Practical Math Activities

Kids love to count their savings.

Numbers and symbols on paper can sometimes remain a mystery to youngsters until they are given a practical application. Math activities involving monetary exchange or measurements relevant to a task, for instance, are useful demonstrations that make calculations easier to understand. They also highlight the importance of math in real life, something which children often find difficult to appreciate without such examples.

Counting Aloud

Counting in a practical setting should, ideally, start with pre-schoolers. Parents can get their kids off to a good start by counting aloud around the house and on excursions. Count steps as you climb stairs, toys put back into their box; knives and forks when setting the table, trees and houses on outdoor walks, and different colored cars on a road trip. Opportunities for counting aloud are endless. Get into the habit and your little ones will be less daunted by numbers later on in school.

Using Money

Practical activities with money are a great way to engage youngsters in math problems. Give smaller kids a dollar to spend on sweets, explaining that they can keep the change to put in their piggy bank. Ask them to work out how many sweets of their chosen varieties they can afford and how much change they will have for their savings. Encourage older children to work out things, such as the original price for their new shoes before a 20 percent discount or how much interest their money will earn if they leave it in their savings account for a whole year.

Math in Sports

Encourage sports-mad youngsters to make sports-related calculations. For example, a baseball player's batting average (B) is determined by dividing the number of hits (h) by the number of times the player has been at bat (a). Kids can use the equation B=h/a to work out batting averages, enlivening post-game discussions. Get football fans to calculate distances of kicks, runs or passes that cross the 50-yard line. For instance, team A kicks the ball from its 30-yard line to team B's 40-yard line. In team A's half the ball traveled 20 yards to the 50-yard line (50 - 30 = 20), and it traveled 10 yards in team B's half (50 - 40 = 10). The total distance traveled, therefore, is 30 yards (20 + 10 = 30).

Recycling Geometry Activity

Cardboard boxes and toilet roll tubes need to be flattened for recycling. This creates an opportunity for children to see how three-dimensional objects are constructed from 2-D shapes, called "nets" by mathematicians. The ability to visualize shapes and recognize nets in 3-D objects is necessary in such diverse fields as design, architecture, manufacturing and medicine. Ask the children to draw nets for cardboard boxes and cylinders before they are cut around the minimum sides necessary, in the case of boxes, and straight down the side, in the case of tubes, and flattened. They can compare their drawings with the resultant cardboard nets. Conversely, ask them to draw a net for a pyramid, for example, and test their diagram by using it to make the 3-D object.

References

• Fun Family Education: Practical Math
• Math.com: Activities-- Math in the Home
• University of Richmond: Mathletics -- Football
• University of Richmond: Mathletics -- Baseball