Maria's Math News, March 2021

Hi again!

Suddenly we are into March and thus it's time for another set of Maria's Math tips.😀 I hope you will find something useful!

Math Mammoth news
Teen's Guide for Home Buying - INTERACTIVE workbook (grades 6-8)
Area & Perimeter Builder (grades 2-5)
How much does Mathy weigh? (grades 2-4)
FLASHBACK... (European?) notation for solving equation (grades 7-9)
Just for fun!

1. Math Mammoth news

A testimonial from someone who put their 6th grade struggling student back to 3rd grade...

Hi Maria,
I don’t know if you remember me, but back in September of 2019, I emailed you because my 6th grader was making zero progress in math. He had taken your 2nd and 3rd grade assessment tests and I was very reluctant to put him back that far. I emailed you and the confidence in your email saying that there was really no doubt where he needed to be made me realize that it would all be okay. Well, my son just took the 3rd grade End-of-Year test and he made a B!!!!!!! I no longer stress over where my son is in math because I know he needs to get these foundational concepts before he can move on and I’ve seen him become confident in his math skills. It did take him 1-1/2 years to complete the 3rd grade curriculum because there were so many things he needed to re-learn.

Also, on his end-of-year nationally standardized test last school year, his math score jumped up 8 months!!! The proctor said most kids only go up a few months at a time with subjects in which they struggle. I was so happy and I tell everyone who have kids struggling in math to try your program.

Thank you so much!!! Your math program has saved my son and me so much frustration and tears! I wish we had been using it from the beginning.

Sincerely,
Melinda

2. Teen's Guide for Home Buying - INTERACTIVE workbook

Here's a cool INTERACTIVE workbook that simulates the purchasing of a house with a realtor, and budgeting for it. It's fairly short. My son enjoyed going through it and trying the different characters.

It will help students learn about various financial concepts, such as credit scores, mortgages, interest, and how to budget wisely.

3. Area & Perimeter Builder

This is a NEW activity at Math Mammoth practice — Area Builder! It includes, first of all, a work area where you can explore area and perimeter, and then also a game.

In the work area, you can create your own shapes using colorful blocks, and explore the relationship between perimeter and area. You can also compare the area and perimeter of two shapes side-by-side.

In the game, you are either asked the area of a figure, or you are asked to BUILD a figure with a given area (and perimeter).

These activities will help students to find the area of a shape by counting unit squares, build shapes with a given area and/or perimeter, and find the area of an irregular shape by decomposing into smaller shapes (e.g., rectangles, triangles, squares).

4. How much does Mathy weigh?

Watch this to find out! 🙂

Pounds and ounces (on a kitchen scale)

5. FLASHBACK... (European?) notation for solving equation

(This is from my newsletter about 10 years ago...)

I saw a blogpost titled Carolin's Notation for Solving Equations. Carolin is from Germay. The notation she uses is exactly how I was taught (in Finland) to note what is done to each side of the equation, and I really like the notation. I don't know if it's used in all Europe.

Basically, you note in "the right side margin" what you're going to do to both sides of the equation in your next step. The "margin" is made by writing a vertical line to the far right of your actual equation solving process.


6x - 5 = 2x      | -2x

4x - 5 = 0       | +5

    4x = 5       | ÷4

     x = 5/4

I just wanted to pass this on in case some of you who are teaching how to solve equations find it useful with students.

6. Just for fun!

Thanks for reading! 🙂

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Till next time,
Maria Miller