Building Understanding and Excitement for Children
November 2010
Pasadena Independent School District
Elementary Math & Science Specialists
i n fo
bits
Cooking with math
This holiday season,
encourage your child to practice
arithmetic skills and help in the
kitchen. Tell him how many people
you are cooking for, and challenge
him to double, triple, or even quadruple a recipe.
Make a hypothesis
When a scientist does an experiment,
she starts by writing a hypothesis—an
“if-then” sentence that predicts what
will happen. Encourage your youngster to practice this important science
skill by making and testing her own
hypothesis. Example: “If I roll a pair of
dice 100 times, then I will get more 7s
than any other number.”
Book picks
When the teacher in Math Curse
(Jon Scieszka) points out that math is
everywhere, a little girl can’t stop
finding problems. She adds words,
subtracts shoes, and even puts math
symbols in her art project.
Read 65 Short Mysteries You Solve
with Science! (Eric Yoder and Natalie
Yoder), and see how many cases you
and your youngster can crack. The
authors explain the science behind
each mystery, from missing candy to
a vanishing sand castle.
Worth quoting
“Try to learn something about everything
and everything about something.”
Thomas Huxley
Just for fun
Q: Why is fog lazy?
A: Because
it’s always
lying on the
ground!
© 2010 Resources for Educators, a division of Aspen Publishers, Inc.
It’s not equal!
Arranging numbers using greater
than (>) and less than (<) symbols
will help your youngster practice
inequalities—number sentences
where the two sides are not equal.
Your child can think of inequalities
as scales where the two sides don’t
balance. His goal is to add a symbol
that will make the sentence true.
Add a symbol
Ask your child to write <, >, or
= on separate index cards. He’ll use
those cards and a deck of playing cards
(face cards and 10s removed) for this
activity. Have him shuffle the deck,
divide it in half, and place the two piles
facedown. He should draw two cards
from each pile and use them to make
two-digit numbers. If he draws a 5 and a
2 from the left pile and a 3 and a 4 from
the right pile, for example, he would
have 52 and 34. Then, he should select
the proper symbol to form a true math
sentence (52 > 34). Idea: He can compare larger numbers by picking three,
four, five, or six cards from each pile.
Look closely
Use a number line
Making a number line will help your
youngster visualize number relationships. Have him draw a straight line with
an arrow on each end, divide the line
into equal segments, and number the
marks (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). Give him fractions such as 1–38 , –43 , 3–12 , –18 , and 2–41 to plot
along his number line. Ask him questions that will let him compare the numbers (“What number is less than –43 ?”).
Have him write an inequality giving the
answer ( –18 < –43 ). Then, let him make
another number line with decimals
(4.35, 2.1, 0.6, 3.7, 1.5) and compare
them.
Drawing details in everyday objects can help your youngster make observations —one of the most important skills for science class. Suggest that she grab
an apple, colored pencils, and blank paper and try these steps:
1. Draw the apple, including colors, spots, bruises, and other details. Below the
drawing, write words that describe how the apple looks
(reddish-yellow, round, bruised).
2. Cut the apple in half, and draw the inside. Show the
color of the apple flesh with the skin at the edge. Draw
the core and individual seeds.
3. Label the drawings. Add lines pointing to specific
parts of the diagram, and write the words (skin, flesh,
core, seed).
Idea: Draw and diagram other fruits like bananas or
strawberries. How are they similar or different from apples?
Intermediate Edition
Molecule models
Watch the movement. Mole-
Your child may be surprised that clear
water has something in it — molecules.
Molecules are made when two or more
atoms, the smallest building blocks of
life, join together. With these activities,
she can make a model of one and see
how molecules move.
Create a model. Does your youngster
wonder why water is called H2O? Explain that a
water molecule is made of two hydrogen atoms (H2)
and one oxygen atom (O). Have her create an H2O model
by sticking a toothpick in either side of a grape (the oxygen
atom) and adding a mini marshmallow (hydrogen
atoms) to the other end of each toothpick.
Make a
MATH
corner shape
Your youngster can explore geometry
and build spatial-reasoning skills by
creating and playing with an ancient
Chinese puzzle called a tangram.
●●Build. Using an 8-inch square of construction paper or cardboard and a ruler,
have him draw a diagonal line to make
two triangles. He should divide one triangle in half to
create two
smaller triangles. From the
other large triangle, he
should make
three triangles,
one square, and one parallelogram.
Finally, he can cut out the shapes.
●●Play. First, have him put the shapes
together to form the square he started
with. Then, ask him to create a smaller
square (he can use two smaller triangles).
Which shapes could he use to make a
trapezoid? (a square, small triangle, and
parallelogram, or a small square and a
small triangle) Tip: Let him play tangram
games online (try http://pbskids.org/cyber
chase/games/area/tangram.html).
Ou r
P u r p o s e
To provide busy parents with practical ways to
promote their children’s math and science skills.
Resources for Educators,
a division of Aspen Publishers, Inc.
128 N. Royal Avenue • Front Royal, VA 22630
540-636-4280 • [email protected]
www.rfeonline.com
© 2010 Resources for Educators, a division of Aspen Publishers, Inc.
November 2010 • Page 2
SCIENCE
LAB
cules are constantly moving.
This experiment will show your
child how temperature affects
how fast they move. Let her
fill one glass with cold water
and another glass with the
same amount of hot water.
She can add a drop of food
coloring to each glass at the
same time. She’ll notice that
the food coloring in the warm
water spreads out faster and the
food coloring in the cold water
sinks. Molecules have more energy in warm water—they move
faster and can spread the food coloring more quickly.
Swing speed
A playground swing is a pendulum —
it moves back and forth from a fixed point with help from
gravity. This experiment will show your child how the
length of the chains affects how fast he can swing.
You’ll need: roll of toilet paper, 4-foot length of
string, ruler, scissors, pencil, paper
Here’s how: To make a pendulum, have your youngster tie one end of the string around the roll of toilet
paper. Then, he should stand up, hold the loose end of the string so the roll hangs
parallel to the floor, and push the roll so it starts swinging. He can count how many
times it swings back and forth in 10 seconds. Next, have him cut the string in half
and repeat the experiment.
What happens? With the shorter string, the pendulum swings more times in
10 seconds.
Why? The shorter string has less distance to travel to complete one swing. That’s
why your youngster can go faster on swings with shorter chains. Idea: Go to a playground with different-length swings and try it out!
Q Show your work
&
A
Q: My child says she “just knows
the answers” and doesn’t want to
show her work when she does
math problems on homework or tests. Why
does she have to?
A: Teachers usually want students to show each step
between the question and
the answer. This lets the
teacher see how your daughter got the answer, and she
can help your daughter with
parts that are giving her trouble. Even if she gets the right
answer, your youngster might
have done a step incorrectly, and the
misunderstanding could trip her up later.
The process will help your child in
other ways, too. As she writes out her
work, she will often catch mistakes
and be able to correct them—it’s
harder to find mistakes when
she does the math in her head.
Explaining the steps also lets
her practice math computations and formulas. Finally,
teachers sometimes give partial credit for the steps a student gets right, even if her
answer is wrong.