When it comes to math, my son tends two cringe. Actually, his exact words are, “Math is my nemesis!” I chuckle at this, but remember back when I was his age and realize that math was my nemesis at age ten as well. It really didn’t click until a couple years later for me.
Do any of you hear these words, “When am I ever going to use this math in the real world?” I do, on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. This got me to thinking. How can I show my son that we DO use math on a daily and weekly basis in the “real world.” So I have decided to make it top priority, to help him “see” math in a new light so that his understanding–lightbulb above his head–will shine.
This is why I did a little thinking and came up with my newest idea: shapes and angles–Where can we find them? O.K. so maybe I am not the first one to think of this idea, but I put it into action through this activity:
I created a shape journal with 22 cards along with a directory.
How do you use this?
Well, it goes like this:
- Go to my TpT store here
- Purchase and download this journal.
- Follow the instructions in the kit.
Basically, once you and your child put together the journal, a place is chosen to find the shapes (park, house, mall, etc…).
We chose to go to Fort Christmas Park near Orlando, Florida.
That area is in our neck of the woods and is full of interesting things to see–fort, old homes, park, and playground. All of which were booming with geometric shapes and figures just waiting to be found by two young minds–our son and another homeschool friend. This was a day well spent and covered all areas of our homeschool subjects: art, history, literature, math, science, reading, writing, spelling, and physical education. Goodness, these two children didn’t know what hit them!
Armed with our shape journals, pencils, and a camera, we marched off to find all the geometric shapes and figures on the list. As each child found a shape listed in the journal, he or she took a picture of the object and filled in the questions on that shape’s journal page.
Above are just a few of the items we found. There were so many shapes and angles that we could see everywhere! To be honest, the other mother and I decided that we ourselves wished we had made a shape journal for ourselves to work on! It was so much fun.
The children thoroughly enjoyed it and the adults did too!
This activity can be modified to any age. Anyone can be a Shape Superhero! So, go to my TpT store (mentioned above), download the activity, put your cape on, and “fly” into an area to find shapes! Math can be fun and CAN be found everywhere.
