I love using living books to help children “see” math. These math operations picture books specifically focus on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to help build understanding and connect math to the real world. Books are powerful in helping children relate to abstract mathematical concepts! They can be used as pre-reading before introducing something new…
Incorporating math practice into your regular schedule doesn’t have to be complicated with these independent math explorations. We all know that practice makes perfect, and that’s especially true when it comes to mathematics. These games will give your children the concrete tools they need to understand math concepts. They’re also great for exploration and practice…
Time and money picture books are invaluable to teach complex math concepts to children. These fun books will keep everyone inspired to learn! Did you know that time and money are forms of measurement? Yes! The minutes and hours that tick by on a clock are a standard way to measure time, as are the…
What kid wouldn’t love a break from the regular schedule of homeschooling to enjoy a funschooling day full of candy heart lessons??? Mom, I promise that your day won’t be wasted, and you’ll be able to check off almost every box in your lesson planner! Teaching with Candy Hearts Grab a big bag of candy…
This fun activity using Christmas glyphs will spice up December homeschooling. You’ll be glad to know it also counts as a living math lesson! What is a glyph? A glyph, as it relates to math, is a pictorial representation of data. That sounds like a pictograph because it is. Rather than putting pictures in the…
These exponential growth activities offer an excellent way to blend literature and math! Gather the books One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale by Demi and The King’s Chessboard by David Birch. The activities below offer hands-on experiences with exponential growth to help children visualize the rapid expansion of doubling numbers. Your children will love…
Graphing comes to life with this fun paper airplane math activity! Create, fly, collect data, and use technology for serious learning that will motivate your elementary and middle school children to love learning. This post contains affiliate links. Paper Airplane Graphs Grab some colorful paper and let your children have fun designing paper airplanes to…
Can you imagine using pumpkins to teach math, science, geography, history, AND language arts? You can do just that while enjoying a super-fun day of pumpkin school! Skip the textbooks for a few days and enjoy fall-themed fun with your elementary and middle school students. They will love the playful activities, and you’ll be thankful…
If you’ve been around here long, you know I love living math! One part of living math that makes so much sense for kids is connecting math concepts with literature. If you’ve never tried it, you’ll be amazed at the understanding gleaned from a simple book that teaches the topic in a new and fresh way. This…
I love living math—so much that I even wrote a book about it: Loving Living Math. It’s special for many reasons, but I’ll focus on one today. Living math offers opportunities for real-life, meaningful, hands-on learning. One of my favorite methods is using math manipulatives to help children understand concepts and think mathematically. In this post,…
Art and living math make a fantastic duo. Anytime you combine the creativity of art with the logical side of nature, you’ve got a powerful activity connecting both sides of the brain for meaningful learning. This particular lesson combines art and math through a fun project inspired by the famous abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky. This…
These data picture books will help your preschool, elementary, and even middle schoolers understand sorting and graphing. Sorting is a skill that is also called categorizing, ordering, classifying, or organizing. It’s simple enough in many cases for preschoolers to do and complex enough that scientists sometimes form teams to figure it out. Either way, it’s…