Listed below are some math activities and ideas to build math skills that you can do at home with your child.
Take your child on a nature scavenger hunt! Make a list of items to find outside (pinecone, leaf, rock, etc.) Help your child make a tally chart to record how many of each item they find. Then, have them make their own bar graph.
Cook with your child! Cooking naturally involves math- counting, comparing, measurement.
With your child, set up a play store together. Use objects such as food items or small toys. Put price tags on each object, using amounts less than one dollar. On a sheet of paper, have your child write the price of an object using the cent sign and then draw a group of coins that has that as its total value. Have your child draw a second set of coins that has the same value. Do this for several objects.
Keep an eye on a wall clock, alarm clock, wrist watch, or digital device until the clock shows a time to 5 minutes. Ask your child to read the clock, and then have him or her say, write, or draw the time in different ways. If a clock with minute and hour hands shows 5:15, your child can write 5:15 and say “five-fifteen” or “quarter past five.”
Go on a measurement scavenger hunt! Find things around your house or backyard to measure with a ruler. Record the measurements on a piece of paper.
Play “I Spy” with shapes to build shape vocabulary while you are in the car. Second graders should be able to identify the following terminology by the end of the year: quadrilateral, hexagon, pentagon, vertex/vertices, sides
Using chalk, create a hopscotch outside and write in three digit numbers a mixed-up order for your child to say out loud as they step on each square.
Give your child a number story problem to solve (i.e.- There were two owls in the tree. Three more came along. How many owls are in the tree in all?). Then have your child explain how he or she solved it.
Practice the following coin chants:
