Senior going places activities
The purpose of this resource is to provide suggestions to whānau about how they can facilitate maths conversations while out and about.
About this resource
This section provides some ideas for how you can raise awareness and share mathematics using everyday experiences and resources found around your home. It includes ideas for supporting your children’s learning in all areas of mathematics: geometry, measurement, statistics, algebra, and number.
This page provides suggestions as to how mathematics conversations can be facilitated at home and when out and about.
Senior going places activities
Number: Spot a number and use it as a “launchpad” for naming things that “make it”.
For example:
There’s an 84. That's 2 x 42, 4 x 21, 10 x 8.4, 5 x 16.8, half of 168, etc.
Patterns: Look how fences are put together.
- How many palings for each post?
- How many short ones to how many long ones?
- Have people planted flowers or trees in patterns by colour or height or number?
- In tall buildings, how are the windows arranged?
- Is there a pattern?
Look for and discuss patterns in tiles and paving stones.
Time and statistics: Time how long it takes to walk to school each day and talk about why there are differences, or time alternative routes to a place (one way going and one way coming home) and discuss any differences.
Money: If you pass a petrol station, watch the prices change over the course of a few weeks and ask the children to tell you if they are increasing or decreasing and by how much.
Shapes: Spot the angles in the environment and discuss them: a full turn is 360 degrees, a right angle is 90 degrees, an acute angle is less than 90 degrees, an obtuse angle is more than 90 degrees, and a straight line is 180 degrees.
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