More Math Fun

We have had a fun math filled day! We started out by playing a new game called Zeus on the Loose.

I had a feeling this game was going to be a big hit because of the mythology theme. My boys (especially Magnus) LOVE all things mythology. This game is so much fun! It is a great way to practice addition, subtraction by 10, and rounding. The only thing I don't like about it is the pictures of the gods are very...um...pronounced.

Next, we watched a couple episodes of Sid the Science Kid.

"The Sticker Chart" was all about how and why we use charts. "Enough with Seashells" was about how and when to estimate.

We took what we learned a step further and created our own charts after making estimations.

I placed the same size legos in a jar which we are calling our estimation jar. The boys took out 10 legos and piled them on the table to get a good idea of what 10 legos looked like. We placed them back in the jar and the boys gave their best estimation.

Magnus estimated 50 and Thane estimated 47. The actual total was 43. The boys then made a chart showing who got the answer correct. I will fill the jar periodically with other items and whoever estimates the closest will get a sticker. Once they get 3 stickers, they will get a small prize.

After a quick bike ride to the store to get M & M's, we did some more estimating and graphing. The boys opened their packages and estimated how many were in their bags. Can I just say that Magnus' had significantly less than Thane's and I feel cheated out of my $.99. Then I had them sort them out. I found this page on the internet to help out with that.

Once they were sorted, the boys had to graph how many they had. We used this graph to record the data. Magnus was able to record his data using each square having a value of one. Thane, however, had to think of each square as two because he had so many M & M's! It made the lesson more of a challenge for him, but he figured it all out!


Once they had their chart filled out, they had to add all of the columns together to get the correct amount of M & M's that were in their bag. Then they had to figure out how much they were off by. Magnus guessed 21...actual total was 32 (yep...only 32)...he was off by 11. Thane's estimation was 32...actual total was 55 (yep...23 more than Magnus' bag)...he was off by 23.

We are all looking forward to having more math lessons like this to go along with our regular lessons. I'll blog about those too, so be sure to keep checking back!