Making Math Fun: Skittles

Come see how much fun we had using Skittles for math!!

Come see what we've been up to!



I've been having loads of fun over at Quirky Momma writing about some of the fun things we are up to!!

Pizza Fractions

I found this Pizza Fractions game at the educational supply store last week & couldn't help myself. Love the pictures, and I especially love that it has six different spinners for the different games so that you can play it for the most basic level (identifying smaller fractions...perfect for Reese at this level) all the way up to making equivalent fractions for higher grades.

Of course, Reese was ready to dig right in when I brought it home & he loved the realistic look of the pizza photographs!

Valentine's Day Homeschool Ideas

This year, we're taking the day off from our regular curriculum for a day in February to have some fun with Valentine's Day themed activities! Here's a bit of what I have planned so far....I would love to hear any ideas you have to add to our list!

*Of course, the obligatory Valentine Candy Heart Math activities.

Predicting how many hearts are in the box

Identify how many tens & ones in the estimation number & actual number

Sorting by color & phrase

Graphing the results for number of each color

Creating word problems & algebraic equations using the numbers of colors of hearts (How many green and orange hearts do you have? If you have 3 green hearts and you need a total of 7, how many more do you need...3 + x = 7)

Identify greater than/less than using colors

Use an internet site to create a pie graph showing different colors & discuss different types of graphs

*Using a large version of graphing paper, Mom will draw hearts & we will use RedHot candies to find the area & perimeter of different hearts.

*Play a matching game using "broken hearts" and addition facts

*Play Heart Bingo

*Play Hershey Kisses Battleship.

Using a 10 x 10 grid, we will label the x-axis with letters and the y-axis with numbers. We'll place a few Kisses on our grid and will play Battleship. This will help teach map reading skills, along with graphing skills and how to read the x-axis and y-axis of a graph or map. If you find the Kiss, you get to take it & eat it!

*Using a Hundreds Chart and clues, solve the Valentine's Day Hundred Chart Puzzle

Reese will have to follow my clues (Place a heart shape on the number that is equal to two tens. Place a heart shape on the number that is 10 more than 36. etc) in order to solve the puzzle, which ends with a picture.

*Place Value Chocolates activity

By reading the clues (I have a two in the thousands place. I have a five in the ones place, etc) we'll find the chocolate with the correct number and glue it into place. As an extension, all even numbered chocolates will be colored dark brown and all odd numbered chocolates will be colored light brown.

*Make Sparkling Valentine's Hearts with borax

We'll shape pipe cleaners into heart shapes & suspend the shape into a large jar by a pencil. The Borax solution will crystallize on the pipe cleaner. We'll talk about the science behind our work. The Borax dissolves in warm water but when the water cools, the molecules of Borax crystallize 0ut of the solution and stick to the pipe cleaner. We'll use our hand-held microscope to view the crystals.

We have been studying body systems in Science already, so I don't think we'll focus too much on the heart & it's job. If I can find an appropriate picture book about Milton Hershey I'd like to read that as well...or maybe there's a good website about him. Need to check that out...

So, we'll be doing a day full of math & science activities for our Valentine's fun :) What are your plans?

Week 17

We are finishing up Week 17 of our Sonlight Core 1 curriculum. In Science, we are talking about our water system & the water cycle...how water gets from outside to your sink faucet. Very interesting stuff! We currently have saucers of water in various locations to see which evaporates faster, and we also have 4 petri dishes growing germy swabs from places on our bodies to see what will grow.

In Math, we are continuing to work on adding 3 numbers, double-digit addition, memorizing facts, fractions, skip counting, greater than/less than, equal/not equal, counting money, telling time, graphing, patterns,...whew! At the beginning of the year, I did not like our curriculum much (Horizon 1) but I have come to really like the spiral learning technique & the constant review Reese gets daily. I didn't' think we would do Horizon 2 next year, but I am starting to think I may stick with it. Reese has been doing really well with it, and it seems foolish to change if it's working.

Our History & Geography talks have gone from Egypt to ancient Greece. We started reading Greek Myths this week & Reese is fascinated by the stories! Yesterday, we read about Odysseus, the Trojan Horse and the Cyclops. Some of the stories are pretty gory (sticking a stick into Cyclop's eye to escape the his cave? Heck yes, Reese loved that story! ) We are reading a cute book called Usborne Greek Myths and I like how the stories are compacted down in to two-page versions. I have reserved a big stack of Greek myth books from the library & will pick them up today so we can read a little more in-depth about the different myths. Another favorite is King Midas & The Golden Touch.

We are using Handwriting Without Tears to work on our letter formations & I have been so very happy with this program. I like that it has given Mommy the "language" to help make letters properly. For example, for the number 8, I had been having Reese just make two circles because I could NOT figure out how to explain the figure-8 shape. Well, HWT explains it like this: "Make an S and go back home". Duh. Seems so common sense, but I couldn't think to explain it that way! We are almost finished with the Yellow book (I think that's book 1?) and we are going to move onto the Blue book (Book 2?) in a few weeks.

We do daily reading & comprehension, grammar work, & creative writing activities. We also have a Bible study from our book Leading Little Ones To God that we do about 4xs a week.

We are also going to begin Explode The Code 3 because Reese has caught onto pretty much everything phonetic very easily, but the silent -e at the end of the words is not sinking in. So I'm going to pick that up next week along with the Blue HWT & start incorporating that into our mornings.

On Fridays, Reese has AGAPE homeschool PE classes. He has done gymnastics, bounce houses, & played group games, and this month he begins karate followed by a month of ice skating. I have also been happy with this program, & he seems to have fun for the hour of PE.

Let's see...what else...I think that about covers it. We work for about 2.5 to 4 hours a day, depending on what we have that needs to be covered...

That about sums up our year so far. We start Week 18 on Monday and will keep plugging along! We have 36 weeks total, and I have us finishing the first week of June as of now.

Reason #23 I'm Glad We Homeschool

Today, during 1st grade Math, we were working on word problems.

The very first problem of the day was about balls...

And the conversation went something like this:

REESE: "What kind of balls can I draw? Any kind?"

MOMMY: "Yes, you can draw any kind."

REESE: "So I can draw testicle balls?"

Perhaps this would have been his first visit to the Principal's office today! Instead, we had a silly laugh and he decided to draw tennis balls. That boy...I tell you what....sometimes he's a walking one man comedy show...

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**Sorry for the really bad picture...my cell phone doesn't quite understand focus!**

Place Value

Working hard with our place value math manipulatives...

Place value was always such a hard concept for my first graders, but perhaps it was confusing because it was done in a large group.

Reese and I had fun making up our own games with the "cubes" and "rods",

and we'll keep working on it but I think it made sense!

Overwhelmed. What? Me?

Exciting stuff happened last weekend...the FedEx man delivered two important boxes!

Reese's 1st Grade curriculum arrived and we couldn't wait to dig in and see what Mommy had ordered!

Lots of exciting books, instructor guides, manipulatives, experiments...

And more....

Overwhelmed with all of the items? Me? *cough cough* Nah!

I have to keep reminding myself that these are the supplies for our entire year and that if I laid out the supplies from my 1st Grade Teacher Days it would have looked just as massive an undertaking.

Luckily, Hubby always reminds me to eat the elephant one bite at a time & it does help me to remember that this isn't all for Day 1! :)

I've sorted through all the Instructor Guides and placed everything in the notebooks for Mama. We will begin our school year on August 17th & I can't wait...this curriculum from Sonlight is heavily literature based which makes me so excited!

And...it is a little less intimidating once everything is put on the bookshelves, in the cabinets, organized in the binders, etc.

But don't even get me started on the fact that my baby boy is a 1st grader...I remember when I taught 1st grade that the students seemed so independent and "big" by the end of the year. Don't even get me started I tell 'ya....

Saxon Phonics...Working It's Magic

Choosing a kindergarten homeschool curriculum was a really stressful decision for me. I know, I know...it's just kindergarten! But I wanted to get started on the right foot, with something that would hold my hand and guide me this first year.

When I taught 1st grade, we used Saxon Phonics so I chose Saxon to begin our Kindergarten year because it was something I was comfortable with & a program I knew worked!

We're sixteen weeks into our Saxon work & I must say I'm happy with the progress Reese is making! He is blessed with the ability to blend words easily, and he is moving right along with reading. I have yet to throw something out to him that he hasn't figured out.

There's so many ways to make phonics a game! Like the picture above...Reese had wanted some M&Ms, so we made a game out of it. He put an M&M on each picture card, and then he read the word on the spelling card. When he found the match, he slapped it down & ate the M&M. So silly, but he was so thrilled!

And I'm glad we found his motivator....

GAMES!!! Math games are fun too :)