Discover - Practice - Apply

WHY SHOULD KIDS DO MATH OVER THE SUMMER? 

Just like continued reading is important, it is imperative for children to keep exploring numbers and thinking about mathematics. According to research from the Johns Hopkins Center for Summer Learning, on average, students lose approximately 2.6 months of grade level equivalency in mathematical skills over the summer months! As a result, children need to continue to “do math” over the summer to help reinforce and maintain the skills they have learned.

Students should choose a variety of skills to practice throughout the summer. 

We are encouraging students to work at least 20 minutes per week on mathematics for a minimum total of 220 minutes before returning to school in August. 

No special documentation is required for summer math practice as it is more important that students choose and elect to undertake math practice they are interested in. 

Of note: The activities on this site attempt to provide ideas for families. Activities can be modified based on age, academic appropriateness and mathematical ability. 

Thank you in advance for supporting your child’s mathematics education at home!

S.T.E.M. Focused Math Practice Options

Summer offers endless opportunities for your child to build nature smarts.

There’s gardening, swimming, biking, and other outdoor activities to enjoy.

While it’s good for kids to spend time outdoors, it’s also important for them to keep their academic skills sharp over the summer.

So, it’s even better when you can combine summer fun and learning!

It’s time for you and your child to explore math in nature!

Explore

Take a family trip and think about math!

Before you take off on that family trip, help your parents and get in on the planning! Here are a few examples of where math can be used when taking a family trip: 

Use an atlas and figure out how many miles you’ll be driving – the scale of miles is a great example of proportion and measurement used in real life! 

What’s your car’s fuel efficiency? Add to find out the total cost to fill up the tank throughout your trip; divide to calculate the miles driven per gallon of gas; multiply to determine the cost of a fill-up based on your expected travel distance… Is it time to purchase a hybrid vehicle? 

How fast did you get there? Use the car’s trip odometer to find out how many miles you’ve driven, and determine your average speed. 

Math on the GO!

Shopping

Whether you are grocery shopping or shopping for a new outfit, it is important to stay within a budget. Have your child keep a running estimated balance and compare it to the balance on your receipt after checkout.

Look for discounts or use coupons. If an item is on sale for 30% off retail price, let your student calculate the sale price for you!

Estimate the total bill based on prices of what you are purchasing. 

How much does that bunch of bananas weigh? How much will it cost? 

What is the unit price of your favorite box of cereal? What is the unit of measurement, and how much is the total cost of that box? 

Math at the Grocery Store

Cooking

One of the best ways to incorporate math into everyday life is by allowing your child to help you cook. When cooking, it is important to understand numbers, particularly conversions and fractions. Most recipes measure ingredients by teaspoon, tablespoon, ounce, etc. The measurements need to be accurately adjusted if you need to serve several family members or nourish just the two of you. The difference between a delicious and unsuccessful meal can rely on the accuracy of the conversions. Next time you are baking or cooking a big family meal, ask your child to be your sous chef to figure out which of the measuring cups or spoons you will have to use to measure ingredients or to convert a recipe's ingredient measurements for a larger or smaller serving size. Your child will use multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, and even fraction skills without ever cracking open a textbook.

Gardening

Include your child in your next big garden project. Planting a garden of any size requires math. You need to calculate the length and width of your garden as well as the spacing of your plants using measurements in inches, feet, centimeters, meters, etc. These measurements also allow you to have straight rows in your garden. Without accurate measurements, you risk overcrowding your plants and vegetables. For instance, pumpkin and watermelon plants require much more space than broccoli.

Besides providing a great source of delicious summer vegetables and fresh flowers, gardens grow great opportunities to show practical applications for math. 

How big is that garden?

How much fencing is needed to keep out the deer?

How much fertilizer do you need to keep the garden (or yard) growing? 

How much mulch do you need to order if you want to put it down 3” thick in your flower beds? 

What is the weight of that prize-winning tomato or pumpkin? 

How many peppers are on the pepper plant? If you need to keep your bean plants 3 inches apart, how many plants will grow on a 12 foot row? How many seeds should you plant? 

Go to the supermarket or farmer’s market and find out the cost of fresh vegetables you can grow at home. How much money will you save if you grow it yourself? 

Selling Lemonade

If your children displays some entrepreneurial spirit, encourage them to put up a lemonade stand during your next yard sale to apply concepts like supply and demand, or profits and losses. 

Planning a Budget

Older children may benefit from helping you to balance your checkbook or calculate the interest they are earning on a savings account.

Board Games/Rainy Day 

There are great games you can play to pass a rainy day… and practice your math, too! You probably already have many of them at home. 

Basic Operations: 

Monopoly,  Life,  Payday, S’Mat, Tripoly 

Patterns and Geometry: 

Sequence, Blokus,  Geoshapes, Quirkle 

Coordinate Graphing: 

Battleship

Probability: 

Deal or No Deal? 

Strategy Games: 

Mancala, Othello, Connect 4, Chess, Checkers 

Math at Home!

Online Practice Options

Fact fluency is one of the first casualties of the long summer vacation. 

Keep those math facts fluent with fun online practice! 

Moby Max Students can access Moby for summer math practice.

District Google credentials are used to access Moby the site via Clever.

Only Clever can be used for Moby not the main internet site

IXL for math is available to students through district Clever portal

Greg Tang Math has lots of games and other activities for students to participate in over the summer.

Multiplication.com has some great games to play alone or against other kids online! 

You can print out Mad Minutes to see how much you know at Super Teacher Worksheets, and you can find worksheets covering fractions, decimals, and more at Education.com

Academic Skill Builders is a great resource to refresh all math operation areas. Play arcade games to review basic operations, fractions, decimals, and working with money! 

Factors and Multiples Jeopardy: Remember the difference between factors and multiples with this fun online game, other games are available! 

Go to the Math Playground to practice skills like measuring angles, working with fractions, and creating congruent or similar shapes using transformations. 

Other favorite sites for include: HoodaMath

Math for the Fun of It!

More Math Games

Traditional Math Practice 

Elementary 

Common Core Worksheets and Interactives for Math 

Math Worksheets by Grade Level

For Students Entering 1st Grade

For Students Entering 2nd Grade 

For Students Entering 3rd Grade

For Students Entering 4th Grade 

Middle School - Ladue Middle School Packet Downloads Page

Students Entering 6th Grade Summer Math Packet

Students Entering 6th Grade Summer Math Packet Key

Students Entering 7th Grade Summer Math Packet

Students Entering 7th Grade Summer Math Packet Key

Students Entering 8th Grade Summer Math Packet

Students Entering 8th Grade Summer Math Packet Key

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