Sept. 12, 2007: Math Can Be Fun!
The Mini Page is a syndicated, four-page tabloid written for young children found each Wednesday in the Rocky Mountain News. This issue of The Mini Page is available through the eEdition Archive to registered eEdition subscribers. Click here to learn about subscribing to the eEdition at no cost to you (for Colorado teachers).
Activities:
1. Here's a numbers race. Join
a family member or friend for the game. You will need a section from the
newspaper and colored markers for each player. Set a timer for two minutes,
then open the newspaper section. Each player circles as many different
numbers as he/she can find. Look for different kinds of numbers, like
dates, page numbers, prices, etc. The player with the most kinds of circled
numbers wins.
2. Plan a party using the grocery store ads. Pretend you have $30 to buy food for your party. Make a list of the items you would buy and how much they cost. Add up the prices to find your total. Try to get as close to $30 as you can.
3. Count the comic strips in
your newspaper to find the total number of comics. Now calculate: What
percentage of the comic strips have one frame? What percentage have three
frames? What percentage have four frames? Your percentages should add
up to 100 percent.
4. Check out the numbers on
the weather page of your newspaper. Find the day's high temperature
for five cities in your state. How many of the cities will be hotter than
your city? How many will be lower? Look at the temperatures in other countries.
Which country will have the highest temperature? Which country the lowest?
5. Identify five different
people in the newspaper. List their names on a piece of paper. Next, list
their occupations next to their names. Now list three different ways each
person might use math in his or her job. Finally, write a paragraph discussing
the career you would like to have when you are an adult. Describe the
different ways you might use math in that job.
This week's standards:
- Students understand the effects of adding and subtracting whole numbers.
- Students understand
situations that entail multiplication and division, such as equal groupings
of objects and sharing equally. (Math: Numbers and Operations)
(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)
