2022 Summer Math Newsletter-Week 2
July 10-16
Math fun all summer long
Welcome to Week 2 of our weekly Summer Math Newsletter. We hope you enjoyed some of the activities last week. This week we have more activities for you and your family to find the joy in mathematics all around us. In some sections suggestions are given for each grade level, but feel free to pick and choose which activities are just right for you and your family.
Optional links to practice sheets are also provided in the newsletter for students to keep math skills fresh! These do not need to be returned and are just for home practice.
Links to previous newsletters:
Math Fun
Math Puzzle - Magic Shuffle
Check out the video below and see if you can solve the puzzle of the magic shuffle so that the cards end up back in order 1-10.
If you are having trouble solving the puzzle try starting with fewer cards and work your way up to 10. Another approach is to start from the end and work backwards to the beginning.
The answer to last week's puzzle...
One possible solution is below, but there were many correct solutions so your solution may have looked different and still be correct.
Talking Math
There is so much math in this picture. What math do you see? Below are some ideas to get you started.
Students entering grade:
K - Point to the objects in the picture that complete these sentences:
___is next to ___.
___is above ___.
___is below ___.
- 1 - Where would you draw a line to show half of each door? Can you show half of the door in a different way?
- 2 - Where would you draw a line to show a third of a door? Can you show a third of the door in a different way?
- 3 - If each yellow door is 8 ft. high and 3 ft wide, what is the yellow painted area of each door? What is the area of all 3 doors together?
- 4 - Can you identify the following in the picture: line segments, angles (right, acute, obtuse), and perpendicular and parallel lines?
- 5 - If the board with an 8 on it is about a half foot wide and 2 ft long, what is the area of the inside section of each door? What is the area of all 3 inside door sections?
What made you curious? What math questions did you come up with?
Math Surrounds Us!
Math is all around us all the time.
Try to look around your house, your neighborhood, or anywhere you go to find some math this week.
A deck of cards is one of the most fun and easiest place to find lots and lots of math. This week play some card games with your friends or family. Below are some suggestions, but feel free to play a different card game or make up one of your own.
War/Compare/Battle/Top-it (and variations)
- Divide a deck of cards in 2.
- Each person has their pile face down in front of them and turns over the top card.
- The highest card wins.
- If there is a tie, each player places 3 cards face down and turn over the fourth card and compare the fourth card.
Some questions to ask:
- How can you tell who won the round?
- What is the best card to have?
- What is the worst card to have
- How can you tell who is winning without counting all of the cards?
Variations
- Simplified - Only use the cards 1-5 or 1-10
- Addition War - Turn over 2 cards each and add them up
- Subtraction War - Turn over 2 cards each and find the difference
- Multiplication War - Turn over 2 cards each and multiply them
- Fraction War - Turn over 2 cards each and make the largest or smallest fraction
- Make up your own variation
Math Practice
Closing Thought of the Week:
"Nature's great book is written in the language of mathematics" ~Galileo Galilei