(Those are found in Math Mammoth grade 3 curriculum.)


So what we did was write some of the problems from the book on the whiteboard and she "bubbled" or drew bubbles around the operation to be done first. Well, her bubbles look like ovals, but she was thinking of them as bubbles--and that made it fun for her!

Click to enlarge

Then we did another fun thing, which is that she made me a difficult math problem with lots of additions and subtractions. It's seen in the bottom on the board. Then I solved it...  and the answer turned out negative! Making problems for mom is always fun for little ones.

The same idea will of course work if you are dealing with multiplication and division as well.

Math Teachers at Play carnival #39

The carnival is posted at Denise's blog... she's illustrated it beautifully with pictures and witty math jokes.. and lots to read and enjoy. Head on over!

Currclick back-to-the-beach freebies

Currclick has a fun scavenger hunt going on again. You look for eight hidden sea creatures somewhere on the site to discover eight freebies.

Then they also have lots of items on 40% off!

Beth's bookshelf

A new blog I just found about children's books that teach math concepts, and she's having a giveaway of a fraction book RIGHT NOW! Hurry!

Beth's Bookshelf

Her blog looks neat! Last week's postings all have to do with fractions and what kind of children's books can be used to teach fractions. Thumbs up, Beth!

Tux Math - review

You may have never heard of Tux Math, but among Linux users it's a fairly well-known children's arcade game for math facts practice.

My girls remembered about it just lately  and have had somewhat of a frenzy of practice sessions with it. It's simple, free, yet fun. So I decided to give you, my readers, a quick review of it.

You "shoot" meteorites that are falling down by answering math problems (type the problem's answer and press Enter/Return). If you can't answer one, the meteorite does some damage to one of the penguin's igloo. Then after enough damage, the penguin in that igloo leaves (walks away).

But, once you answer a red "fiery" question that falls down real quick, you can get a cloud that comes and fixes the igloo. Then your penguin comes back! I think that's so cute!! You can only lose if all your penguins go away.


The background is always an image from space.

The options include any of the four operations, or have them mixed. You can practice specific times tables for example, which is good for my younger daughter at this time. As you go along in a game, then the questions start coming down quicker. At first they come down quite slow.

There's a training section, and there's a section where it gives you random questions. In that one, you play as long as you want, and when you stop, it'll tell you if you are in the top ten highest scores for you. If so, then you go in the "hall of fame."

Once you finish any particular type of problems (for ex. addition 0-5 or multiplication by 4), the star for that turns glowing yellow, and that's what my kids are after--they want to turn all those stars yellow. That's only in the training part, though. In the training part you have to answer a certain amount of questions.

You can make as many new "accounts" as you want and fill the "hall of fame" with you and your various nicknames.

It's just simple free game for math practice; there are no special features such as reports or training the facts you answer wrong.

Tux Math, or Tux of Math Command is software that is available as a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Download it here.