Vacation time and one math activity...

I'm on vacation and writing this post... I was busy getting ready for this vacation and doing other things that I didn't get to pre-schedule my blog posts.  As some of you may notice my regular schedule is Monday, Thursday, and occasionally a Saturday.  It hasn't helped that most of my kids have coughs and I even got one (with chills too--no fun).

Anyway, here is an activity I did with my own kids that turned out really well.  Before I go into it, you should know that I believe even very young kids can understand math concepts that they are not formally taught until they are older.

So here is what I did with my kids.

• I drew an x and y-axis with chalk on my wall in the driveway and labeled the lines.  
• Then I had a small bucket of water where we dipped a tennis ball (you could also you a spongy water ball).
• We threw the wet ball at the wall.
• I labeled their hit with a letter and we named the coordinates.  (It wasn't a problem for my 10 and 8 year old to understand the concept and all my kids thought it was really fun trying to aim for a certain part.)

If your students are up to it, you could connect some of the lines and discuss slope and other concepts of algebra and geometry!

Come back for MaTh activity Thursday.  This week will be about budgeting, but you can post about any math-related post.  Can kids even budget?  Of course they can!

Also, On Monday I am really looking forward to my first guest blog post with Education.com doing a post related to first grade math!

What fun math activities do you have planned with your students?