The Measure of a Heart uses candy hearts to practice measuring perimeter and area.  After finishing the worksheet, use your candy hearts to measure the perimeter and area of other things around the house.

(In case you need to know…Perimeter is the measurement around an object and area is the measurement of an object’s surface.  To measure the perimeter of the hearts on the worksheet, place candy hearts around the edges of the hearts – the dark lines – and count how many it takes to go all the way around.  To measure the area, see how many candy hearts will fit inside the hearts on the worksheet.)

The Candy Pattern worksheet (which didn’t transfer to a jpg well and is MUCH nicer in the PDF download) allows your child to make various patterns using candy hearts.

(In case you need to know…each of the letters on the worksheet (A, B, C) represent a different colored candy heart.  So, for instance, an ABA pattern, where A represents pink and B represents green would look like: pink, green, pink, pink, green, pink, pink, green, pink.  Your child gets to decide which colors represent each letter of the pattern.)

You can find several other fun math related V-Day ideas at Googol Learning.

I’ve been pinning fun ideas on my Valentine’s Pinterest board, too!

For those of you interested in learning how to add more living math into your homeschool, consider Loving Living Math.

An art lesson that promotes mathematical thinking – oh joy.  With the main focus being on the art concept of positive and negative space, throwing symmetry into the mix gave a nice extra punch to the lesson.

Positive space is the area on a piece of art which the subject occupies, while negative space is the area around the subject.  You can see in this symmetrical example that the positive space is the pink on the left, but changes to yellow on the right.

The method is quite simple.

1. Find two contrasting colors of the same sized paper.

2. Fold both papers in half to establish the line of symmetry.

3. Set one paper aside.

4. Cut the 2nd piece of paper in half on the fold you just made.  Discard one of the halves.

5. Draw 1/2 of a shape.  (Like you would do if you were making paper hearts and planned to open the paper up once the heart was cut out.  Except, in this case, you’ve already discarded the other half.)

6. Cut out your shape, keeping all pieces.

7. Place the positive space pieces on one side of the line of symmetry on the 2nd sheet of paper.  Place the negative space pieces on the other side.  Situate all the pieces so that they meet the line of symmetry perfectly and match up with one another.

8. Glue.

This lesson was inspired by Dick Blick and is one of the many integrated math and art lessons I’ve pinned on my Living Math Pinterest Page!

(Sorry, not the best photo, but I wanted you to see the possibilities.)

Math

My preschooler made a concrete graph with his candy.

He had to sort the candy into groups before we could graph them and he created the group names all by himself – gum, chocolate, suckers, crunchy, chewy and hard.

After completing all sorts of averages based on different groupings of the candy, Caleb (6th grade) created this graph using Excel.  (This is another great computer integration activity for those of you who’ve asked me to share more about how we use the computer in our homeschool!)

Science

Not a great picture, but I wanted you to see the entire concrete classification system my 6th grader made with his candy.  {A classification system is otherwise known as a taxonomy, which we compared to the classification system for plants and animals.}

Beginning with the main group of ‘candy’, Caleb decided how to break the large group into two smaller groups. He came up with ‘chocolate’ and ‘non-chocolate’ as his descriptions.

For each new category, he continued breaking the groups down into two new categories until he ended up with each specific type of candy in it’s own pile.

Finally, we walked through each candy’s “classification”. An example from our taxonomy chart -Candy; chocolate; bright wrappers; made with peanuts; made with peanut butter, crunchy, Butterfinger. Besides being a science activity, this also fits into the category of logic!

Check out some other candy math lessons we’ve posted in the past, too!

• M&M Math
• Candy Heart Math

Actually, I’m a little late in posting a lot of things.  My goal this week is to polish and publish as many posts as I can before The Heart of the Matter’s 10 Days of …. Series begins next week.  Did I mention I was taking part in that again?  I know I mentioned it on my Facebook page, but just in case you missed it, I’ll be writing TEN days of posts on the topic of Values Training beginning next Monday, Nov. 7th!  There are lots of wonderful blogs participating, each with exciting topics!

Anyway, off to today’s post – a living math lesson with pumpkins!  All our children participated according to their abilities – from the 4yo to the 14yo.  The 11yo and 14yo were expected to measure with complete accuracy, while the 4yo dabbled in learning how to measure.  He used standard (rulers) and non-standard (blocks) measuring tools.

We measured the height and width of each pumpkin.

We measured the weight with our bathroom scale. A nice kitchen scale (which we don't own) would've provided more accurate measurements.

We measured the circumference and the big kids used formulas to determine the diameter and radius.

Here's the beginning of Mahayla's record keeping.

When Eli saw his big brother and big sister keeping records, he insisted that he have a record keeping sheet, too. W = wide and T = tall.

We did a water displacement activity to find the volume of our pumpkins (you'll see below), but we didn't have a big enough container marked with measurements to make the pumpkin displacement accurate. To demonstrate the correct way to find volume, we used a measuring cup and potato. At least this gave them a better idea what we were doing wrong in measuring the volume of our pumkins.

In measuring the volume of our pumpkins, we made our own measurement bucket for estimations, but realized our measurements probably were not perfect, nor could we see through the bucket to see exact water levels. At least they have the experience and understand the flaws in our trial.

Of course, we couldn't end the lesson without carving our pumpkins! Through this process, we continued to measure width of the skin, depth of the cavity, and such. We also talked "science" as we discussed the pumpkin parts and their functions.

And, we couldn't end the lesson without a pumpkin treat. These are simple pumpkin bars that are so moist, they don't even need icing!

I hope you’ll find a few leftover pumpkins at the market and have your own living math lesson!

I love incorporating math with other subjects.  In this simple activity, math and art come together to make a pretty spectacular finished product.

• Use watercolors to make whatever design you like on card stock.
• On the back of the dried artwork, use a ruler to make a grid of one-inch blocks.
• Cut the blocks apart and mix the pieces up.
• Lay the blocks randomly on another piece of card stock to create an abstract picture.
• Glue the pieces down securely.

We didn't have carstock, so I substituted old folders. I would definitely plan to use cardstock next time for easier measuring.

Since math is part of the lesson, be precise in creating the grid and cutting the squares so the pieces fit together nicely in the final product.

Mahayla's fiished artwork.

Caleb's final artwork.

]]> http://ourjourneywestward.com/2011/10/abstract-art-and-living-math/feed/ 5 http://ourjourneywestward.com/2011/07/cold-measurement/ http://ourjourneywestward.com/2011/07/cold-measurement/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:25:36 +0000 Cindy http://ourjourneywestward.com/?p=4248

Making measurement notes.

Last week, we were blessed with a dry snow that led to lots of snow drifts. I sent the kids on their merry way with a clipboard and measuring tools in hand. Their job was to find and measure as many snow drifts and icicles as possible, noting measurements on a scrap piece of paper.

Measuring icicles on the van.

Measuring icicles on the watering trough.

Measuring a small snow drift near the house so mom could get a picture from her cozy perch inside.

Preschoolers and dogs enjoy helping, too!

On The Measure of Snow, they took their snow drift measurements and created a graph to display the information. My daughter began with a line graph, then changed her mind to watercolor a bar graph. Thus the eraser marks!

On Interesting Icicles, I had them order their measurements from shortest to longest and draw a picture of an icicle up-close. My oldest had to create her own graph from the icicle information, too.

They LOVE this kind of math – hands-on, active, meaningful, real. And, I didn’t have one complaint as they joyfully learned about and practiced accurate measuring, ordering mixed/decimal numbers, and completing/creating graphs. Ah, a fun time of math and nature study, indeed. (And I didn’t have to get out in the cold to boot!)

As a homeschool teacher, I don’t let my kids often get away with only carving their pumpkins! Although, since we’ve been so busy this season, I did let them get away with only carving them just this once. What do I usually make them do? Fun math and science/nature study, of course!

• Measure the circumference
• Calculate the diameter and radius using only the circumference measurement
• Weigh the pumpkins
• Compare weights
• Measure heights and widths
• Measure the volume
• Estimate the amount of seed
• Count the seeds
• Examine and open the seeds
• Observe the difference between the inner and outer pumpkin shell
• Measure the thickness of the shell
• Examine the stem
• Look for signs to see where the pumpkin touched the ground
• Follow a recipe to make roasted pumpkin seeds

If you have any questions about how to do any of the math tasks I’ve suggested, just ask! They’re all very easy really.

This is a wonderful activity to supplement the NaturExplorers study of Fruits and Nuts this season!

Remember when I told you Prufrock Press (my publisher) is partnering with me for a living math giveaway?  Well, today’s your lucky day because I’m going to offer ONE wonderful logic book to TWO lucky winners!

My son, Caleb, and I have used and loved both of these books.  Don’t think I’m giving away my copies because they rest on my bookshelf waiting for Eli.    The winners will get their very own brand-new copies!

Primarily Logic by Judy Leimbach is a fantastic book full of analogies, syllogisms, if-then statements, all-none statements and deductive reasoning for 2nd-4th graders.  My son loved the fun worksheet challenges and I loved that each page provided plenty of examples and practice.  I also appreciated the step-by-step approach to understanding each type of logic.

Logic Safari (Book 2) by Bonnie Risby is written for 3rd and 4th graders.  It’s full of excellent logic matrix puzzles that Caleb (and Mahayla) simply devoured.  We love these!  This series is available in three different books that are appropriate for 1st-6th grades.

Check out all the logic products Prufrock Press sells at very reasonable prices!

You have until Friday, May 27th to leave a comment on this post for a chance to win one of the books!

If your children are older than 2nd-4th grades, don’t worry.  I’ll be giving away two more books very soon which are appropriate for 5-8th graders!

Congratulations to Wendi, winner of Hands-On Geometry from Prufrock Press!  Please stay tuned, I have FOUR more (wonderful) books to giveaway over the next several weeks!

With stories along the vein of The Magic Tree House books, you and the characters, Harriet and Thomas, are whisked back in time to figure out wonderfully in-depth geometry mysteries.  Meet Leonardo Da Vinci, M.C. Escher and Ancient Egyptian architect, Imhotep, through three very exciting and unique stories/math units.

At the beginning of each unit, you are introduced to the characters and their probing questions through an original story that is provided for you right inside the workbook.  (In other words, you don’t have to check out  anything from the library!)  By the end of the day’s reading, there is an activity to complete using reproducible work pages.  Each of the three units includes 6-8 lessons, meaning everyday you learn a little more through the story and complete a new math activity.  The lessons took us about 30-45 minutes per day, including reading.

• In the first unit, Harriet and Thomas (and you) meet Leonardo Da Vinci and help him learn how to draw proportionately accurate drawings.  Throughout the lessons, your student will measure, compare ratios, complete charts, find averages, complete models and draw proportions.

• In the second unit, meet M.C. Esher as you (and Harriet and Thomas) help him figure out the concept of tessellations.  Your child will have the opportunity to discover symmetry, draw and measure angles, learn about plane figures and polygons, and create a variety of tessellations.

• The third unit takes you to Ancient Egypt where you help Imhotep, an architect of pyramids, work through his building frustrations.  Lessons topics include making perfect squares, angles, directions, circumference, using grids, finding the area of rectangles, triangles and 3-D shapes.

Besides work pages, each lesson also includes abstract questions to take your little math whizzes deeper if you like.  Additionally – and one of my favorite parts – a very hands-on extension project is suggested at the end of each unit to culminate the learning into “real” final products.  Your child will be challenged to create a to-scale map, sew a simple quilt and design a balanced mobile of 3-D shapes.

I can’t explain clearly enough how unique and intriguing these lessons are.  Even though there is math work to do within the lessons, it’s well integrated to go along with the story and teaches serious geometry in a mostly painless way.  (Math is never completely painless for Caleb!)  The suggested age level is 4th-5th grade, but I think many 6th and 7th grade students would get a lot from the lessons, too.

Learn more and view a preview of the book here.

******

Great News!

Prufrock Press is partnering with me for a wonderful (and huge) living math giveaway!

Keep your eyes open over the next couple of months as I’ll be giving away a total of FIVE of my favorite living math and logic books from Prufrock Press!!  You read that right.  They have sent five of their top-notch books, all of which I have used and loved, for me to use as giveaways for YOU!

****And today starts the living math party with the first giveaway!****

Do you remember when I reviewed Hands-On Geometry last year?  Well, it remains my favorite out-of-the-box book for teaching 4-8 graders about creating 2-dimensional figures with the use of a compass and straight edge.  It’s perfect for use as a math “unit”, completing the lessons over the course of a few weeks, or as a supplement to add lessons into your regular math plan occasionally.  I just know you’ll love it!

For your chance to win, comment on this post by midnight, April 29th.

If you’d like an additional chance to win, “like” Shining Dawn Books on Facebook.  Why?  I wrote Loving Living Math through Shining Dawn Books, which will help you learn to incorporate living math into your homeschool.  You also never know when we might be offering a Loving Living Math giveaway on Facebook!  For the additional entry, either comment here that you liked me on Facebook or comment directly on Facebook so that I’ll know you are entering the Hands-On Geometry giveaway.