Fun with Math During the Holidays
A Guest post By Chris Coyne of Marshall Cavendish Education and Singapore Math
We understand that during the holidays, the last thing on your child’s mind is brushing up on math skills. But whether the turkey is roasting, your favorite team is winning the football game, or you’re counting down the hours to the New Year, there are many fun ways to incorporate math into the holidays.
Math is not just about memorization; math should encourage critical thinking and problem solving, too. Marshall Cavendish Education’s Singapore Approach achieves this using concrete, pictorial and abstract learning progression to encourage children to use drawings and visuals to understand how they’ve reached their answers.
This holiday season, you can incorporate a hands-on approach to make math fun.
Marshall Cavendish Education’s experts recommend three ways to do just that:
1. Make symmetrical snowflakes by folding a six-sided piece of paper into fourths and cutting out different shapes on the folds. You can then explain to your child the difference between reflection symmetry and rotational symmetry. Reflection symmetry is a figure that does not change when it’s being reflected. Rotational symmetry occurs when an object looks the same after a certain amount of rotation.
2. Give each child a certain amount of money to spend on gifts. Your child should try to spend as close to their allotted amount without going over. For more advanced children, ask them to include sales tax in their calculations.
3. Cook with your child and encourage them to measure ingredients or double the recipe. You can even teach them the basics of the measurement system by practicing problems, such as how many milliliters are in two liters of eggnog.
The holidays can be a fun time to kick back and relax while continuing to foster problem-solving skills that are critical to a successful math student.
More ideas about making math fun during the holidays can be found at our website: http://www.mceducation.us/newsroom/
Happy Holidays from the Marshall Cavendish Education team!
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