Winding down the year......Summer is almost here!

Even though it's summer, math skills can be kept up in lots of fun ways. Here are some of the fun ways you can keep practicing your math skills throughout the summer.

One of the favorite games we played this year was called 101 and Out! This game, which only requires 1 dice and some paper and pencil is a great way to practice using addition, mental math and place value. The object of the game is to get closest to 100 without going over (hence 101 - and you are out!) You have 5 dice rolls to do this. If you roll a 3, you have the option of taking 3, 30 or 3x3 (younger children can play without multiplication option). Each time you add on to your score, use mental math! The paper and pencil are for keeping score only! The person who is closest to 100 at the end of 5 rolls without going over 100 wins!

Another favorite game is I have...Who has... You can go on-line and print off cards to make your own game, depending on what skill you are working on.

If it's a rainy day or you looking for your child to get in some fact practice, go to any of the sites listed here on my blog. If there are particular facts that you are working on with your child to help them master, you can go on APlusMath and go to flashcard creator and create your own flashcards (this might be fun for your child to do!). There are worksheets you could print off and you could go to the game room and click on addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. 

And who doesn't love food...especially in the summer. The following are all ideas that center around food and math. Have fun trying some of these out!

• Identifying Geometry shapes using spherical oranges, circles of salami, squares of cheese and cubes of cheese.
• Counting: jellybeans, carrots, peas, etc
• Sorting/counting large bag of M&M's. How many browns? Oranges? Red? Greens? Create a bar graph with the information. Ask questions such as "How many more browns than greens are there?"
• Grouping candy or other food items and practice counting by 2's, 5's, 10's.
• Buying snacks at the pool. If you have $5, what can you afford to buy? How much change will you get back?
• Telling your child what time dinner will be and then asking them how much time will pass before dinner? 
• Baking your favorite recipes. Using measuring cups and spoons. How many 1/2 cups in a cup? How many 1/4 cups?
• Discuss and show weight of food items. 1 lb of butter or cheese. 5 lbs of flour. 6 ounces of cheese.
• Setting table for dinner. Two extra people joining the family tonight - how many place settings will you need?
• Survey family on their favorite vegetables. Chart and graph your results.
• If there are approximately 10 chocolate chips in each cookie, how many will be in a whole batch of cookies?
• Pizza/fraction math. If 4 people eat 1 slice of pizza that is cut into eighths, how much will be left?
• Determining how many pizzas you should order for a party, depending on how many people you are expecting.
• Estimating numbers of items in jars.
• Divide total amount of cherries among number of kids present. How many will you have remaining?
• Looking at muffin/cupcake pan. How many muffins will we be able to make?

JUST A FEW IDEAS!!! THE IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER IS MATH IS ALL AROUND US!!!