How Can I Include Math In My Child's Summer?
Use the activites below to maintain and enhance your child's math skills. Sign your initials by each activity your child finishes or
tries for at least 10 minutes. At the end of the summer send this form to your child's teacher to show your child's work.
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Suggested summer math activities for students entering 4th grade
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Roll two dice, then have your child try to find an example around your home that matches the multiplication problem formed by the two
numbers (Example: Roll a 3 and a 6: Three ants have six legs each for 18 legs, or three dice have 18 sides).
Have your child estimate how many pieces of cereal are in their bowl to the nearest 10. Have them count and round their answer to the
nearest 10. How close were you?
Find the area of several tables or desks in your home with your child by measuring. Which appears to be largest? Do their measurements
support this?
While at the store or looking in your pantry, find multiple copies of things that are sold in sets (hot-dog buns, hot dogs, kit-kats, 6-packs, etc.)
and ask your child to find out how many there are total (Example: 3 packs of hot dog buns with 8 each is 24 hot dog buns.).
Have your child measure all the books on a shelf to the nearest quarter inch. Let them show the results by making a line plot (draw a number
line and make one additional mark directly above the number line for each book of that length). Repeat the activity only measuring to the
nearest inch. Compare the two plots.
Ask your child to find the amount of change in cents you will have left after making a purchase using a ten dollar bill or less.
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Draw a clock on paper and have your child draw the hands on the clock for the current time or for other times (Ask: When …is bedtime?
…does your favorite program start? …do you get up in the morning? etc.).
Have your child use multiplication to figure out how many brownies, slices of pizza, cake, or casserole there are when they are cut in
rectangles.
Have your child find the number of things arranged in a grid first by counting the length of a row and multiplying by the number of columns,
then by counting the length of a column and multiplying by the number of rows. Have them compare their two answers (Examples: squaretiled floor, eggs in an egg carton, bumps on a Lego, squares on a quilt, squares on a board game, windowpanes in a window, openings on a
chain-link fence, buttons on a phone, brownies, tic-tac-toe board, bristles on a toothbrush, etc.).
When an activity ends, tell your child when it began and ask them how long the activity took (Example: The clock shows it is 12:32. We began
eating lunch at 11:35. How long has it been since we began eating lunch?).
While at the store, look at the volume of a yogurt container or carbonated beverage from a six-pack. Have your child find the total volume by
multiplying the individual volume by six.
Ask your child to measure the amount of ketchup, mustard, peanut butter, jelly, salad dressing, mayo, or other condiment that they use in a
single serving. Have them estimate and calculate the number of servings in the entire container.
Have your child look at the bus schedule, a sibling's school schedule, or another schedule, and find out the length of time if a bus trip, class,
etc.
Have your child give examples of multiplication word problems (Example: 5 tricycles is how many wheels?, 2 dogs is how many legs?, 3
rhinos is how many horns?, 8 spiders is how many eyes?, etc.).
Go on a fraction scavenger hunt with your child (newspapers, books, magazines, pizzas, cakes, pies, candy bars, scissors, pants, fruits, nuts,
sandwiches, pamphlets, flags, snail mail letters, the Mercedes logo, rope, bananas (divided the long ways), clover, etc.).
Have your child estimate their own weight or the weight of objects around your home. Check by weighing them on a bathroom scale.
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Ask your child to look in the TV guide and determine how long different television programs last by looking at their starting and ending times.
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Have your child find out: How big is your bathroom? (measure in square feet)
Have your child create a savings goal thermometer. Help them decide on something they want to save up for. Mark the cost at the top. Have
them draw lines for each eighth of the way to their goal. Have them write in the matching dollar amounts for each line and track their progress
over time.
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Have your child find out: How many articles of clothing do they own? Have them make a pictograph for each type of clothing they count. Let
one picture represent 2 articles of clothing. (Example: They draw 3 and a half pairs of shoes if they have 7 pairs of shoes).
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Have your child start or update a weather journal. When they have enough data, have them make a pictograph showing the number of days
with each type of weather (two days of sun = 1 sun symbol, 2 days of rain = 1 rain drop symbol, 2 days of clouds = 1 cloud symbol, etc.).
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Ask your child to find out: How many pages are in the typical book in your home? Round numbers of pages to the nearest 10 or 100. Graph
the results on a dot plot. Is a certain length of book most likely?
While traveling with your child, look for two digit numbers. When you find one, see what pairs of numbers could multiply to give you that
number (Example 15 is 5 * 3 or 1 * 15. 42 is 1 * 42, 2 * 21 or 3 * 14, or 6 * 7.).
Have your child calculate the length of string or ribbon needed to tie around a birthday present.
Go on a quadrilateral identification scavenger hunt with your child. For each one they find, have them identify all the categories it falls into
(Example: a square pillow is a quadrilateral, parallelogram, rectangle, kite, rhombus, and square; a rectangular window is a quadrilateral,
parallelogram, and rectangle, a kite is a quadrilateral and a kite, etc.).
Set an alarm clock for your child. Calculate with them how long they will get to sleep before the alarm will go off.
Find numbers at home or while traveling. Challenge your child to come up with as many different ways as they can think of to make that
number (Example: 12 is twice 6, 10 plus 2, half of 24, 20 minus 8, 3 plus 3 plus 3 plus 3).
Ask your child to find out: How much trim is needed in a room in your home? (This is a calculation of perimeter)
How Can I Include Math In My Child's Summer?
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Suggested summer math activities for students entering 4th grade
Have your child create a timeline of their life, marking events by the nearest whole, half, or quarter year.
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Have your child verify the volume of a container by multiplying the Amount per Serving and the Servings per Container on the package (or
verify the Amount per Serving or Servings per Container by starting with the volume and dividing).
Ask your child to estimate how many gallons of water it would take to fill the bathtub.
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Have your child start or update a nutrition log. Keep a running total of calories and of calories from fat throughout the day.
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While cooking, double or triple a recipe and ask your child to do the calculations (Example: 3 cups of diced potatoes doubled is 6 cups of
diced potatoes).
Play Multiplication War with your child (like War without the face cards, but each turn each player puts down two cards and multiplies them
together). The winner takes all four cards. Play once through the deck, or repeat until one player has no cards.
Ask your child to find out: How big is a 3x5 index card? Cut into inch squares to confirm the area.
Have your child make a card or other craft and decorate the border. Ask them to calculate how much border material they will need (a
perimeter calculation).
Practice flash cards with your child for multiplication and division of numbers that are 10 or less (if you don't have a set, make them together
using index cards).
Ask your child to round prices in the store, a catalog, or advertisement to the nearest 100 cents (to the nearest dollar).
Challenge your child to find out: How far they can jump to the nearest quarter inch?
Ask your child to find the number of tiles that cover the kitchen or bathroom by counting all the tiles. Ask them to find the area again by
counting the number in a row and counting the number of rows, then multiplying.
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Ask your child to find out: How long a gutter would you need to go around the perimeter of the building you live in?
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Challenge your child to create as many different numbers as they can from four other single-digit numbers that must be kept in order (such as
5, 1, 3, and 8) by using the four different operations (Example: 5 + 1 + 3 - 8 = 1, 5 - 1 - 3 + 8 = 8, 5 x1 x 3 - 8 = 7, 5 - 1 x 3 + 8 = 10).
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Time your child to see how quickly they can write down all products of one digit numbers (1x1=1, 1x2=2, 1x3=3, … 9x8=72, 9x9=81). Have
them check their work then see if they can improve their time.
Play Egg Carton Multiplication with your child. Write the numbers 1-12 in the bottom of an old egg carton. Put two tokens (such as pennies)
inside, close the carton, and shake it up. Multiply together the numbers where the tokens land.
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Have your child find out: How big is your television screen (or computer monitor)? (measure in square inches)
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Have your child round prices in the store, a catalog, or advertisements to the nearest $10 or $100.
Today, (Day 1 of 2), have your child find out: What dessert do your family and friends like best (pie, cake, cookies, or something else?)? Ask
them to record their results.
Today, (Day 2 of 2), have your child show the information they collected about favorite desserts in a pictograph where one pie symbol
represents two people liking pie, etc.
Give your child a small pile of dimes and ask them to say how many cents are present based on multiplying the number of dimes by 10 (stay
less than $1).
Play a game that involves all the cards in the deck. Ask your child to calculate how many cards should be dealt to each player by dividing the
deck size by the number of players, or calculate the number of cards in the deck based on the hand size.
Ask your child to find out: How long are their pants and shorts? Show the lengths in a dot plot. Do they notice any trends? Do the dots
cluster in certain areas?
While your child is pouring drinks for a meal, ask them to estimate how much liquid was poured for each person, then measure the amount
with a liquid measuring cup. Add the amount in each glass to find the total amount of liquid poured.
Go on a multiplication scavenger hunt around your home with your child. (Example, 2 boxes of 8 crayons each is 16 crayons, 4 three-ring
binders is 12 rings, 2 bicycles is 4 wheels, 3 phones is 30 number keys, 3 sinks is six handles, etc.).
Play Beat the Calculator with your child. Ask multiplication problems with two one-digit numbers and let your child race to answer the
question before you (or another child) can answer it with a calculator.
Play Slide Stopper with your child. From several feet away, slide cards as close to the edge of a table as possible without falling off. Use a
ruler to measure how far away the cards are.
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Ask your child what time it is to the nearest minute whenever you start or finish an activity (using digital clocks and clocks with hands).
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Make a multiplication table with your child, but instead of filling in numbers, fill in as many examples as you can find (Example: 2x5 equals
fingers on my hands, 3x3 equals digits 1-9 on a phone, 5x4 equals days of school in a typical month, etc.).
When grocery shopping with your child, ask them to divide the amount of a food item purchased by the number of family members to find the
amount per person. Another option is while eating a meal, divide the amount of food evenly to each person.
Have your child create a timeline of their day, marking events by the nearest whole, half, or quarter hour.
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Have your child create a card by folding a piece of paper in fourths. Have them fold it in half twice, first the short way then the long way.
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