Maria's Math News, April 2020

Hello again!

Update
Simulating the spread of disease with mathematics
Seven up (grades K-3)
Daily Fundamentals Free PDF e-book (grades 1-6)
Let's Play Math Sampler ebook (grades 1-12)
Games & activities
Dreambox free trial (grades K-8)
Just for fun!

1. Update

This current crisis definitely presented an initial shock to me, and for a while, I felt as if in a daze and read too many news articles. But after about a week of that, my mind settled down. Actually, for me personally, not much has changed because I was working from home anyway, and my children have been at home. But it is still almost mind-boggling to realize what all is happening.

There has been an uptick in traffic to the MathMammoth.com website, and I've heard the same has happened with many other educational sites (understandably).

I realize this is a difficult time – globally – and the effects are devastating in many places. This newsletter is mostly filled with free resources & games that many educational companies and individuals have started sharing. Definitely feel free to share them with others who might benefit from them!

You may already know of all the free stuff I offer:

free videos,

MM practice,

free samples/worksheest from my books, and more.

Now is a good time to play math games so that math time does not turn to be an additional stress – for starters, see the other items in this newsletter. If you have purchased any of the Math Mammoth Blue series books or the complete curriculum products, the introduction (or the chapter intros) have a list of Internet links – most of those are games.

New at Math Mammoth practice... multiply fractions/mixed numbers/whole numbers. You can also generate "quick links" with specific options, such as to send to your child/students.

One of my customers made this handy reference file of measurement conversion charts:

Measurement Conversions Charts (a docx file)

Enjoy!

2. Simulating the spread of disease with mathematics

See how mathematic modeling can be used to create simulations of the current epidemic. I watched both of these videos, and though it's kind of sad considering this has to do with a REAL disease, it is also fascinating to see what mathematics & computers enable us to do.

3. Seven Up

This week, CodeLover and I played this simple card game called Seven Up.

You simply deal seven cards face up, and if any two of them make 10, or is 10, you remove those. (You need to remove the face cards from the deck before playing.) Then you simply deal more cards to the empty places and keep on going. If you can't remove any of the cards, deal 7 new cards on top of your existing cards. This simple game is quite fun and practices sums with 10.

One question to ask is, do you always win? Can you always remove all the cards and have none left in the end of the game?

Another question you can ask your child is, can this be played so the sum of the cards you remove is 11? or some other number?

We are also working on adding an online version of this simple, yet engaging game to Math Mammoth Practice.

4. Daily Fundamentals Free PDF e-book

This is a free ebook from Evan-Moor: Daily Fundamentals. It is available for grades 1-6.

The book...

helps children practice language, math, and reading skills each day

includes 30 weekly units, with a full-page of practice for day 1 through day 5

includes answer key

5. Let's Play Math Sampler ebook

Denise from Let's Play Math has a free ebook to offer. She says,

"In this time of pandemic crisis, it's even more important for families to play together. So I've made my ebook Let's Play Math Sampler free for the duration. When you're stuck at home and getting bored, it's a great time to play math with your kids!"

6. Games & activities

Many people are sharing resources for doing school at home now that many schools are closed... here's one such article, listing a lot of nice games.

Math Activities for At Home Learning

7. DreamBox

Dreambox is offering a 90-day free trial during this time when many many more children are at home. Simply sign up before April 30th.

I've reviewed Dreambox before... it's an online math practice system, or more like a curriculum almost. It focuses on the conceptual understanding of mathematics, and I really liked it years ago when I saw it inside.

8. Just for fun!

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to forward this issue to a friend/colleague! Subscribe here.

Till next time,
Maria Miller