Resources for Families
Resources for Families
At Ballenger, we appreciate all our families do to support their children and what they learn in school. Below are some ways you can help your children at home by supporting math education. You can also go to the individual grade level links to find more specific ideas for your child's grade level.
Tips for Helping Your Child with Math at Home
· Applying math practice at home with real life situations is a great way for kids to develop independent, lifelong math skills.
· Try to be aware of how your child is being taught math, and please try not to confuse them by teaching strategies and shortcuts that conflict with the approach the teacher is using. Check in with the teacher and ask what you can do to help. There are resources on here that can show you the way we are teaching skills.
· Be positive about reviewing skills at home. Share with your child how important school is. The attitude you express about schoolwork will be the attitude your child acquires.
· Be positive! Despite our own personal beliefs about our math skills, it is important to have a growth mindset with our children.
· Instead of …. “I was never good at math “…. Try saying….. “This was something I had to work really hard at understanding better.”
· Instead of ….. “I don’t understand how they are teaching you at school”…. Try saying… “let’s try to learn this together. We can get resources from school to help us.”
· Establish a set time each day for practicing facts or doing any review activities sent home from school or that you can find on here.
· When your child asks for help, provide guidance, not answers. Too much help teaches your child that when the going gets rough, someone will do the work for him or her.
Math Fact Fluency
Click here to go to find more resources to help your child at home become more fluent with their math facts.
Games
There are many great games out there that can be a fun way to practice math thinking without event realizing it. Play board games together. There are many great family board games out there that help students with Math skills. Just understanding how to move on the board with one to one correspondence of counting and number order are helpful to practice in a fun setting such as game playing.
- Rack-O
- Dominoes
- Many card games require counting and score keeping.
- Dice games and dominos help kids learn to quickly recognize groups of dots from 1 to 12
- Play board games that involve counting squares, such as Chutes and Ladders.
- Tic Tac Toe and Connect Four build recognition of rows of 3 and 4 counters.
- Tenzi is a great game! It is great for students to be able to recognize by quick recognition that the 3 dots stands for 3. There are many variations of games that you can use to practice math skills.
Connect Math to Everyday Life
Math is EVERYWHERE! The best way to connect kids to math is to incorporate it into their daily lives. This can be as easy as looking for numbers on road signs with your kindergartner or having your first grader set the table and count out how many utensils they set out. First and second grade learn time, so as you start an activity, talk about the clock and what the numbers and hands mean. For your older kids, have them help you with the grocery list, deciding on amounts you need and estimating the cost. Planning a party? Involve your child in the decision making about what and how much you need. Invite him/her into the kitchen and cook or bake with you, this is a great way to explore fractions and measuring.
Visit our grade level links for more ideas for each grade level.
This is a link for the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), the assessment students in grades 3-5 will take. There are sample problems, practice tests, and information for parents.
This link lists the standards that each grade level will be teaching K-12.