Math unit studies - Any thoughts on goods one for younger kids?

[Mom to 3+1]

I am looking for a fun way to do math for a week or two, unit study type thing -grocery store? farm? I want it to be for 2nd graders, focusing on addition, subtraction, measuring, the basics. ANY THOUGHTS would be appreciated. Laura :)

[Karen in CO]

You could plan garden beds of different sizes. You could measure the space and mark it in the yard (or on large paper for scaled drawing). You could decide how much and what to plant. You could even figure out how much garden dirt it would take to fill them. You could price seeds and figure out the cost of the seeds. You could do the same with building material.

 

For grocery store ideas, I use coupons with my dd7. We cut the coupons, then price the items in the store and figure out the discounted price, and the total savings from all the coupons. From a practical standpoint, my dd handles our coupons now. She charges a fee of half of whatever money is saved by the coupons for the service.

[Closeacademy]

We are planning a few of these. One is on money--we will do math with money, play store, read about the history of money, do dollar bill origami for art, and try out some science with money(there are a few experiments out there that you use pennies with.)

 

Another unit study we are doing is on time. We are going to do math with time, draw pictures of time, read about the history of time and use time units for memory work.

 

We are also doing a unit study on measurment, where we will read about Noah's ark, read about the history of measurement, try to measure out the size of Noah's ark in the backyard, and perhaps build a miniture houseboat.

 

Hope this helps.:)

[Chris in VA]

How about cooking? Make a cake (measurement and fractions), make cookies and group by dozens--and do beginning multiplying by counting how many on the sheet (3 rows of 4 maybe), double a recipe. Lots of great cooking books to incorporate--Mr. Putter Bakes a Cake, Sunbread, etc. Let dc make their own playdough--what is the right ratio of salt and flour to water to make the "best" playdough? Lots of science there. Make bread, and time how long it takes to rise, and measure how far it rose. There are lots of things you can do!

[dragons in the flower bed]

I am looking for a fun way to do math for a week or two, unit study type thing -grocery store? farm? I want it to be for 2nd graders, focusing on addition, subtraction, measuring, the basics. ANY THOUGHTS would be appreciated. Laura :)

 

 

 

Live Ed has great math unit books, and I believe their policies have changed regarding selling just one book. LivingMath.net each offers math unit study type curricula that ties in with WTM cycles. Not what you asked, I know.

 

Playing store was a great joy of mine when I was seven, and my own kids now love it, too. Any type of store where kids have to measure things is even better -- fabric store, herbs and dry goods. We actually do this through Dungeons and Dragons. I know, *gasp!* The games I play with my little guys don't involve any dungeons or dragons, just role-playing, usually in a historical period related to what they're studying, and lots and lots and lots of math.

[MelissaMinNC]

We are also doing a unit study on measurment, where we will read about Noah's ark, read about the history of measurement, try to measure out the size of Noah's ark in the backyard,

 

We did this earlier this year! (For history, not math, but hey.) It was really fun, kids and adults all enjoyed it. I hope you have a big backyard! We had to go to a local park to have enough space to measure it out - I think it's about 2 football fields long or so.

 

Fun activity, and sorry I'm no help to the original poster (though I may steal some of these great ideas for myself).

 

:)

Melissa