There are a number of different activities that kids can do to learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. With these activities, it is important that kids get a chance to practice basic math skills over and over again. These activities can sometimes be monotonous, but repetition is one of the best ways that people learn. Many learn basic math through homework given by their teachers, but there are also other activities that can give them further practice at school and home.
One way that teachers have gotten kids more interested in doing basic math is through word problems. These types of problems can personalize math, relating it to aspects of everyday life, so that students feel that math is a useful tool.These problems can be done for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, although the ones for the latter two are often more complicated and designed for children in third and fourth grade. A word problem might look like this: "Sally splits a pie into ten pieces for Thanksgiving dinner. She is going to have five guests. How many pieces can each guest have?"
Another type of activity that teachers use in the classroom to reinforce basic math skills is games. There are a number of interactive games that can help a large group of students learn while having fun. These games are also designed so students can learn together and help each other with math. Two games that teachers can play are Wild West Addition/Subtraction and Facts of Life. Wild West Addition/Subtraction is a card game where numbered cards are placed on students' heads. They do not know which numbers. These two students get in front of the class, and the other students are supposed to say what the sum or difference is. Based on this, the two students in the front are supposed to race against each other to figure out their own number, based on the number that they can see on the other person's head and the sum or difference that the class gives. Facts of Life is a card game that is played in smaller groups of two to four students. It is similar to the card game War, but it involves two people turning over two cards and adding the sums. The person with the greatest sum gets the other person's cards.
Parents can help their children learn math by having them help with activities that involve basic math. Two of these activities include measuring out ingredients in a measuring cup and clipping coupons. Measuring out ingredients such as sugar can give children a chance to add, as they figure out how many cups they will need to make certain serving sizes. Clipping coupons can allow them to figure out how much change they will save on an item by using a coupon for a certain amount, such as 10 cents. These activities can also help them to get a better sense of units of measurement, such as dollars and cents and cups.
Parents can also design activities that help their children to learn mathematical skills. For example, parents can help students develop a chart where they track the amount of time they spend on each activity, such as watching television, playing, eating and going to school for the week. A student can add up the amount of hours they spend on each activity a week and divide it by the number of hours they spend in all on these activities. This will give a sense of how each activity fits on the chart. An activity such as this one will help students start learning more complicated skills, such as fractions and percentages. For students in lower grades, who are starting out in math and are learning how to count, there are also activities. One is a newspaper activity where the students and parents look for numbers in a newspaper, cut them out and then arrange them in order, counting as they do so. The numbers can go from zero to any number, depending on how high children can count.
Another important way that parents can practice basic math skills with their children is through flash cards. On these cards, problems are on the front and answers are on the back. Flashcards can test basic skills such as adding two and five or dividing ten by two, but they can also involve three digit numbers for more advanced students. On the Web, there are versions of flash cards that are more interactive than past versions, which may appeal to today's children more because they are becoming computer savvy at an early age. Some Websites that offer online flashcard games are Aplusmath.com, Factmonster.com and Mathplayground.com.
There are a range of activities available on the Web for students in elementary school, some of which are similar to more traditional worksheets and others that are more interactive. Math.com and Teachrkids.com are two Websites that have worksheet-like activities for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They gives students problems that they are asked to provide an answer for in a blank space. Kidsnumbers.com, offers a wide range of free games that reinforce basic math skills, including the math invaders, sunny bunny addition, magic math and math frog addition games.