Learning doesn’t have to be restricted to the four walls of the home or classroom.
Children get so much out of learning experiences when they are outdoors!
We took a tub of chunky chalk and ventured down to the local high school.
Asphalt is a great canvas to showcase learning.
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Here is an activity that you might try with school aged children.
Here is my nephew who was in his first year at school.
I asked him to pick a number between 10 – 20.
He chose 15!
Here is my niece who was in her third year at school.
I asked her to pick a number between 50 – 100.
She chose 99!
(could have guess that)
I always try and provide children with a choice. This is to allow them to take some ownership over the activity and the learning which is about to take place.
With a number chosen I demonstrated the task-
“Using your selected number, I want you to write as many maths problems
as you can with that number being the answer”.
Fortunately we had our security to keep an eye on us.
😉
My nephew did very well to create lots of maths problems using ADDITION.
How about we create maths problems using subtraction, division or multiplication.
(Obviously you want to keep in mind the child’s abilities and keep it enjoyable)
“I can work this out using a pattern!” said my niece.
To add to the challenge, I asked them both to create sums that used more than two numbers in the problem. For example 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15
Once I felt satisfied they had achieved what I wanted from the activity I had them put their chalk away and check their sums. This is always very important that children check their work.
This is a great activity to get kids learning outdoors and having fun at the same time.
They also get a real kick out of displaying their work on such a large area.
It’s great to see children feeling proud of work they have done.
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Get outside and have fun learning.
Kate
What a great idea for making math fun!
Thanks Bethany. I’ve never had a student who hasn’t felt suitably challenged AND had fun at the same time. This is one activity that’s a really beauty! Thanks for commenting. 😀
I love your ideas for using sidewalk chalk to make math fun! Now, we just need some good weather to try these out!
We are having some lovely weather at the moment so it made this activity much easier. Sending some good weather vibes your way Mia. 🙂
Lovely idea, can’t wait to give this a try. Thanks for sharing.
Good for you! Let me know how you go.
I love this activity! It allows the child to work at a level they are comfortable with but it also provides room for extension. I had one child, who when realising what we were doing with the chosen number, dropped it to a lesser number! Ah well, whatya gonna do?!?
Thanks Amie. It is a great activity because, as you say, it can be catered for their individual abilities. I’ve had a student do a similar thing to what you have experienced and chose a small number thinking it would be easier. I just said he could only use subtraction, which meant he was still challenged. Teachers can be so tricky! hehehe
This is cool in so many ways! Outdoors, and I love that they choose the number and then come up with their own math problems. My son’s only 3, but at least we can do the number choosing & writing part for now. Thanks for sharing this.
Kate, this is fabulous! Thank you for the inspiration. Guess what we’ll be doing next time we head outdoors? What fun! I’ll be featuring your post as part of my maths activities for kids roundup from the Weekly Kids’ Co-op. Thanks for sharing. xoxo P