Want to get your child talking about math? A “Math Talk” is a 10-minute activity designed to elicit multiple strategies and provide opportunities for students to reason about the relationships in the numbers and make connections in mathematics.
Check out this great math talk idea to have with your child at home from the resource bedtimemath.org. It can be adjusted to best suit your child’s age and ability.
If you’ve ever tried to carry someone piggyback, you know it’s hard work. Now imagine that friend standing on your shoulders, with 8 other people stacked above both of you! Every year in Spain, people come together to see who can stack up to make the tallest tower, or “castell” — without anyone falling. Some people have made castells 10 people-layers high!
Wee ones: If a tower has 6 layers of people stacked, what number layer is next?
Little kids: If you stack a green-shirt person, then blue, then green, then blue, then green, does the tower have more green shirts or blue shirts? Bonus: If they stack 9 layers and you’re in the very middle layer, in which layer are you?
Big kids: If you’re in a 14-layer tower, and there are 3 more layers below you than above you, in which layer are you? Bonus: If everyone in a 10-layer tower is 5 1/2 feet tall, how high is the top of the tippy-top person’s head?
Answers:
Wee ones: The 7th layer.
Little kids: More green shirts. Bonus: The 5th layer.
Big kids: 5 above you and 8 below, so you’re the 9th layer. You need 2 numbers 3 apart that add to 13 (all the layers minus your own). Bonus: 55 feet.
