Why Not Learn Math In Tutus and Swimming Suits?

When I was in school, I dreaded Math.  Remember how I said in an earlier post that I feel we are all blessed with God-given talents?  Well, to put it mildly, Math is not my gift.  I did well in the subject area because I figured out the system and developed an understanding of how to learn just enough to get an excellent grade on the test, but I never truly grasped the subject area.  Then, I had a great teacher in high school who patiently helped me through my fears of Math, and I had two phenomenal professors in my college mathematics methodology classes that helped me to deconstruct everything that I had learned previously and relearn Math the way I should have been taught initially.  The light bulbs finally went off.  I was actually grasping why Math works for the first time in my life.  I am still not a mathematician, but I can say that, when I began teaching, Math was one of my favorite subject areas to teach.  I wanted to instill in all of my students confidence in the subject area.  It helps to have a great curriculum, too, and Everyday Mathematics truly helps kiddos learn Math concretely first before the introduction of abstract concepts.  Too often, pencil and paper drill and practice exercises are introduced long before conceptual understanding.  School districts are having children complete algorithms in school when they do not even grasp why the algorithms work.

So, why not make Math FUN!?!  That's what we are doing at Household Schmidt.  I have taken a phenomenal curriculum and modified it just a touch to fit in with what we are doing in the other curricular areas, too, and voila the connections are made!  The girls are seeing how Math connects into the real world.  They are learning how to apply their understanding, and, as a result, they are pretty much talking about numbers all the time now.

Rather than just talking about shapes, I had the kids make designs with shapes:

Even little Elle got in on the action with a modified version of the same activity that was much more age-appropriate for her stage of development.  It was fun watching her fine motor skills in action with those tiny little hands!

And, counting steps from the curb to the doorstep?  Well, that is WAY more fun if you can wear your tutus while you do that assignment, right?!

Then, we learned about volume, but, rather than make a HUGE mess at our home with water, we decided to go to the pool instead.  And, just in case you're wondering, according to Brynn and Clare, you DO need goggles to look like official mathematicians in the shallow water.

And, according to Elle, if you can incorporate a watering can into any activity, she is on board to learn.

As we introduce each number, we do "Mathemagical" centers.  The girls work through centers that are each connected to the "Mathemagical" number of the day.  On this particular day, we were learning all about the number three (which happens to be Clare's favorite number since she IS three years old)! The girls built caterpillars with three parts to the caterpillars' bodies:

They practiced writing their number three on the I-pad:

They used watercolor paints to paint pictures with three animals:

They put three stickers in a variety of boxes:

They did activity pages that were at their developmental level.  In this particular center, when the girls were learning about the "Mathemagical" number four, Brynn had to do more writing of the number four where as Clare did more counting of objects in groups of four.

And, during the whole process of learning the "Mathemagical" numbers, there were a lot of toothless smiles:

Did I mention that the tooth fairy has been busy at our home lately?  Within two days, Brynn lost two teeth, and each time the tooth fairy came, she delivered six quarters.  Brynn is twelve quarters richer, and the tooth fairy's Starbucks slush fund is twelve quarters shorter.  Look at the Math that can even be incorporated with exciting household events like the arrival of the tooth fairy! 

In another lesson where we were to compare sizes of different strips of paper, I had the girls arrange fish from smallest to largest instead to connect with our first day theme of fish and our read aloud book, The Rainbow Fish!  

When we learned about graphing, I was excited for Brynn to make a family connection to the project, so we incorporated birthdays in our family, the months of the year, AND, of course, STICKY NOTES!  Sticky notes make all things more fun...especially when your mom lets you stick them on the walls!  After researching all of the birthdays, here is Brynn sorting the family members' birthdays by the months of the year:

And, finally, the much-anticipated moment of arranging the bar graph with sticky notes on the wall:

See?  Math CAN be FUN, and it can be learned in tutus and swimming suits, too!