*Note: This post contains affiliate links.

First, get your little ninja inspired by reading one of these stories:

Ninja! by Arree Chung

Ninja Bunny by Jennifer Gray Olson

Ninja Cowboy Bear Presents the Way of the Ninja by David Bruins

Dojo Daycare by Chris Tougas

Nighttime Ninja by Barbara DaCosta

Wink: The Ninja Who Wanted to be Noticed by J.C. Philipps

Ninja Boy Goes to School by N.D. Wilson

Little Kunoichi, The Ninja Girl by Sanae Ishida

My Grandma’s A Ninja by Todd Tarpley

Activity:

Since ninjas must be agile, strong, and mentally sharp they must train their bodies and minds. This activity will have your child feeling like a ninja in training.

Materials:

There are two options for materials. You can easily use stuff around your home or you can use martial arts gear.  To illustrate the activity, I used store bought gear. We had the items at home already!

Option 1- Store bought gear:

• Punch mitts
• Kid size boxing gloves
• Post-it notes (for the older kid version of this activity)

Option 2- Things around your home:

• Small square pillows to punch
• Bare hands
• Post-it notes (for the older kid version of this activity)

This activity is so simple! Give your child a math fact that he or she can do in his or her head. It may be simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc.; It all depends on your child’s math level. When your child provides the answer he or she must punch the bags in an alternating fashion the same number of times as their answer. If the answer was seven, your child would punch the bags seven times.

Another option for older kids who may get very large answers, is to assign one bag as the tens and one bag as the ones. You can even label the bags. So, if your child gets an answer of 95, s/he would punch the “tens” bag nine times and the “ones” bag five times. For children learning base ten concepts, this option may be useful.

You can make this activity even simpler for toddlers by just giving your child a number and punching the bags in that same quantity. If your child tries to punch too fast and thus punches too many times, slow your child down and show him or her how to accurately punch while saying each number (1, 2, 3…). It’s about having one punch for each number stated. Your child will be practicing one to one correspondence by doing this.

Keep giving your ninja math facts until you sense they are losing interest or breath.

The post Calling All Ninjas! Nine Ninja Books and Fun Math (and Motor) Activity appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

My kids have experienced both homeschool and public school.  In this post, I will share one way we supplemented our children’s public school education at home. As parents of gifted children, we know that public school may not always be able to meet every need of our gifted learners so we often need to supplement our children’s education on our own. To me, it can be a tricky balance. I feel like after a long day at school, the last thing I want to do is give my child more work. I want them to play and have time to unwind. In order to keep after school time as low key as possible while still helping my children progress on their level, I started Five Minute Math.

For my children, math is one of their strengths. Their math ability is much higher than the level they are being taught in school.  My goal with Five Minute Math is for them to practice higher level math concepts that they already know so they don’t forget it! The practice time is short. I call it Five Minute Math because it should only take them 5-10 minutes to complete. The set up is really quite simple.  I just take a notebook and write a couple of math problems for them to solve.  I usually write 6-8 math problems covering various topics depending on what they know and what they are not getting practice on in school. Sometimes, the simplest solution is the best solution. For us, just a tiny bit of practice helped my children retain their math skills that may have otherwise been forgotten from disuse.

At one point my oldest son did this every day, but now that both boys get more homework they only do this about once a week. It’s so simple to do and my kids actually ask me for the math. I like that it is so easy to set up. I don’t have to scour the internet for worksheets that often have too many problems and print them out. I can adjust the the type of math problems every day as needed. All I need is a notebook and the knowledge of what my children are capable of and I can completely customize their practice problems.

This is what Five Minute Math looked like when my oldest was in first grade:

Five Minute Math worked for us, it may work for you too. It’s short, easy to set up, and keeps your child from forgetting math skills!

Be sure to visit the many other bloggers who share their insight, stories, and advice for parents of gifted children. Click here to read more!

Follow Gifted Homeschoolers Forum on Facebook: Click here

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Multiplication With Math Bears

Materials needed:

• Baby Bear Counters (102 ct.)
• Multiplication 0-12 Flash Cards
• Tray (optional)

Activity:

1. Select multiplication facts with small numbers for factors. Put the multiplication facts in a pile for your child to use.

2. Pick the top card and show your child the multiplication fact. Tell your child that just like we have symbols that tell us to add or subtract ( +, -) the  “x” on the card tells us to multiply. The numbers on the card give us information too; the the first number tells us how many groups we have and the second number tells us how many items are in each group.

3. Using 2×3 as an example, explain that the we know that there are two groups and each group has three items in it. Demonstrate this with the math bears. Take out three math bears and line them up together. I would talk out loud as I am working, “We have one group, but we need two. So, I need to get three more bears to make two groups of three”. Line up the second group under the first. “Now I have two groups of three. If I count them, then I will know what 2×3 equals.” You can count them or ask your child to. S/he may announce the answer before you even do this!

4.  Choose another card and walk your child through the process again, but this time let your child manipulate the bears. You can still verbalize what to do at each step.

5. Once your child seems to be able to do this easily with your help, have him or her try one on his or her own without you directing each step.

Teaching Tip:

Not sure if your child is ready to multiply?  It’s helpful to understand psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and it’s role in teaching.

The graphic above shows three concentric circles. The center circle represents everything your child can do by him or herself with no help needed. The next circle represents the area where your child can do something (such as multiplying) with help or guidance from an adult. This is the Zone of Proximal Development. The outer circle represents things that your child cannot do, even if you are helping (like calculus). When working on this activity, take a moment to see where your child’s understanding of multiplication falls. Can your child accomplish the task at hand with your assistance? If so, that’s good! You are working in the ZPD, which is where you want to be for your child to learn something new. With enough practice and guidance your child’s multiplying ability will move from the ZPD into the center circle of things he or she can do independently.

However, if your child is looking at you like you have three heads when you are working on multiplying and seems totally confused no matter how much you try to help, your child’s understanding may fall in the outer circle. This means that your child may not be ready for this task. S/he may need to work on skills that lead up to multiplication. Practice more addition, demonstrate multiplication informally in play situations, talk about groups, read books about multiplication (see additional resources at the end), practice skip counting, etc.

 Multiplication Chart

Materials needed:

• Multiplication Chart (print here for free!)
• Beans (or other small object)
• Multiplication 0-12 Flash Cards
• Small bowl for beans
• Tray (optional)

Activity 1–Solving Problems:

1. Present your child with the materials as pictured above.

2. Show your child how we can use the beans to solve the multiplication problems just as we did with the math bears.  This time however, we can use the chart to place the beans in an orderly fashion.

3. For example, if the card says 2×3, we know that we need to make two groups of three. Demonstrate this by placing the beans on the chart one group at a time.

4. Have your child count how many beans there are on the chart. This is your answer.

5. Repeat the process with more multiplication facts.

Teaching Tip:

Keep this chart on hand to help with homework. Your child can use this as a tool to solve multiplication problems independently.

Activity 2–Filling in the chart:

Once your child understands the concept, you can encourage your child to fill in the chart.  I usually wait to fill it in so that the child is not memorizing the facts at first.

1. Follow the same procedure as above to solve multiplication facts.

2. This time, when your child gets the result have him or her record their answer directly on the chart. For example, if the child solved 2×3, s/he would count the beans (left to right, top to bottom) and write the answer in the square of the final bean. Naturally, this will be in the lower right hand corner of the array where the two factors meet.

Have fun!

Additional Resources:

This post is linked to:

The post Teaching Multiplication (free printable chart included) appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

Materials:

• Squbed game boards (4 included)
• Number cards
• Squares and Cubes Guide
• Beans or other small objects
• Envelope to store the number cards
• Print Squbed materials here
• Note: Laminate materials if possible for durability

How to play:

1. Choose one Squbed game board.  This game can be played with up to four players.

2. Place the number cards in the envelope.

3. Players take turns picking out a number card randomly.  Each card contains a number squared or cubed.  For example, one card shows 2 squared. If a player has the equivalent value of the card (in this example: 4) the player should cover the square with a bean or other small object.

4. The first player who covers his or her entire board first is the winner.

Note:

• I included the square and cube guide to help facilitate play until the squares and cubes are memorized.
• I made each board a different color so that your child can keep track of which board or boards he or she used. After playing four times, with the four different boards, all of the squares and cubes will have been practiced at least once.

Have fun!

The post Squbed Game: Learning Squares and Cubes appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

One way teachers help students gain this ten knowledge is with ten frames and dot cards. Both of these visual devices help students conceptualize the number ten.  Ten frames typically look like a small 5 by 2 chart with five squares on the top and five on the bottom, all conjoined. Dots cards are simply different arrangements of dots on a piece of paper or flashcard.

In this activity, students will use a ten frame variation. The framework I created uses the same 5 by 2 arrangement. Instead of conjoined squares, I used circles. Think of it as a merger of the ten frame squares and the dot cards.

Materials-

1. Dot frame (laminate if possible)

2. Number cards- two sets in two different colors (laminate if possible)

3. Record Page

4. Bear counters or other small object (preferably using two different colors)

5. Pencil

6. Small bowls for bears and one set of numbers

Dot frame, number cards, and record page can be printed FREE from here: Make Ten Printables.

Activity-

1. Present your child with the materials. Show him or her the materials and count the circles together. Let your child know that s/he is going to use these materials to figure out what numbers can add together to make the number ten.

Red bowl: Red bears
Blue bowl: Blue bears
Pink bowl: Red numbers

2. Have your child choose a number from the bowl.

3. Place the number in the first dashed rectangle.

4. Have your child place the corresponding number of bears in the circles starting on the top left, filling the circles from left to right, top to bottom. *Note: The bears should all be the same color to distinguish this set of bears from the set they will use in another step.

5. Have your child fill in the empty circles with a second color of bears.

6. Have your child count or subitize (quickly recognize the number quantity without the need to count) the second group of bears.

7. Have your child place the corresponding numeral in the second dashed rectangle.

8. Have your child record the number combination on his or her record sheet.

9. Continue this procedure until all of the number cards have been used. Keep recording!

Extension:

Once your child is ready to move past the concrete stage of manipulating the math bears, you can take away the bears and practice using just the number cards. Line up one set of numbers. Have your child pull out a number from the cup and match it with the addend that would make ten.

Is it getting easy? Your child may have the ten pairs memorized. Now you can simply give your child a number orally and ask what number s/he would add to make ten.  This will only take a minute or two. Ask your child to do this every day until you think she or he has them solidly memorized. This will make mental math easier

Don’t forget to read these articles first:

1. Number Sense Series: Developing Early Number Sense from  NRICH (click here)

2. Number Sense Series: A Sense of ‘ten’ and Place Value from NRICH (click here)

3. Ten Frames and Dot Cards from K-5 Math Teaching Resources (click here)  Great game suggestions too!

Remember, have fun together and follow your child’s lead! It’s ok if your child does things a little differently.  With the knowledge you’ve learned from these articles you will know what is important and why.  Focus on the big picture. There are many paths to understanding, trust your child and trust yourself.
Linked to:

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The post Hands-on Math: Make Ten (with free printable materials) appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

Inspired by the book One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish  by Dr. Suess, this fun activity helps your child practice counting and one to one correspondence, all while strengthening his or her fingers opening and closing clothespins. You can also adapt this activity for different learning levels or use the free printable materials any way you want. Details on how to do that can be found at the end of this post.

Materials:

Fish (page 1 has fish with numbers, page 2 has fish without numbers) print

Bowl or pail

String or yarn

Tape

10 Paperclips

10 Clothespins

Set up:

• Print the fish.
• Hang a piece of string between two objects.
• Using the paperclips, attach the fish in order from 1 to 10.

• Write dots on the clothespins with the number quantities from 1 to 10. Place the clothespins in a pail, bowl or any container you have.

Activity:

1. Have your child pick a clothespin out of the pail or bowl.

2. Count the number of dots.

3. Find the fish that has the corresponding number.

4. Use the clothespin to grab the fish off of the line.

This is a simple activity with so much learning going on!  Encourage your child to only count each dot once.  If s/he counts too fast, too slow, or skip dots work together with your child to show him or her how to count the dots correctly.

But wait, there’s more!

You can adapt this for different levels or different subjects

Make it easier:

• Write  numbers on the clothespins and have your child match the numbers.

Make it more advanced:

• Change the clothespins to addition of subtraction facts.

• Change the clothespins to tally marks. Match the tally marks to the corresponding number.

• You can even get rid of the yarn and have your child order the numbers from 1 to 10.

Make it a different subject:

First, print the fish without the numbers. You can make this activity into anything with them!

Foreign language

• Write the number in a different language on the clothespin–  Spanish, French, Russian, etc.

ABC/Reading (Use the blank fish)

• Write words on the fish: Match the words to the same word on the clothespin (sight word practice).   Match the word to a rhyming word on the clothespin (phonemic awareness).

• Write letters on the fish: Match the letters to the same the letter on the clothespin (letter recognition). Match the letters to a word on the clothespins that begins with that letter (phonemic awareness).

Grammar (Use the blank fish)

• Write words on the fish and label clothespins with the parts of speech. Match the word to its part of speech.

Vocabulary (Use the blank fish)

• Write a definition on each fish and the vocabulary word on the clothespin. Match the word to its definition.

The possibilities are endless! Share your ideas here or on our Facebook page.

To purchase the book, click here:

*Amazon affiliate link. If you make a purchase I receive a very small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you! Thank you so much for your support.

The post One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Number Activity appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

First, print out a divisibility rules chart for your child to use a reference. I created a very simple chart that is small enough to cut out and paste in a math notebook if needed. Show your child how s/he can determine if number is divisible by either 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, or 10 by following the rule for each one listed. I would go through them one at a time, making sure your child understands as you go along.

Materials needed:

Divisibility Rules Chart (click here)

Activity Printout (click here)

3 Dice

Pencil

Activity:

1. Roll 3 dice.
2. Put the dice together in a line. Use the numbers on the dice to form a three digit number.
3. Referencing the divisibility rules chart, determine if the number is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10.  Your child may need your help for the first one to get the hang of it.
4. Put an X in the box of any divisible factors. For example, 246 is divisible by 2, 3, and 6 so the child should check the boxes for 2, 3, and 6.
5. Repeat the process with more three digit numbers.

By the end of the activity, your child should become more and more comfortable with the rules and may even have them memorized.

Here’s a picture of my son doing the activity.  As you can see he modified the instructions by using check marks and Xs

Try this activity next:

Click here for the activity

The post Divisibility Rules Activity appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

It looked like this:

I decided to make this idea a little more hands on by making factor trees with leaves and sticks.

Materials:

• Printable leaves (click here for the FREE printable in Green or B&W)
• Sticks (I collected mine from outside and cut them to be roughly the same length)
• Whiteboard marker or pencil

Activity:

1. Print out the leaves in color. Or, if you are like me and have a printer that refuses to print color, print the black and white leaves on green cardstock.

2. Laminate the leaves if possible. Your child can write on the leaves with the whiteboard marker and erase when finished, allowing you to use the materials as many times as you want. If you don’t laminate the leaves, your child can simply write on the leaves with pencil, pen, or marker.  Just be sure to print enough leaves, since you can not reuse them if they aren’t laminated.

3.  Take out one leaf and write a composite (not prime) number on it. For demonstration purposes, I will use 45 as the example number. On the leaf I would write 45 and place the leaf on the working surface (floor, table, or paper) with enough room underneath the number to work down.

4. Have your child name two factors of the number, excluding one and itself. For example, with 45 your child might say, “9 and 5″ or “3 and 15″.  Choose only one set of factors.

5. Show your child the sticks and tell him or her to place two sticks under the 45 to show that we are splitting the 45 into two factors. In this case, we will use 9 and 5. Next, have your child take two leaves and write the factors on the two leaves. Write one factor per leaf.

6. Ask your child if any of the numbers that s/he just wrote can be broken down further. Your child should notice that the 9 can be broken down into 3 and 3. Repeat the process of placing sticks and leaves.

7. Once again, look at the numbers and determine if any of the numbers can be broken down into two factors. In this case, all the numbers are now prime. The process is done.  Depending on your starting number, the process may be longer.

8. Explain to your child that once they have reached only prime factors, they have found the prime factorization of the number.  Have your child list the prime numbers that s/he ended with. In our example, it would be 3,3,5.

9. Show your child how we can write that as 3x3x5.  If your child is comfortable with exponents, show him or her how to write the prime factorization as 3² x5.  Have your child do the multiplication of 3x3x5 to clearly illustrate how the prime factorization is still the same value of 45, it’s just written differently.

10. Continue the procedure with more numbers.  Keep working for as long as your child is interested. Note: If this activity is too challenging, your child may need to review factors, or prime and composite numbers. Click here for an activity to teach prime and composite numbers.

11. If your child keeps a math notebook, have him or her record one of the factor trees in the notebook.  Be sure to write out the prime factorization too. This will serve as a reference and provide practice with writing factor trees in the standard format (as seen above). Another option would be to have your child paste a stick and leaf factor tree into the notebook (substituting the sticks for pencil lines).

Have fun

Try these activities:

Click here for the Divisibility Rules Activity

Click here for the Prime or Composite Lesson

 Click here for the Pythagorean Theorem Activity

The post appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

Step 1:

Locate containers that are exact measurements of:

• one cup ( a measuring cup works great!)
• one pint
• one quart
• one gallon

Step 2:

Line the containers up from smallest to biggest in terms of volume.

Step 3:

Predict how many cups are in a pint, pints are in a quart, and quarts in a gallon. Record your predictions on the chart on the free printable provided or you can have your children create his or her own chart.

Click here for the printable activity and chart

Step 4:

One at a time, test your predictions. Record your results on the free printable or homemade chart.

Testing how many cups in a pint:

Testing how many pints in a quart:

What I also love about this is how the child actually feels how heavy the container is when they put the water in it. Children need these hands-on experiences to truly understand what they are learning. “Quart” is just an abstract word if a child just learns conversions solely on paper. This activity takes very little time, but can yield a lot of mathematical understanding.

Happy measuring

The post Liquid Measurement Conversion Activity appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

 *This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase from an Amazon link, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Day 1

This is how it started:

Click on the picture to enlarge

You can see the remnants of our pytahgorean theorem discussion on our whiteboard. I essentially introduced him to the formula (later in the day my husband added the proof).  After our talk, we read What’s Your Angle Pythagoras by Julie Ellis together.

Day 2

The activity:

My goal was for my son to practice finding the missing side of a right triangle using the pythagorean theorem.  I wanted it to be fun, not just sitting at a desk filling in a worksheet. I decided to create a big triangle on the floor using building toys that we had readily available.

For the problems, I used pythagorean triples. This made it easier to solve the problems (no decimals!). I found the triples here at mathisfun.com.

I cut index cards in half and wrote one number on each card, using a different color for each triple to help keep track of what numbers went together in case they got mixed up! For example, one triangle has sides 3, 4, 5.  I wrote the 3 on one card, 4 on another, and 5 on another.

The next step is simple! I placed two of three numbers of the triple on the corresponding sides of the triangle. This was approximate, given that I used the same triangle over and over again. It was not to scale! As long as you put the biggest number on the hypotenuse, you’re good.

My son had to solve for the missing number.  For example: for the 3, 4, 5 triangle I put down the 3 and 4 and left the 5 out. He had to solve for the missing side- 5. I made sure to change up which side I left out so he wasn’t always solving the problem the same way. Originally, I wrote out just the first 6 triples, but my son loved doing this and asked for more- twice! He ended up doing a ton of these.

To solve the problems I allowed him to write on our small whiteboard.  I think that played a part in his enjoyment. If he had to solve these on paper, I don’t think he would have liked it as much. He’s pretty good with numbers and likes to solve things mentally as much as possible. Feeling like he “has to” show his work creates a mental block sometimes. I also think the fact that he was free to walk around and work standing up helped him.  There is so much that goes into a lesson. Keep in mind what works for your child. Some kids like sitting down and writing out all the steps. If that’s what they like, go for it!

Here’s what it the activity looks like:

When he solved for a missing side, I put the number where it belonged.

We lined up the triples after he solved them!

Working on the small whiteboard

This is how many he did!

After he solved for the missing side, we lined up the triples like a chart.  This allowed him to see a pattern emerging.  The pattern is not consistent all the time, but it gave him a general idea of solving for the hypotenuse when given the other two sides.  It was very interesting when we came across at triple that did not follow the pattern! It reminded him that we have to do the math every time, we can’t count on the pattern.

Day 3

To put this new skill to use, I found some word problems that required knowledge of the pythagorean theorem to solve.  This time I allowed him to use a calculator to solve the problems. The word problems can be found here at mathworksheetland.com.

That was our lesson! I hope your mathematician enjoys it

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