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Calendar Math helps number sense
Posted:
Apr 14, 1999 5:01 PM
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I teach third grade. An excellent ten-minute math activity that
builds number sense is "calendar math." My students love it! It is
amazing how their number sense grows each time we do it. The students
learn so much from each other.
For those of you have aren't sure what calendar math is, it is
creating mathematical equations based on the day of the month that you
do the activity on. For example, today was the 14th, so our magic
number was 14. The students have to come up with various equations
that equal 14, using any of the four operations. A variation of the
game is to set rules. For instance, a rule could be to use more than
two numbers in your equation, or at least two operations. I have a
student helper every day, so today I had my helper come up with the
rule of the day. When we did this activity today, many of the
students were playing with the concept of positive and negative
numbers. Some of them were trying to use multiplication and division
in their equations.
It's an excellent, quick activity to squeeze in if you have a few
extra minutes in your day. We have also done this activity in the
hallway while we were waiting to go somewhere.
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