When having mathematical conversations at home with your child, the goal should be to remain authentic, personalized to your child's experiences and FUN! The ideas below offer examples of "math at home" conversations!

NUMBER CONCEPTS

• How many cereal pieces are in a bowl? Estimate and then count a given number of objects.
• Practice counting forwards and backwards starting at any given number within 120. Count forward and back by 1s and 10s.
• Comparing Numbers: Divide a deck of cards evenly between players. Each player flips over a card, the player with the highest card wins the cards. Continue until one player has all cards in the deck. (Can be played with regular playing cards, or Savvy Subitizing Cards).
• Roll dice and find the sum. Say what is 10 more or 10 less than that number.
• 20 Questions Number Game: One person picks a "mystery number" 0-120, player 2 tries to guess the number. (Example: Does your number have 3 digits? Is your number greater than 56?)
• Play board games that involve counting or numbers. View "Fluency" for more game suggestions.

NUMBER OPERATIONS

• Roll 2 or 3 dice and add them together to find the sum. (Example 4 + 2 or 4 + 2 + 1)
• Roll 2 dice to create a 2-digit number and record it (one dice will represent the tens and the other the ones). Then, roll 1 die again and add it to the 2-digit number you created. (Example: 47 + 6)
• Add all the digits of your house number together. Add all the digits of your phone number together. Which numbers would you add first, why?
• Add the price of two items that you see at the grocery store.
• Start with 20 counters (beans, pennies, etc.) and roll a dice and subtract that many counters counters until you get to 0. The person who runs out of counters first wins.
• Roll two dice. Create a story problem using those numbers.

GEOMETRY

• Go on a shape hunt! Ask your student to name the shapes they see. (Example: doors, windows, bicycle wheels, etc.)
• Name the shapes you see outside on a walk or driving in your car.
• What shapes can you find at the grocery store (2-D and 3-D shapes).
• Build with blocks. What shapes did you create and/or use to build your structure?
• Find shapes in your world and draw what you see.
• How many triangles can you find in your room? How many circles can you find in our home?
• Using kitchen items such as marshmallows and toothpicks, build 3-D shapes. Discuss the attributes of each shape (example, How many sides?).

MEASUREMENT AND DATA

• Measure the length of items in your house using other objects (crayons, pennies, etc.).
• Use different objects (pennies, beads, etc.) to measure your family members' arms, legs, feet.
• Monthly growth chart: measure your child's height using standard (inches, feet, cm, meters) and non standard units (pennies, cubes, forks, paper clips)
• Tell time on an analog clock. Which hand shows the minutes, hours?
• Read the time on an analog clock. Write the time as it would appear on a digital clock.
• Estimate how long it takes to complete household chores or routines.

FLUENCY CARD GAMES

• Visit the Fluency page to find games related to learning doubles facts, making ten and facts within 10.
• Use a home math tool (macaroni, beads, buttons) to show a math fact.
• Play Memory by using 2 sets of playing cards and putting them face down. Keep the matches you find. Matches could include 2 cards that make a total of 10.
• Play Compare by splitting 1 set of playing cards into two piles. Each player flips 2 cards over from their pile, and the player with the greater sum/difference keeps both cards.
• Write a story problem to go with a number equation. Solve your problem. (Example: 3 + 2, "There were 3 brown dogs and 2 white dogs. How many dogs were there?")
• Spread out 1 set of fact cards, face up, on a table. Say a sum/difference and have your child find the fact card that goes with it.
• Think of story problems that you could tell using your child's toys. Example: There are 5 stuffed animals on the floor and 3 in your bed. How many stuffed animals are there?
• Have an adult say a number sentence and leave out one of the numbers. Fill in the missing number. (Example: 2 + ? = 4)

*Sum: the answer to an addition problem (Example: in 2 + 3 = 5, 5 is the sum)

*Difference: the answer to a subtraction problem (Example: in 8 – 3 = 5, 5 is the difference)